Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/02/school-superintendent-fired-for-threatening-grads-over-not-clapping-hard-enough-for-her-daughter.html
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Is there something about working in educational admin that is exceptionally damaging to the personality, does it attract already-problematic ones, or is it just less able to PR its way out of the consequences than some other leadership roles?
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What are the odds that the lukewarm applause for her daughter was because she is as popular as her mom?
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I suspect this based on some boss meltdowns in non-educational environments.
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Bad teachers fail up to become bad administrators.
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Wooph! I hope the daughter is doing okay and isn’t facing any backlash from her mum’s behaviour.
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There are also around 100,000 public schools in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of administrators. Statistically there’s going to be some pretty bad ones out there even if the vast majority are good.
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Maybe the grads weren’t particularly enthusiastic towards anyone? There’s also a good chance the daughter is embarrassed over her mom’s behavior.
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I’ve always suspected that city councils, HOAs, and school boards attract would-be dictators who lack the charisma to get bigger, high-profile political careers.
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This makes me really sad. Because my mom says she didn’t have friends because her dad was the school principal. It led to a long life of sad loneliness. She had difficulty making friends as an adult, it’s horrible.
I feel really bad for the daughter, I hope she has some self-awareness and some healthy peer relationships because she’s been handed an emotionally tough row to hoe.
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Nothing boosts your popularity like your mom threatening people for not applauding you enough.
I hope the daughter is not being targeted for her mom’s behavior.
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The difference between wanting the audience to clap harder for important personages and expecting a standing ovation every time you walk into a room is only one of degree.
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I can relate, my dad was the principal, and though he was fairly popular I still got grief from the assholes who knew they could not push him around. But I can also say with 100% certainty that my father would not ever have behaved the way this person did.
I think people like this are everywhere. Certainly in many of my workplaces over the years. But because their awfulness happens with and to children we hear about it more.
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Well, the loss of Mommy’s income could force the daughter to make a few changes.
“the applause went on — six, seven, eight minutes! They were done for! Their goose was cooked! They couldn’t stop now till they collapsed with heart attacks! At the rear of the hall, which was crowded, they could of course cheat a bit, clap less frequently, less vigorously, not so eagerly — but up there with the presidium where everyone could see them? The director of the local paper factory, an independent and strong-minded man, stood with the presidium. Aware of all the falsity and all the impossibility of the situation, he still kept on applauding! Nine minutes! Ten! In anguish he watched the secretary of the District Party Committee, but the latter dared not stop. Insanity! To the last man! With make-believe enthusiasm on their faces, looking at each other with faint hope, the district leaders were just going to go on and on applauding till they fell where they stood, till they were carried out of the hall on stretchers! And even then those who were left would not falter . Then after eleven minutes, the director of the paper factory assumed a businesslike expression and sat down in his seat. And, oh, a miracle took place! Where had the universal, uninhibited, indescribable enthusiasm gone? To a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down. They had been saved!”
–Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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I don’t want no smoke!
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Hey, if things really go to turd town in the US, she’ll have a favored role as enforcer to one of the up-and-coming fascist starlets like Margie Two-Toes or Kristi Noem. There have to be crowd-control agents to extract the rousing enthusiastic cheerleading behind Kim-Jong Un et al.
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