My experience working in Tunica ended in resignation after five years due to increasingly complicated circumstances. The high school principal, who I'll call Mr. Petty, made it his mission to harass and disparage me, making my work environment intolerable. Shockingly, this treatment continued even after I left for a new position, as Mr. Petty went out of his way to speak negatively about me to my new administrators.

Mr. Petty had a history of unprofessional conduct and unethical behavior that somehow never resulted in consequences. In one particularly egregious incident before my time, he got into a physical altercation with the athletic director, "Coach", in the middle of the cafeteria, in full view of staff and students. The fight, which was captured on video, began after Mr. Petty disregarded orders from superiors to stop harassing Coach and served him with a write-up. When Mr. Petty walked away, Coach chucked an apple that exploded on the back of Mr. Petty's head. They started brawling until campus police intervened and arrested them both.

It later came out that this was not Mr. Petty's first run-in with the law - he had two prior arrests for domestic violence, with his mugshot plastered all over the internet. Unfathomably, the district still saw fit to promote him from vice principal to principal after all of this.

I began hearing stories of Mr. Petty harassing other teachers during his first year as principal, my fourth in Tunica. Not being targeted myself, I didn't think much of it at the time. Like that famous saying about the Nazis - first they came for others, but I said nothing because I wasn't affected. By the time they came for me, no one was left to speak up.

Mr. Petty's hostility seemed to begin when I approached him at the start of my fifth year about sponsoring an LGBTQIA+ student group, at the suggestion of some students and teachers.

"I didn't know you were gay," he said with a scowl.

"I'm more likely asexual than gay," I replied, "but several people thought I'd be a good faculty advisor for this kind of group."

"Absolutely not," he declared, turning on his heel and walking away before I could respond further.

I was taken aback but shrugged it off - until his behavior towards me took a bizarre turn. We were at a training with assigned seating, and my spot didn't have an outlet, so I plugged my laptop into a nearby surge protector.

"You can't use that extension cord, it's for the projector," Mr. Petty barked at me.

"Okay, no problem," I said agreeably, unplugging.

But then another teacher asked to use it and he readily agreed. As she plugged in, I plugged back in too, figuring it was now fine. Mr. Petty marched over and ordered me to unplug again, just me, for no discernible reason. Another colleague ended up sharing their charger cord with me, finding the unfairness of the situation as baffling as I did.

These types of incidents continued and escalated. Another time, he mumbled something about me watching some other teachers' classes, waving his walkie-talkie around. When I politely asked him to clarify, he started yelling.

"You should know to cover Ms. Smith and Mr. Johnson's classes, they're both out today!" he shouted.

"Okay, which one would you like me to sub for?" I asked reasonably.

"Both of them! Obviously!" He threw up his hands in exasperation.

"How can I be in two classrooms at once?" I wondered aloud.

"Combine them, you're being insubordinate!" he practically spat at me.

Each of those classes had 25-30 students. So he expected me to supervise 50-60 kids at a time. I did as told while documenting everything in follow-up emails. I started emailing my accounts after every incident to establish a record.

He began observing my classes but never gave feedback, just lurked around menacingly. When it got to be too much, I reached out to the superintendent, "Dr. Fellis", asking how to file a formal complaint. After he outlined the process, I quickly typed it up, printed it out, and dropped it off at the district office one Friday after school around 3:45 pm. By 4:30 pm, I had an email from Mr. Petty informing me I was being removed as the AP Literature teacher effective immediately, with only 4 weeks left in the term. I was the only AP certified literature teacher at the school and I was being replaced by someone who had only an emergency license.

He declared I'd be teaching Theater starting the following Tuesday. We didn't even offer that class. It wasn't in the computer system. I was actually taking over a mislabeled Visual Arts section where the kids were doing random English worksheets unaligned to any standards. They ended up getting credit for both Theater and Visual Arts, somehow.

I was cooperative in providing lesson plans and exams and materials (that I had to create since there were no textbooks) for my former AP Lit class on top of prepping overnight for Theater. Still Mr. Petty persistently harassed me.

At the very end of the year, a Theater student made an amusing video asking for extra credit, showing how he had clowned around all term and was now trying to make up for it by sucking up to the teacher. He used a filter portraying us both as clowns - him for his behavior and me for allowing the last minute points. I thought it was creative and standards-aligned so I agreed. A kid posted it on TikTok without my knowledge.

