Dear friends and colleagues,
As the year draws to a close I felt it timely to say good bye. For those who may not have noticed, I have been away on leave since mid August and will not be returning as a staff member.
Despite what some of you may have been told I was not at any time on sick leave. I am not going to bore you with the details of my departure except to say that I was saddened to end my employment in this way.
Over the past three months I have had my life turned upside down; my character and integrity called into question and in the end lost my job. A judgment call was made on how I live my personal life, the decisions I needed to make to support my children and the values I uphold. Somehow my value as an employee was overshadowed by my private life.
I’m not sure about anyone else but I found this confronting and offensive.
Many times I have heard it said that hard things happen in your life and they make you stronger, build character and resiliency; so if they are correct, then I must not be a very fast learner. I have in my life had enough trauma, distress and heartache to last several life times and so when I found myself facing yet another challenge I was a little dumbfounded.
Despite feeling coerced and manipulated, I chose to defend myself against the school’s interpretation of the guidelines. The final resolution of this situation has left me with a sense of justice. The process however, has been costly on many fronts, but none so much as my own children, my fiancé and the children I had the privilege to work with. I am grieved that the decisions made affected my students so much. I miss them. I miss the many staff members who made my days enjoyable. There are in fact many things I miss about working but little of it stems from the institution itself.
Finally I would like to thank you all for your friendship, the many laughs and many challenges given to me while I was a part of the team. I wish you all a very safe holiday time.
Merry Christmas and Goodbye
Audra
