TFA MEETING

The individual expressed a desire to continue with Teach for America in their original Alabama-Birmingham region. They detailed a series of challenges and stressful incidents, including family emergencies, lack of support, and uncomfortable situations at their current placement in Atlanta. These difficulties led to a request for a transfer back to Alabama. Despite initial confusion and delays in processing the transfer request, the individual emphasized their need for a supportive and non-punitive resolution to their situation. getting included on some of those emails so I'll read through some of that stuff and and then I'd like to actually just start from like interviewing you and hearing a little bit about what you're hoping for, what led to this, and then that helps drive my next steps from there around you know meeting with folks from the region, if I come back to you, if I go back to CNPT, whatever that might be, so that's what will happen over the course of the next about like two weeks or so. Okay. Okay, so to start, to make sure that we're like starting in the same place, I, my understanding from your most recent correspondence is that you, the resolution that you are looking for is that you'd like to have your exit like reconsidered and reopened with the potential of being able to transfer to Alabama, to the Birmingham, Alabama region, which was your original region, but I have also the email from the 19th that states that you were requesting a withdrawal from the program and no longer wanted to transfer, the resolution, the initial support for resolution was not about reinstating, so I really actually just wanted to start from a place of if you could walk me through what you're hoping for and if that has evolved, how that's evolved and why. I'm going to take notice over here on my screen just so that I can capture this as I'm considering later. Okay, perfect, and so I have ADHD, right, which is, I need documents, right, to help me organize my thoughts, which I've tried to do today in anticipation for what you might ask me, so forgive me if I sound like I'm reading because sometimes I am. Not at all. Okay. Not at all. So the purpose today is to explain the full context of my withdrawal and to ask TFA to reconsider the June 24th separation consequences. My primary desired resolution is to continue with Teach for America in my originating Alabama-Birmingham region if there's still a pathway to do so. If TFA determines that the continuation is not possible, then I'm asking for a neutral, non-punitive separation and the removal of future restrictions and relief from some of my financial payments and expenses. Okay? Okay. So, okay. Tell me more about, and I'm interested in your thoughts on what changed from initially saying that you didn't want a transfer to now you, like, so I never said that I didn't want a transfer. So basically what happened was I have it all written out. So it's like, so, so right, so it's like, thank you for meeting with me today. So I've been committed to Teach for America since October, right? Been meeting the requirements in the region, gone through the process, joined in October, and then I moved them, I transferred to Atlanta. So I transferred to Atlanta because I have no family here and I used to live there and I have, like, friends and I also have a niece and several cousins. So I was like, okay, this will work, right? A lot of people are like, oh, come, we'll support you. But then it's like, I came and it was like, oh, wait, you came? You know? So then I found myself, like, in hotels, paying for hotels, commuting back and forth with my children, you know, my older two children, one of them attends Lawson State, and she has, like, social anxiety and also suffers from panic attacks occasionally, but they've been dormant for a while. So basically, it was just more stressful than I thought. I thought maybe I could have moved quicker and then got them there and got them with me. But basically, here's what transpired. So it says that, like, so, okay, so the withdrawal didn't happen in isolation. It happened after a buildup of my family emergency circumstances, the accommodation implementation, the practicum support issues, and then a safety boundary incident. So being in the metro Atlanta, there's a lot of different moving parts, and I was doing special education and we were at Tucker High School, so a lot of things were disseminated when the information was available, but it made a chaotic environment, right? And it was extremely stressful and overwhelming, and although my accommodation supported me when I was in the virtual training, it really didn't have support or even conversations around support being in person. So I tried to manage as well as I could. I found myself self-advocating, not knowing when the information of accommodation was sent to, like, managers who saw it who didn't have it. So I would have those conversations with people, and then basically, my daughter ended up having a panic attack, and I missed, I want to say, like, the Thursday that maybe was the 12th. I have it written here. And then when I came back, there was, like, some type of challenge with my co-teacher and one of the other mentor teachers, and so then it ended up being this conversation around the issue that happened with her that I was in the meeting for that really wasn't appropriate, and then there was a conversation with me about my accommodation and my disability in front of her, where it was kind of like, how does, now that she knows I have a disability, how does that disability affect her? So it was just awkward and uncomfortable, and I excused myself from the meeting in the portion with her when it got intense, just because I knew with my HR background, like, I shouldn't have been in that meeting. So with everything