The headline hit me like a punch in the stomach: a Domestic Violence Victim fired from teaching. Nothing like being victimized twice. This article is an eye opener and sadly, so are some of the comments. I think the one that really took my breath away was the one that said she could collect unemployment and take the time to consider where her bad life choices put her. Oh, yes, she went there.
This teacher with 14 years experience did nothing wrong. Her ex-husband violated a TRO and came to the school looking for her. And rather than support her, protect her, or aid her, the school fired her. The reasoning is that they couldn't risk other students if he returned. Oh, the ex-husband is now in jail over the event, however the school says he will get out in a few months so the teacher must be fired.
We now have an ex-husband in jail, an unemployed mother, and their four children with no breadwinner. But hey, the problem is now out of sight, out of mind, right? So everything is just hunky dory. I mean, it's no longer the school's problem, it's not society's problem, it's only a problem for the now-unemployed victim and her four children.
And people so often ask, why do you stay with an abuser? Why don't you just leave?
Because sometimes when you leave, they really do come after you just like they threatened to. Because sometimes when you leave, people blame you for "letting" yourself be abused. Because someone, somewhere, just knows they are a better person than you and it could never happen to them so they can afford to be smug and lacking in all human empathy.
It happens. It happens if you are rich or poor, smart or uneducated, a good person or something less than perfect, and no matter what color your skin is or what your faith is.
What's worse, as long as society continues to react like this to the victims, it's just going to keep happening.