A dear friend tells me I have a "leading." Apparently this outrage I feel at the injustice of abusive principals is a gift from God; a mission of sorts.

I just think it's a pain in the behind. I just want to ignore it. I just want to put my head back in the sand.

"Hey, it's not my problem," I want to cry out. "I'm good now. Pretty damn happy in my new school. Take care of your own damn selves.."

Can't do it though. More and even uglier abuse is at work at my former school. It's happening right now. It's systematic. It's focused. It's brutal. It's meant to obliterate the target. Boom.

And it's ignored by my district's leadership. Actually, it's not ignored. In fact, all reporters have been transferred, been fired or gone crazy. You pick.

Think about this. Think about the use of professional resources at that school. Are school support personnel serving children? Are they engaging children in groups and classroom presentations? No.

Here's what one person is doing: she spends her day creating evidence against yet another target. The principal sends her out and sets her loose.This time it's a teacher. There've been a lot of teachers. Last time it was me. I was one of the counselors.

I know this person. I know of her alignment with the principal. She loves the power that alignment brings to her. "When are we going to have that talk with Kim?" she once asked in a sticky sweet voice.

He'd just cursed at me. "Jesus Christ! Why the f%*k can't you stay out of things?!" he'd screamed in front of his leadership team-two assistant principals, a counselor and a reading coach.

The person must have been gleeful inside. "Got her now....." she must have thought. Chose that moment to ask the "When are we going to talk with Kim?" question.

There's a movie about a girl who wishes for the perfect family. Her mom's too busy. Her dad's too tired. In her dreams she enters the perfect house and there stands the perfect mother. "Darling!" Perfect Mom cries. "Would you like chocolate cake? I just baked it." She smiles.

Look closely though. Those seemingly perfect teeth are decaying. That perfect mother is really a spider. Menace lurks in that perfect house. It is an evil place.

I worked with a spider woman. The spider woman and I worked for a snake principal. The spider and the snake are good friends. Their school appears to be a perfect place.

The spider looks perfect also. Well dressed. Busy, busy, busy. She's busy creating documentation. Some of it is to earn unearned awards. To earn these prestigious awards, one must assure the things the documents say are being done, are being done.

At my former school many documented things were not done at all. They were just documented.

For example, when I first began my tenure there, I was told to help with documentation for a coveted prize the school wins each year. The criteria is rigorous. It's tough to earn this award.

I agreed to help. I agreed to do things that would meet the rigorous requirements. I offered to facilitate a weekly family group as an alternative to students' outdoor suspension. That group would have met more than one of the criteria.

The spider looked at me. She was amazed. "We're not going to actually do all these things, we're just "documenting "them.

Wink.

I did not participate.

Some of the documentation is to rid the perfect place of people who the principal has decided do not fit his notions of perfection. The district has mechanisms in place to "assist" teachers who may need "modeling " classroom management and the like. Voila! The principal has his evil tools at hand. He has lots of practice using these tools.

The spider woman assists in this process. She "models"and reports back to the snake principal and together they document, document, document. Sometimes they just threaten to document. Sssssssometimes that's enough. Weave a thicker web.

" Oh no," cry other flies. These flies watch.

Some watch in horror as their spider woman wraps the latest victim fly in her spider silk of lies. Tight, Tight. Tasty morsel.

Some watch in delight. Stupid fly! She deserved it! She should have known better than to tangle with the snake and the spider. She should have stayed away from the light of truth and honor. She should have sold out like the rest of us.

She made us look bad.....she made us contemplate--just for a second--our own vulnerability to the spider's web. Stupid, stupid fly ! WE HATE HER!

Some flies just want to be left alone. They're tired.

No one fly says or does anything. It's not safe. The morsel will be devoured and the snake will send the spider out for more morsels.

The spider woman and the snake principal together are paid a lot of money so those better be perfect documents! They better look good! It doesn't matter that they're fabrications; that they're lies; that they are meant to destroy yet another career and life. They look good!

They'll look real official and formal sitting atop a mucky-muck's desk. The mucky will then "take action"; not, sadly against the known lying and cheating snake/spider team, but against the valiant individual who said simply "no."

"No. I will not participate."

"No. I will not lie."

"No. I will not go. This is my school too."

"No."

God bless you courageous woman taking a stand. I stand with you.

According to my friend, I've got a Quaker leading.

Kim