Mr. Petty called me in, claiming the background song lyrics were inappropriate. I hadn't noticed anything but he was determined to make it an ethics violation. Then he revealed the real issue - the other assistant superintendent, "Ms. Gore," was mad about the D grade her daughter "Alicia" currently had in my class. Alicia had barely done any work but I told him I'd happily grade anything she turned in, even late, and would not take off any points for late submission.

The next morning Alicia's aunt "Ms. Johnston" called me on my cell phone about Alicia's grade. I said I'd talked to Ms. Gore all year about Alicia's missing assignments to no avail, but was still willing to accept her work. Later that day, Mr. Petty called me in again and I even added him to the Google Classroom so he could see for himself what she was missing.

The following day, he hauled me in once more, claiming now that Alicia said she HAD turned in all her work and I was lying.

I replied, exasperated, "I just showed you yesterday. You're in the Google Classroom, you can look yourself!"

"I can't access it, you need to show me on your laptop," he countered.

But when I tried to pull it up, all my classes had vanished overnight, erasing the digital trail. "This is ridiculous, someone above me must have deleted them! I just sent screenshots to her mother yesterday though," I insisted.

He dismissed me without resolution. He did, however, seem surprised when I said I had screenshots of her missing work.

This was just like the time he changed attendance records when a student had only attended two days in the 9-week term. He'd orchestrated changing the attendance record to indicate the student had only MISSED two days. When I went over my documentation, I saw that the records had been changed and emailed the administrative assistant. She IMMEDIATELY called me and asked for the dates I'd marked the student absent. I sent those dates to her and she "fixed" the attendance record. Another teacher showed myself and others a video where she'd recorded someone changing the attendance literally as she attempted to mark a student absent. The video showed the record being changed back to present right before our eyes.

Disheartened, I discreetly packed up my room and started job searching, planning to resign.

The next day I found myself ambushed in a meeting with Mr. Petty, his boss Dr. Fellis, and two other administrators. I'd been looking at my phone for job posts right before walking in and still had my phone in my hand. I placed my phone on my leg as I sat down.

Dr. Fellis zeroed in on my cell phone immediately, attempting to hide a copy of the ethics code behind a folder in his hand. "Leave your phone with the receptionist before we begin," he ordered.

Feeling very uncomfortable with this, I demurred. "I don't see why that's necessary. I'd prefer to hold onto it."

"This meeting will not proceed until you surrender your phone," he insisted.

"In that case, we don't need to meet. I didn't call this meeting and have no idea what it's about anyway," I said firmly, though my heartbeat quickened.

"Are you RECORDING this?" Dr. Fellis asked pointedly.

I hesitated a beat before responding, "No, I'm not." Which I wasn't.

He started shouting about the illegality of recording without two-party consent. I held my ground.

"I'm not a lawyer but I believe Mississippi is a one-party consent state. Regardless, I'm not recording." Which, again, I wasn't.

Looking flustered, he and the others loudly declared non-consent to any recordings. I asked if we were done then.

"Are you going to leave your phone or not?" Dr. Fellis demanded.

"No, I'm not," I replied evenly.

"Then we're done here," he huffed.

I took the opportunity to announce my resignation and request release from my contract, as I was unwilling to work with Mr. Petty any longer. Dr. Fellis said he understood and would let me know. Mr. Petty glowered silently.

I boxed up my things and interviewed in a neighboring district the next day, receiving an immediate offer from the principal, "Mr. Wiley." I informed him I was currently under contract in Tunica but was confident they would release me. I did not go into the reasons why.

To my shock, a week later I received a termination letter from Mr. Petty at my parents' house, accusing me of violating the ethics code by not supervising students properly. It stated I had one week to appeal, but that deadline had already passed before I even saw the letter. He could have had the letter sent to my current address on file, rather than my emergency contact. That way, I would have received the letter in time to appeal the termination.

I nearly contested it on principle but ultimately opted to leave the toxic situation behind and move onward to my fresh start. Little did I know then how far Mr. Petty's pettiness would reach, that his maligning of me would follow me to my new district and beyond. An ordeal I naively thought was over was only just beginning.