School aide watching the door.
School aide shutting the door.
Kids sneaking out the door.
School aides might be the only people in the school system treated worse than teachers. I happened to walk into a rarely used stairway today and found this lady sitting by the door, wearing her coat, guarding the exit. She had no walkie-talkie and no way to call for help if she needed it. Her job was to guard the door and to keep outsiders from entering the building. Her area was extremely cold and from my point of view, dangerous. She said "I'm only a school aide" when I told her how awful I thought her job at the moment was.
School aides are an integral part of the school system. They have no clear cut job descriptions and as a result are forced to do the jobs like the one pictured above. No one deserves to be treated like this. This woman is much more than "only a school aide."
5 comments:
I always get the school aides gifts at holiday time. They work hard and get little respect from admins and sometimes other teachers. Yet they really have the ultimate power--supply closet and Xeroxing. You bet I show them respect.
I do the same. I buy the ladies in the copy room cookies all the time and am currently tutoring the daughter of one of them. It is just a shame how bad they are treated by admins and some teachers and secretaries.
Why is an unprotected, radio-less woman being asked to do security at a door when there are the so called "school safety officers"? The attitude administration demonstrates towards school aides is downright cruel. Packeminanscrewem High School cannot possibly run without these women. Each of them are someone's mother, someone's wife, someone's sister, grandmother, friend, aunt, etc. etc. It is unconscionable that someone has to sit in an isolated stairwell waiting for something to happen.
I also try to show my appreciation by leaving candy bowls and cookies in the office. It annoys me too that they will not have any part of the merit pay scam. The school aides deserve a piece of the pie too!!!
I've written a lot about school aides before, especially in the discussions of group merit pay -- for UFT members only.
I think giving those personal gifts are great, but if any bonuses are given to school personnel at all, it should be divvied out to everyone who helps keep the place together, including the aides.
Weingarten signed us onto a system that not sets UFT members against each other, but hurts members of other unions as well.
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