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There are a couple different high schools I sub at. One is in a slightly better part of town than the other. Neither are in "dangerous" neighborhoods, but one has a slightly more "ethnic" population. When the students at either school ask where I prefer to go, I answer that it doesn't matter. What matters is the teacher I'm covering.
(Or, I'll say I prefer the continuation high school. To mess with their minds. And because it's true. If I have to choose solely on school. Because the teacher I cover makes all the difference, really.)
A couple years ago, school A got a new phone system. And these phones are cool. They have caller ID, so I can tell if it's the attendance office calling (because they need a student) or the secretary (because she wants me to cover an extra period). There's even a nice button where I can send the call directly to voicemail (which I'd only do if the call is from the outside, like from a parent. Parents don't want to talk to the sub).
School B--still on the old system.
Just this year, school B got new phones. Which means that they're now on the same system. So, if I want to call the district office from either school, I can dial directly. (I wasn't able to do that from school B until they got the new phones.)
But there's a difference. School B's phones don't have the caller ID. And the teachers have told me that they're not sure how the things work. (I clued them in to some features that teachers at school A told me about.)
Teachers at school B said they're treated differently than school A. So, how they finally got the new phones wasn't a surprise. Or that they got them so much later than school A.
Why would the district treat the schools so differently?
Remember how I said one school was in a slightly better part of town. Yeah, that's school B.
Yeah, no surprise at all. My home was purchased when I was single, so it's in a starter neighborhood in Nashville. It flooded in 2010 and, in the days following the flood while we were removing all of our belongings, Red Cross never showed up. Weeks passed. We heard they'd visited all the other (more expensive) neighborhoods in the Nashville area, including one next to us that had homes that were $250,000+. My mom called to complain and the person that answered said they hadn't visited because they'd noted there were "angry Mexicans" in this neighborhood and they were afraid. We are a diverse neighborhood...so? The whole thing infuriated my aunt so much she ended her role as a volunteer coordinator with the Red Cross in Missouri--after DECADES. And she was one of their top volunteers! In the end, the area director was fired over the whole thing but it said a lot about how things like that are handled...
ReplyDeleteThat's terrible. Inequality is everywhere. I guess that's why it's this year's topic.
DeleteSchool B was in the better part of town but it got the phones later? It's usually the reverse of that.
ReplyDeleteI've worked in four different high schools run by the same prefecture, but they don't seem to be treated equally.
ReplyDeleteStrange how that happens.
DeleteYes, favoritism is alive and well everywhere and in every sphere of our lives.
ReplyDeleteHow have I been blogging for 8 years and never heard of blog action day! I actually used to blog much more frequently. The inequalities seem to happen within every group of public institutions...
ReplyDeleteThis just came up on my Dashboard today; weird. It is interesting about School B being the "better" school and being treated differently than A. Maybe they are more concerned of what could happen at A that they keep better tabs on it and make sure it has "state of the art" stuff.
ReplyDeletebetty
I should be surprised but I'm not. There is always favouritism around-so sad
ReplyDelete