that was happening at home and with my daughter and her anxiety and stress escalating, I requested to transfer. So I talked to Jenny, and I have the date in here. So it says on June the 9th, I was out dealing with my family, and I'll send this in the email, too, in the follow-up. So I was out dealing with my daughter and my family. I checked in with Ebony, who was my co-teacher, asking how any students arrived. I was still connected to the practicum in the classroom, and then, not June, Jenny said that, like, it's a process to transfer and that there's only, like, four days left in the practicum. Do you think you could finish it out? Right? So I said, okay, I'll be back on Monday. She's like, okay, in the meantime, I'll talk to Tamir about initiating your transfer. So I said, okay, thank you. So that day was, I want to say that Friday. So the 15th of, sorry. So I talked to, and I have the text messages and the Slack messages and all that, too. So I want to say on the 12th of Friday is when I talked to Jenny about the transferring, and then she said there was a process, and I had already had a good relationship with Alabama because it's so small and quaint, and they interviewed me and welcomed me, and so were so gracious and kind to me. So I reached out to Julia Gordon to see if, you know, is it possible for me to transfer? Where am I at in the process? And, you know, what's going on with practicum? And, you know, she said, yes, I needed to, you know, stay there and complete the student portion and et cetera. And so then I, you know, tried to work some things out with my daughter, get some support, some friends to come by, you know what I mean, and be with the kids while I was gone. And then on the 16th of June is when there was, I'm not sure if it was because of the issue that my co-teacher was having with one of the, I forget the roles now, but one of the managers, they kind of, she was gone for a couple days, and a new guy came in. And so that guy that came in is the one that I experienced like the uncomfortable incident with, which is like beyond embarrassing, do you know what I mean? Like even having to make that accusation and having to like remake it, and then like the manner in which it was handled was the things that escalated me with requesting a resignation, because when I talked to Tamara, so I requested to transfer on the 12th, so I didn't get a message, I think until the 17th, wasn't until I talked to Tamara about the transfer. And then on the phone, that's when she verbally, you know, so I had a conversation, okay, so when that incident happened, I exited myself in a situation because I was sitting down in a chair, and I don't know if you ever feel this, but you could feel somebody like watching you on you and like near you, and then I like turned around, I did a double take, and I hopped up because his groin was like in my face, it was like right on my shoulder. And I hopped up and I was like, I was like, I'm sorry, it makes me uncomfortable when people are that close to me, and he kind of stood there that's like this, like stoic, like not even making eye contact with me, and then Jenny was here, and I was seeing her, so I know she saw the situation. It was in the middle of a meeting, so it was awkward, so then I sat down, right, and then I just looked over again, and he was still there. He didn't even move, budge, say anything, acknowledge anything, so I grabbed my things, and then I went out. I sat in the front for a bit, I sat in my car, and then I came back into the meeting and gathered my things. At that point, maybe it had been about 45 minutes to an hour without getting into like the details of my disability, and it was triggering for me, right, and so it was like we had Phil as our main instructor for a while, and Phil would say, you know, you could say, Phil, hey, I'm going to go take a break, or I need a minute, and he would always say, you're an adult, do what you need to do to make sure you're okay. Let me know if you're not okay. So that's how we manage breaks and time out, and that's how we manage. So it's like when we got into the student-facing stage is when kind of Jenny took the forefront and the lead, and she was more so doing the instruction and managing, totally different management styles. I never had to really request to utilize my accommodation because I didn't know how to, right. It wasn't meant for the setting that I was in, and I just kept telling myself, it's only nine days, Emma, you know what I mean, it's only nine days, you can make it through, and it was just very challenging, and after this situation had occurred, and then I didn't really, you know, when I left the classroom and then I came back, Jenny was, she walked out with me, and I would have took it as an opportunity to make sure that I was okay to check and see like what I had going on, but instead she, in my perspective, was like reprimanding me, like, where did you go? I was looking for you. I said, well, I came up front and talked to the ladies for a bit, then I went in my car. I said, I walked a bit, then I went in my car. I said, well, I was looking for you outside. She's like, I was concerned for your safety. I said, well, I felt unsafe in there. That's why I left, you know what I mean, and I said I was trying to self-regulate and get myself to a comfortable space where I could go back in there, and she was like, well, I was worried about you, your safety. You're in, and I said, you know, I'm not sure why you keep using that word, like, about me not being safe. Like, I'm safe, right? I'm okay. I'm coming back in and getting my things. Like, the day is over. She's like, well, you're in the school you've never been in, or what, and I'm like, we've been here for two weeks. She's like, and you've never been in this neighborhood, and I