To stay or go

Obviously I'm not the one making the decision to stay or go but my partner teacher may have to make that decision, and I don't blame her. The past few days have been quite emotional for her and she has lost a lot of sleep lately. Here's the situation:

(Let me preface this with saying Sheena is very strict when it comes to discipline.If you have been following my blog, you know how she dealt with Leeds when they teased the other class for not being as smart as them).
We have one child in class, we'll call him "Brian", that does not pay attention, he is often talking out of turn, doesn't like to follow directions, and is good for at least 2 emotional breakdowns a week. One day late last week, Sheena had been teaching class and Brian was not paying attention. She called his name 3 times and still he won't have anything to do with Sheena or the class. So Sheena told him that he can either participate in class or pack up his stuff and go home. Well another child, we'll call him "Matthew" heard Sheena say this and reported to his mother that, "Sheena teacher told Brian that she doesn't want him in class anymore and that she kicked him out." Clearly that is not what happened. But moms being the wonderful moms they are, gossiped and word got around that Sheena kicked Brian out of class and that Sheena doesn't want Brian in Brisol anymore. Sheena got phone calls from all of the mothers last week yelling at her for what she said to Brian. She said she didn't sleep at all this past weekend. And this was just the start of it!

As the week went on, Sheena was having a hard time with the situation. Brian's mom had called her and demanded her to apologize for what she said to Brian, even though it wasn't true. After Sheena was demanded to apologize to Brian's mom, I thought maybe the situation was under control and things would just blow over. But then, for some reason unknown to me, Matthew's mom called the school to complain to the administration about Sheena. She called our Director and Assistant Director to talk about Sheena. This made Sheena furious, and rightfully so. Matthew's mother never called Sheena to talk about the problem but went right to administration. I'm not sure what exactly was said or what Matthew's mother was saying to the higher ups but it was not good.

Today, Thursday, we had a field trip. It was supposed to be a fun day for not only the kids but for the teachers too. And after the field trip, the school was taking the foreign teachers out to dinner. Well plans were altered. Before we left for the field trip, Sheena informed me that Matthew's mother was demanding a meeting with the administration after the field trip. She was told nothing else but that Matthew's mother would be coming to the school. I felt so bad for her! After we got back from the field trip I went to drop something off for Sheena and she was in tears. She was so upset with Matthew's mother for not coming to her first. And she was also upset with the school because she knew the school would not support her, and that is what really upset me. The school would side with the mother and not support their own teachers.

The meeting did not go well. I didn't hear or see what happened but I was told Sheena needed to be held back from yelling or hitting someone! I then heard that Sheena said she would quit and leave the school because of the whole situation! Needless to say our school dinner got canceled. We left school at 5:00 and Sheena was still talking to the administration. I'm worried because she is my partner teacher and the effects of her leaving, if that is what she chooses to do, would be disastrous for me.

This country is quite different than home. Everything from what they value to how they communicate. I don't think it's something I will ever get used to during my time here. And quite honestly, I don't think I want to.