The Crosby Chronicles: Lose the keys, lose respect?

All my working life I have been given keys to my place of employment. Until now.

At the high school where I’m working my 23rd year, the lock to the gate of the faculty parking lot was changed. As a way to improve security, the school district decided to limit the number of keys to 50 at a school that employs nearly 150. After administrators, custodians, and coaches were given keys, only a few were left for, you guessed it, the teachers. You know those people? The ones who parents entrust with furthering their children’s knowledge are evidently the same people who the school district mistrusts with their keys.

This means that each time a teacher needs to leave during school hours for whatever reason, the teacher has to call the office for a security officer to open the gate. Then, upon returning, the teacher while sitting in a car has to call the school again for someone to open the gate. Hopefully, a police officer doesn’t give a ticket to the teacher for using a cell phone while in a car.

This is another example of how teachers as a group continue to be viewed as second-class employees, to be controlled more like students rather than as professionals.

Brian Crosby is a teacher at Hoover High School and the author of Smart Kids, Bad Schools and The $100,000 Teacher. He can be reached at brian-crosby.com.