A retired assistant principal relayed advice to a new assistant principal about to start their first job in that role. The advice took the form of a scenario of conflict between a teacher and a parent.
Suppose a parent and a teacher are in your office. The parent is complaining about some interaction between the teacher and their child. Suppose, further, as you hear their respective stories, maybe you even find you agree with the parent. In the meeting with both parties in the room, whose side do you chose?
His advice to the young assistant principal is to side with the teacher, even if the teacher was in the wrong. The parent will be angry, maybe even outraged. But it is important to nevertheless stand with the teacher.
When the parent is gone, reprimand the teacher in private.
The basis of the advice is simple. You have to continue working with the teacher. And you have to continue working with everyone else on the staff. Whatever you choose in the meeting with parent will get around the school. It is more important to demonstrate to the teachers that they can trust you. The must know you've got their back, even when they make mistakes. That relationship of trust with your staff is how you can also help them grow and improve and learn from the mistake.
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The assistant principal in Colorado schools is often in charge of discipline. They're the "police", the enforcer of the rules. Often they are also the "judge" in disputes.
I think this example offers a metaphor to explain why The System seems to protect bad cops.
Police officers' need for mutual trust within the force takes a higher priority—on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, let's say—than their need to be seen as collectively trustworthy to the community they serve.
The police have to work with each other every day. We ask them to work together effectively to handle the worst case scenarios of human interaction. We expect them to run towards the life-threatening situations.