Frick Me

I can't write about this. All of these situations hit much too close to home. I tried a few minutes ago, but pulling back the lid was like reliving the trauma. I mean, it was wicked bad. Dreadful, even. Before I started writing, I was fine. Now, I'm sick to my stomach. No kidding.

For years, I lived a charmed life in my role as an educator at the particular location and setting where I work. Then, about five years ago, something changed, and I began experiencing negative treatment. I wasn't behaving any differently than in the previous decade, but somehow, the powers that be decided they no longer liked my approach to life and education. I didn't realize that, at first, but a pattern eventually emerged: situations that arose and needed fixing, yet got worse the more I tried to fix them, became more frequent. And the more these things happened, the worse the work environment became for me. My willingness to admit my mistakes and seek forgiveness wasn't good enough anymore. I was hammered for making mistakes, and I began walking on eggshells around everyone. The situation was toxic, and my morale plummeted.

October 2025 saw many issues come to a head. Late in the month, I was notified that I was being investigated for several infractions, although I wouldn't be given details until several months later, when they finally got around to conducting the "interview," the euphemism for interrogation. (The saving mercy is that I had my union rep with me. He coached me on how to respond to the questions, and I listened to him. He later told me that by following his coaching, I utterly thwarted the investigator's plan of attack.) However, on the day of the "interview," the specifics of the allegations were revealed, and I realized that the people who allegedly made the allegations weren't even at work that day! I shared that information with my union rep, but not the investigator. The "interview" had been traumatic enough.

Back in October, though, I was sitting in a shared staff office the week that the original allegations were revealed to me, when a lightweight ceiling tile fell and glanced off my head and left shoulder, startling the poo out of me, but not injuring me. From where I sat, I suspected that the nearest security camera may have caught the incident, and if I didn't report it, someone else would see it and report me for not reporting it. I didn't need that on top of the other nonsense that week, so I called my supervisor and told him that I was extremely surprised and in a little pain. He is notorious for confusing information, so after hanging up the phone, I got on the computer and wrote up the incident. Sure enough, he called our mutual boss and reported that I was a little surprised and in extreme pain. Later, when she reviewed the camera footage, and it didn't clearly show the tile hitting me (the view was blocked), she concluded that I had lied about it (although I had no reason to), and issued another discipline for making a false statement.

To sum up, I was hit by a falling tile while doing my job, but was not injured. I reported it so that I would not be accused of hiding an on-the-job incident. When the bosses arrived, I assured them that I was not injured, but just wanted them to be aware that it had happened. I demonstrated how the tile had fallen, showing that it was only a glancing blow. However, when the top boss reviewed the video--which was made from 25 feet away and had no zoom feature and was blocked by a computer monitor--she determined that all my efforts to report the incident were completely fabricated. You tell me: Is there any conclusion I could reach besides "Frick Me"?