Mz is a new person now

Mz has changed.

By nature a blatant flatterer, As's selfish interests had made her an even greater one. As liked her flattery and encouraged her to indulge in it more and more while doing no worthwhile work at school. She used to indulge in unsubstantial work, conspiracies, petty fights and controversies with the entire staff and displayed plenty of ugly attitude acting almost like the boss which everyone found hard to digest but was forced to as As blindly supported her in her every step and turn.
Now As has gone and Stf is not the type to listen to flattery. She likes to see work and results. While in As's times Mz was dead sure that even if she doesn't wink an eyelid, her sweet words for As were enough to keep her secure in school. Now she knows she has to work, if she doesn't she can be thrown out in next to no time. Consequently she has started working harder, knows her position is no superior than ours and so gone the unbecoming expressions of self importance, conceit and arrogance from her face.

I can easily forgive her now and have even started pitying her. She is a better human being now, I believe, than she was before.

Well, flatterers flatter you because they know you like it; if they knew you didn't they would never flatter you. Flatterers are not really fools - in fact they are clever enough to know how to gain advantages without working hard. 

Sv has left the school

Today My showed me the mail which Sv's mother wrote to her.

She had written that we are untrained, unexperienced, bad behaved teachers especially myself as we do not know how to handle children. Our incompetency is destroying her child so she has decided that she will remove Sv from such a bad school.

So this is the end of Sv's another school.

I remember his father telling me several months ago that Sv used to go to a children's creche here in Germany when he was only one and a half year old. However he had to be removed from there after only one or two months as he was not happy there. He complained that the caregivers over there took off his clothes even in winters and shamed him and used to hit him. I wonder how one and half year old child can say this much. I had explained to both the father and mother that undressing before going to bed is nothing like shaming but they didn't like to listen to me. I experienced the same problem while undressing him for bed. He would resist like a wild animal and felt something wrong was happening; to keep his mind at rest I had stopped undressing him at all. He was the only child who got under the quilts with full clothes on - and he used to wear sooo many clothes one on top of another. Once I counted and was amazed to see he was wearing 5 full sleeved clothes, full sleeved vest, full sleeved thermal wear, full sweater, then shirt then another sweater. with the central heating on he often used to sweat and stink but he never allowed even one of his sweater to be taken out. When he went to wash his hands he couldn't roll his sleeves up due to layer of 5 clothes being too thick and then wet all the 5 clothes together forcing us to take off all his 5 clothes to prevent him from catching chill. The other clothes which we gave him were too less in his mother's opinion and she blamed us that the child had caught cold because we had not dressed him warm enough.

Actually the problem is not with Sv but with his parents. They neglect and abuse him at home. He strives for attention and love. When he doesn't get it he turns aggressive and mischievous to seek attention and consequently gets hit and abused. He is being repressed at home so he turns doubly aggressive outside. The parents think sending him to school is enough which is not. They take no interest in his overall education and behavior and think that learning alphabets and numbers is more important. They do not accept the truth and try to solve the problem but make excuses and find faults with others for their own mistakes and shortcomings.

Believe it or not, with this sort of behavior, Sv will have problems in every school on this earth.

The Changing Times in the Kindergarten...!

A lot is happening in the school these days - and everything is positive, progressive and organised thanks to As's resignation / retirement/ termination (or whatever you can call it) from the school.

To begin with Stf the boss is more often at school and herself decides important issues without any misleading middleman.

Our small but important activities are getting organised every minute now; we need to fill in our daily working hours everyday in a form and submit it at the end of the month. Similarly we also have a leave form now in which we can enter the details of our leaves taken. We are now provided enough weekly plan sheets during every meeting to prevent us from begging from someone who happens to have extra sheets and then wait endlessly to photocopy it before we can use it - something which was natural during As's times! The parents' contracts have been newly framed making some important changes and we all have been given its copy so that we know the parents and children of our school better.
A complete doctor's check up of the student just before his admission which will also mention his height and weight etc apart from other things has been made mandatory. Earlier  only a doctor's okay certificate was required. All accidents happening on the school premises will be recorded duly. We used to write daily diaries of the children mentioning what we did with the children today but there was a stupid rule that we could not give the diary to parents and so the parents never got to see the diary while we kept on writing painstakingly. We had protested many times to As to either let the parents have the diary so that they know what is being done in class or to stop the diary altogether but she never listened. Now this daily diary writing has been discontinued.

Our team meetings have become more meaningful, organised and focussed as opposed to earlier when meetings meant only eating, laughing and gossiping like a pack of housewives and any new idea given by any of us was only to be ridiculed and rebuffed furiously. Now we follow a proper meeting agenda along with minutes of meeting which is so useful.

Even the clock at the entrance is working now which was stuck at 10.20 since at least 9 months..!
It is Spring time! Winter is gone from our kindergarten...!!!

The Meeting with Sv's Father

Sv's father was supposed to come at 4 pm today for the meeting and we all were fearing that he might fight with us.