said, is Tucker a bad neighborhood? You know what I mean? Like, I didn't know, and it was just like, well, you have to let me know. I said, I don't know how to let you know that I'm okay when I'm trying to make myself okay or make sure that I'm okay. I said, and right now, I don't think that this conversation is really getting anywhere because I need to get to a place where, like, I can get myself back to the hotel, you know what I mean, and that I didn't hear anything. I think Tamara maybe had came for a meeting in person, so I followed up with Jenny about the transfer. She said they were so busy they never even talked about it, but I knew from the past, like, I had a conversation. Somebody sent me a link to the form, and the process went on, so this one was, like, different than I experienced, so the next morning when I got in, I talked to Jenny, and I said, I want to talk to you about, you know, what happened yesterday because I want to make sure that I'm clearly communicating, like, what I experienced, even though you were there, and I'm just assuming you knew, you know, and in the meeting the day before, she was saying, I said, you know, I did communicate that I was uncomfortable and that my boundaries were being crossed. She said, yes, you did, you did a good job of that, so my thing is that, like, if I did that and then I walked out, like, what more do you want me to communicate, and it's in class, you know, so then the next morning, I told her, I said, you know, the situation that I experienced was that he was over me in a close proximity, and his private was, like, in my face. I said, he was so close to me that, like, when I turned over, it made me hop up out of my seat. I said, and you saw that, and I even expressed that I was uncomfortable, and he still did not move, and I said, and as far as my accommodation goes, I really would feel comfortable reaching out to disabilities so I can get clarity around, like, what's happening. Like, it's almost over. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I've gone through this whole time without invoking an accommodation or needing any help, and it's one situation. Now, all of a sudden, it's like these floodgates are opening, and it's like accommodation, accommodation, but it was, like, more, it was more about, like, the rules and the regulations around my accommodation than I felt like it was to, like, implement me and support me, and so then the next day, they had him in classrooms and, like, taking pictures, and, like, he was the only person that had taken pictures, and it was, like, the last day, so, like, he did ask permission, and I just felt like if I said no, like, I wouldn't have been accounted for, so he was taking pictures, and he was, like, really close and uncomfortable, and it was, like, you can do it, Emer, you know what I mean? It's 2 30. It's the end of the week, and so, like, at first, I was, like, thinking maybe, you know what I mean? I was super sensitive to the situation, but people were coming up to me and asking me, like, was I okay, and that they had saw how close I was, and then when I got the email from disability or somebody, they said that they took it seriously, and they were going to look into it, but nobody ever reached out to me or looked into it, and I expressed that to Jenny, and I felt that that was, like, not appropriate to have him, like, going classroom to classroom or especially, like, in my classroom taking pictures with that type of accusation, and then one of the young ladies, you know, Jenny and I had joked about how we were older, and it's, like, being these little girls' mom, you know, my daughter's 23, and one of the girls came to me and said, you know, Miss M, the new guy makes me uncomfortable. I said, what do you mean, honey? And she said, well, I was in the classroom, and he, like, slid behind me, and he put his, and she said a different word, you know what I mean? He put his groin on my back. She was, like, and, you know, he's not the first guy that we're around. He's, like, Phil squeezes around us and all this stuff all the time, and I've never experienced that. She said he just gives me the creeps, and she said, and I've caught him watching my co-teacher, like, just sitting outside the classroom, and, like, he's taking, like, a liking to her, and in our training, it was always about, even in just life, if you see something, you say something, and I took that, and I compiled it, so with the issue with my co-teacher, with the accommodation, and now I'm getting messages from Jenny. You can see in there in my Slack where she's telling me how I need to notify her in the basis of my accommodation, and then with my children, I had got a text message from Julia Gordon, which I included also, where she told me that my transfer was in progress, so I asked Tamara if I could work remotely that next week because Jenny had said, like, come the next week, which was the student part, which I did, and so now you're saying I got to come again, even though it's been a week since I've asked for the transfer, and when I talked to Tamara, she said, you know, you've done good work here, you know, I checked in on people, and I take this situation with this gentleman seriously, you know, we try people out to see if they're a good fit, so we'll look into it, but then, like, the next day, he was, like, taking pictures, and then, like, I'm sending these emails, and if you see the date on sent and date on replies or something like not replied, I'm not getting any communication back, and if you see my history of communication, I try to communicate early and often to show that I'm engaged and I'm not abandoning, so I resigned because I couldn't come back the next week. I hadn't heard back about my transfer, and being around that guy was overwhelming, along with everything