i heart dooce

I was going through the Dooce.com archives and re-reading the comments left on 2004's annual commemoration of the day they fired the Dooce, in which she asks the readers to share the most insane thing your boss has ever said to you.

My contribution, a year too late :

"if you're going to call Child Protective Services about [little boy] then I'm going to have to ask you to resign. [The School] will not stand behind you, and I have too much at stake here to risk losing it over a few black eyes"

Because you want to know : yes, I resigned and yes, I called CPS. This boy - and his mother - were clearly physically abused by the father and since the boy confided in me, and the mother was half-way reaching out to me for help, I refused to let them down. The result being that the child was pulled from The School, but turned up in another school where my friend taught with a new name - the whole family had changed their last name, and at least to my knowledge the child's name was changed too, but they didn't change towns. CPS was not able to ever give me further details on the "case" once I gave my formal statement. I was subsequently refused payment for my accrued vacation time or sick leave and found out when I received my final paycheck 4 weeks later that there had been a "status change" in my position and title (a demotion) that changed my hourly pay rate significantly. Also a statement from The School saying that my resignation made me ineligible for Unemployment and if I chose to attempt to collect Unemployment, they would seek legal recourse. Assholes.