We requested Stf to be present with us during the meeting but she was busy so My decided she would be there with us in the capacity of the manager. I made a detailed list of questions I wanted to ask him and a list of things that needed explanation. Cl found a list of special schools which help children overcome troubles like aggression, hyper activity or other behavioral problems.

He was punctual. I was surprised and disgusted to see him chewing tobacco in his mouth, fine particles of which flew out several times when he was speaking.

I started by greeting him politely which he answered rather stiffly. I showed him Sv's craft activity folder which he disinterestedly flicked 2-3 pages out of at least 30-40 and shoved it aside. I gave him his daily diary but he didn't even open it.
I asked him what activities does Sv do at home. He sarcastically replied.
"You know he stays in school from 9 am to 5 pm. You yourself tell what activity will he do after this? He eats then goes to sleep."
"What does he do on weekends?"
" He plays like normal children." He answered irritatingly and extremely rudely which we found offensive.
" Let me tell you, my child is normal. He doesn't like the school because his teachers especially you do not treat him properly. You punish him and he complains at home that you have been hitting him and punishing him. He has become afraid of the school. He doesn't want to come to school anymore."

"This is not true." We cried. "He has NEVER been punished or even scolded, leave alone hitting. He did some serious mischiefs several times but we only made him sit in a chair a few feet away from the main group and that is all. And he is not afraid of the school; he likes being here and enjoys playing the whole day. He loves us enough. He comes and sits in our lap. "
"I do not believe you. My child has said that you have hit him and that he has been punished. I have to believe my child.Children don't tell lies."
" Precisely." Said My in German."Your child has been telling us also some things which we have every reason to believe. He has told us many times that both of you hit him and that once your wife was cutting his hair and he got bruised on his cheek because of the scissors."
He was stunned for half a second, then he quietly answered. " Sorry, what did you say? I do not understand German."
"Really? But I have myself heard you and your wife speak German on other occasions. I am sure you understand German." I said. He was caught at a lie which he didn't like at all. He lamely reiterated that he didn't know German.

Then we asked him how Sv had got hurt so badly on his left cheek.
"My wife must be knowing about it. I have no idea. I will call her and ask her."
"You mean you are the father but you don't know how did your child got hurt?"
He rang his wife and asked her and then started lashing us back.
"My child got hurt in school. He had fallen down from the swing."
"That's not right. He doesn't go in any of those swings. He was in front of our eyes the whole day and we know he hadn't fallen anywhere at all."
"I know my child got hurt in school because in the morning he was alright. And when my wife asked Mk about the bruise Mk told her that he fallen from the swing in the playground."
"That's wrong again. Mk asked your wife about the bruise and she told him that he had fallen from the swing."
"Then Mk is telling a lie."

He grew very unpleasant now. He was speaking so rudely and was using such insolent gestures, tones and even looks that we had to tell him several times that he ought to display some manners considering he was in kindergarten and speaking to teachers.

He started hurling false allegations on us like hitting, punishing his child, not giving him food and keeping him hungry, asking for doctor reports which we didn't have any right to, destroying him, our telling lies, Mk telling lies and several others. His language and tone became so unbearable that My had to terminate the meeting saying,
"It is impossible to talk to you. You do not want to listen to us. You do not trust us. This meeting was to discuss some problems which Sv was having in the school and we were having regarding him. We wanted to find out how we could together solve this problem but I see that talking is useless with you. So I now suggest that you leave this kindergarten and search another where you can be happy. I give you one day's time to decide whether you want to stay here with us or leave. Please let me know by tomorrow."

He went pale. He hadn't expected he would be asked to remove the child. But he had done the damage and there was no turning back now.

I wonder what he will do now. Will he really remove Sv? This school was very convenient for him as it was extremely close to his house and shop both. I began feeling sad for Sv now. Poor boy. His parents are too focussed on money making and have no time for him and when they do get time together they hit and punish him and have the temerity to blame it all on teachers when found out. Now I know it was all a lie that he has stopped eating and lost weight and some psychological issue. He merely wanted us to be afraid and surrender. I am very sure if we talked to his doctor we would get a different story to hear. I wish the school would report this case to child welfare authority.
And fancy his lying that he doesn't know German when I have myself heard and seen him speaking German to German people.

I have never seen such lier parents.

An unpleasant affair with Sv's Parents

Today Sv came to school after a week's absence. We asked his parents who had come to drop him as to what had happened to him. His answer surprised us.