else, and now Jenny now constantly inundated me about my accommodation, and it was, like, when I told her I was reaching out to disability, and an hour later, I had a Slack message from Tamara saying she wanted to talk to me about the issue and the disability, and it was just, like, these things and my transfer, so when I did the transfer or when I talked to her, she said, you know, I wouldn't keep anybody from their kids. I'll approve your transfer. You know, it's up to Alabama whether or not they can accept you, so either you'll be able to transfer or you'll be able to return at a later date, and I had already talked to Julia to let her know, and she was looking forward to me, from my perception and my conversation to returning, and then I did the resignation because I hadn't heard back from anybody, and I left after the kids left, and then that's when you see that message from Jenny asking me where I'm at. She hopes I'm okay, and she'll see me on Monday, and then I was trying to see how I could make it work so I could get back there, but I couldn't, and I just did not feel comfortable or safe, and so I resigned because I didn't want to not to be able to return, and so then ultimately they sent me a message saying I wasn't able to return, and I, what did I do that would make me ineligible to return when I was, that's kind of how it evolved, but you're okay, you're okay. I appreciate your like sharing the entirety of your story in such detail. It's hard and uncomfortable. Yeah. It's really important for me to to hear your perspective straight from you. Okay, so I'm going to recap the end part here to make sure that I'm like fully understanding, and you can tell me if this is accurate, but you, you resigned as like a last resort because you felt like you were not getting the communication that you need, or the resolution that you needed on the transfer, and the, the like concerns that you had elevated about safety, and comfort at the school site, and so the hope here was that you would resign, and then be able to apply again later, or like what, what, and then it, what it sounds like is that that was potentially the hope, and then when the resignation accepted letter came, the spelling out of the consequences the spelling out of the consequences of the resignation were like, not necessarily what was expected, or what you had intended. I hadn't thought it all the way through to that part. Okay. Right, just to be honest, and I hadn't heard back from anybody, so I was thinking that they were going to be like, no, maybe like, hey, we don't want to lose you, let's talk about this, or you know, where we're at, or your transfer's already done, or that it would like open the communication, but it was just kind of like, what else do I do? You know what I mean? Like, I can't show up on Monday, like I don't, I don't know how to communicate with Jenny, right? The disability office is more than being supportive, and extending probably beyond the things that they handle, and they're the only people like I'm getting a response from, so it was, I just did not know what to do, and then it's just like reflecting, it's like, I've dedicated like almost a year of my life, you know, to this, and a lot of sacrifices, and it was just like, um, that was kind of my, my, my, my hope. Yeah, yeah. So that's why I'm like, I know that maybe I won't, you know what I mean, get to transfer, or rejoin at this point, but to just say that like, I didn't commit my two-year teaching commitment, like I was looking forward to going to my school, like my kids have never been in public school, and I was going to be able to teach with them all in that school. Yeah. Are you, okay, that's really helpful, and it doesn't affect me financially, you know what I mean, like all the money that I got, like I really pretty much spent like being there, you know what I mean, and trying to make sure that my kids were like okay when I'm gone, and it's just a total loss, and it's a loss to me from the kids that I'll learn from, and the kids that I can teach. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, all right, so the hope here is, the, the ultimate hope, right, is reinstatement and transfer to Alabama, knowing that that is potentially not possible. Um, the hope is to reconsider the resignation status, and therefore, the consequences that come with resignation status, like ability to apply again, or um, like a financial ramification. Yeah. Okay, okay, I feel clear. That's very helpful. Thank you. I'm sorry it's so emotional, but it's like, you don't need to apologize for that at all. It's a, it's a really hard emotional situation, and it's exhausting, and it's stressful, and it all comes at once. I think people understand. There's nobody to talk to about it, you know, they wouldn't even, they don't understand, like, the word of Teach for America. They'd be like, what? Like, what happened? You're into it, what? It's like, don't worry about it. Yeah, they're like, so you work for, and then you're in the school? I'm like, don't worry about it. Okay, um, from here, if you could send me, it sounds like you've written a lot of this out and compiled a good deal, um, it would be very helpful if you can send those things to me. Um, I'd like to look over all of them and comb through the, um, the handbook, as well as talk to the Atlanta team and the Alabama team, um, and you can expect to hear back from me with either an up, with an update, even if the update is, I'm still working on, okay, okay, um, by the end of next week. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Wonderful. Appreciate you. Absolutely. I hope you have a really, like, beautiful enjoy your children. Yes. Um, and I'll be in contact. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Oh, do I grow a beard after all these years?