"He was unwell.", His father said gruffly. " He had stopped eating altogether. We took him to the Doctor who did all the tests but his every test was normal. The doctor said there is something in his head; he is having some psychological issue. He seems to be afraid of the school which is why he has stopped eating and has lost 2 kg weight in just 2 weeks."
"That sounds a bit serious." I said sympathetically. "Can we see his reports please? It is important for the school to be aware of this thing in order to help the child. Losing 2 kilos in just 2 weeks for such a small child is a serious matter especially if all his reports are normal and no reason for this weight loss."
"Why do you want to see the report? You are not a doctor. We can't show you the report."
"We want to see the report so that we can analyse what is going wrong with your child. The school and doctor work in close collaboration for the benefit of the children."
"Sorry, we can't show you the report. Even we haven't seen the report. Only the doctor has it. I asked the doctor if I could have the report as I wanted to send it to India but I was refused."

Somehow he didn't sound true. He appeared to be angry and lying.

"Well anyways, we want to have a meeting with you." I said.
"Why?" Both of them appeared in visible consternation.
" Because we need to talk to you."
"About what?"
"Obviously about Sv."
The mother looked towards the father and groaned, "I don't want to come; can you please go?"
"Its important for both of you to be present." We insisted but the mother told us that she won't come only the father would come for this meeting.

They started saying good bye to Sv who had been standing close beside us all this time and was happily playing with toy fruits. At this he started crying and in only the next 2-3 sobs he made a face as though he would throw up.
Both myself and Cl asked him lovingly and concernedly but his mother snatched him ( almost snatched) him from us saying she didn't want that day's incident to repeat itself and took him away to soothe and console him but he threw up again in a large mess just like that day and then was ultimately taken back home again.

Before going she said to us that the reason why he had started crying and had thrown up was because while we were talking a child came and said to him that Sv shouldn't come to school and go home; and because he felt that I in particular was going to harm his parents.

 That's absurd...! The whole time we were talking to them, Sv had been standing close beside us within just 2 feet of us and there was only a one and a half year old girl playing near him who neither knows him nor can yet speak a whole sentence that too in English. She can only say a few broken words in Italian or German. So there is no way she could have said that. In any case we were close enough so we could have heard her. Besides her there was no other child in that area at that time. As to harming we had been talking very politely without even raising the pitch of our voices.

Why the hell are they lying like this?

As...a swindler...?

Today I was talking to Mk and I made a stunning discovery.
I merely asked him if he believed that As has resigned due to illness and he said,

"Well, I will tell you something which the others over here do not know. As has been fired because she was stealing money from the kindergarten. Once she came up to us one morning and told us that someone had broken into the school building and stole a lot of money..several thousand Euros. We all believed her but that was not the truth. Actually she had stolen it and staged it that way to appear like a loot - of course we came to know about it only now!

Then there were several other instances when money came into the school office and disappeared without records anywhere.She often used to accept money in cash and pocketed it straight away letting it appear that so and so thing had not been paid at all.

There were several times when during our regular team meetings she insisted that somehow someone or some people were entering the school premises after closing up and were stealing things from the school; she said she suspected this because she found several things missing without reason from the school.
The last time was just a few days ago, I happened to enter the office and bumped into St and My talking together about 50,000 Euros being stolen from the school."

I just stared at him blankly for several seconds before fully realizing the import of his words. Quite a lot of things appeared to fit in their place like a jig saw puzzle after hearing this. I remember very well the meetings when she said she suspected someone is coming through an open window which we forgot to close, and stealing articles of value and we all racked our brains to figure out why would anyone want to break into a school building and risk a great deal only for the sake of a few damn toys..! And then her telling us how she paid huge huge sums of money for works that did not appear to demand such huge payments, for example 15,000 Euros for a repairing a damaged children's kitchen ( dummy kitchen ) and 5,000 Euros for getting rid of Rats in the cellar, and small children's books worth 300-500 Euros each and her constantly whining that there is no money in the kindergarten.

It appears that she swindled money cleverly without getting it entered and maybe by accepting handsome commissions in services like pest control or furniture repair.

Whatever, but stealing 50,000 Euros in one go is a lot of money. I wonder why the school didn't go to police. Why she was still let off under a comfortably respectable excuse going so far as to allow her 2 months notice period as well as announcing to all the parents that she is retiring due to severe health problems.
It sounds to me like there is a lot of illegal work maybe like tax evasion, money laundering or something else happening in this kindergarten and As, being the manager, worked in it hand in hand so now they are afraid of being hard to her just in case she starts talking.

"I never trusted that woman;" Mk said. " She always appeared inscrutable like she cannot be read. She was always saying things which we knew were wrong or just could not be right but she insisted she was right. I am glad she has gone. She was just not fit for any kindergarten - she hated children, parents, teachers just everyone....She was following so many wrong policies which was bad for the school."

I am shocked. I still cannot believe she was stealing money from the kindergarten...!!!

Announcement of As's Resignation

Today Stf has sent an email to all the parents and teachers formally announcing to them that As has resigned from the kindergarten owing to serious health problems. 31st March is her last working day and from next day, the 1st of April Mz and My will take over the school management

Actually As had ceased coming to school since about 20th of February...! I guess Stf didn't want any dirty linen washing in public or worse still become the laughing stock of all the parents so she tries to make this entire affair as decent and plausible as she can.