‘Not worth my safety’: Teachers share ‘last straws’ that made them quit

Troubled students, safety and unruly parents are just some of the common reasons teachers are giving for leaving the profession.

More than two dozen teachers answered the question on Reddit, “What was the ‘last straw’ that made you quit your job?” and some of the answers are harrowing.

“A student kicked me in the stomach while pregnant,” one woman wrote. “I finished off the year, although it was torture. After my daughter was born, I went back to school part-time to get my doctorate so I could teach at the university. Best decision I ever made. That kick changed my life.”

“I still teach, but at my first school – where I thought I’d be for life – I got a new student,” another teacher wrote. “He was troubled and heard voices, but was very nice to me.

“And then one day, he stabbed me in the shoulder with a pen. There was a ‘manifestation meeting,’ and basically, they decided it was OK for him to do that. My district wanted me to sign that I wouldn’t press charges and wanted me to attend 40 hours of training on how to handle someone who is trying to murder you, basically.

“The kid was back in my class and tried to do it again. It was the end of the school year, so I used up my sick days, and I interviewed elsewhere. I did not press charges, though I now know I should have.”

Sometimes the violence was between students, but administrators failed to act.

“Two things happened at once,” another teacher wrote. “After four years of teaching seventh grade, a girl who complained to me for an entire semester about being harassed brought a pocket knife to school and threatened a boy with it if he grabbed her breast again. SHE was expelled.

“I reported the incidents to administrators, school resource officers and guidance counselors. They ignored her, me and her other two teachers until she became that desperate for him to stop.”

Others described being stalked by troubled students – one of whom eventually shot the teacher’s dog with a paintball gun and slashed their inflatable lawn ornaments – and violent classroom incidents.

“I stood between him and the door for 10 minutes, protecting the other kids, taking punches until help arrived. He ended up assaulting two or three other teachers that day, too.

“While this was terrifying and I probably have some sort of PTSD from it, a lot of the reason I’m leaving teaching is the **** admin support I received before and after the event. They cared for half an hour, but nothing was done before, and I wasn’t updated after.”

Many teachers blamed administrators for ignoring violence, pressuring them to change grades or failing to provide support.

“The school got rid of detentions, the kids were out of control, and I was asked to change grades so that no kids failed (even the ones who never did their work and didn’t attempt any questions in exams),” one former teacher wrote.

Another described a pattern of violence she said went unaddressed:

“There were several events that led to my decision. In the first year, a 14-year-old student grabbed my chest. Administration said it was my fault. Another student threw a book at me and hit me in the head. I sent her to the office … she was sent right back to my class. In my third year of teaching, I had a student who cussed me out for looking in his direction. Admin didn’t see it as a problem.

“The same student decided it would be a good idea to chase me around the classroom with a pair of scissors, trying to stab me. Called SRO (school resource officer). He was back in my class the next day. Still in my third year … husband and I were trying to get pregnant. Walked out of the school band concert and heard gunshots in the neighborhood. Events like this were just the tip of the iceberg. I came to the conclusion that no job was worth my safety.”

One first-year teacher said she was given a class “the class veteran teachers couldn’t manage” and was “yelled at weekly for my inability to manage them.”

“The class had to be evacuated weekly because one student was destroying the room. That same student punched, kicked and slammed my back and head into the door on purpose. The kid also tried to stab me with scissors and tried to jab me in the eye with a sharp pencil. This is first grade. Admins always blamed me for his behavior, even though I was following his IEP and behavior plan exactly as it was written. I quit in March.”

Another described being stalked by a parent:

“I got stalked by a parent because I was the only teacher holding her ADHD kid accountable for his grades, and she wanted me to let him slide. My assistant principal had to sneak me out the back of the school to avoid them, but after that, the principal was ****** I wouldn’t talk to that parent to ‘work it out.’

“This happened two days after the school psychologist said the mom was ‘unhinged,’ and that I was being ‘targeted for some reason’ that the psych couldn’t figure out. I told them the next morning I would not be renewing my contract.”

Others cited testing mandates, curriculum changes and mounting bureaucratic demands.

“I left when the state mandated a new teacher evaluation protocol,” one teacher wrote. “We had to document our proficiency in four standards, 17 indicators, and 29 elements with photographs, examples of student work, handouts from meetings, logs of parent interactions, copies of emails, etc.

“No one ever expects a doctor to have to ‘prove’ he relates well with his patients by photographing an office visit. But I had to photograph students working in the lab or doing group work to ‘prove’ I taught using a variety of techniques.

“I had to log or photograph my visits to my special education students’ study hall to ‘prove’ I supported their learning. It was endless. … If you can’t trust me to be a professional after 15 years of teaching AP classes, then guess what? I’m gone.”

Some accounts described extreme emotional strain.

“It was either leave teaching or commit suicide. A very supportive family and a well-paid partner meant that I could stop,” one teacher wrote.

Others pointed to hiring practices and restrictions on teaching content.

“I gave up when the 27 schools I interviewed at told me I had to teach a sport to be a history teacher and that I was not allowed to reference any material outside the approved curriculum. That’s not history education. That’s commercial ignorance.”

One teacher said a colleague quit after being told to change a student’s grade due to the family’s influence.

“Sure enough, the grade got changed, and my buddy packed up his **** and left,” the post read.

Low pay also played a role, with one teacher saying they “made more money waiting tables” one summer and never returned to the classroom. Another transitioned to teaching in an Army school, which brought higher pay and less stress.

For some, workplace culture was the breaking point. After an instructional aide named Amy got on a teacher’s bad side, the teacher, “Sandra,” made a list of things she didn’t like about Amy and shared it with other staff, who began calling her by two mocking nicknames.

“Then ‘Sandra’ starts calling me those names, then some of the students start doing it because they see a teacher doing it,” Amy wrote. “My depression got worse. I went from insomnia due to stress to insomnia due to stress and humiliation.”

A final post described burnout from long hours and lack of support:

“I am in my sixth year, and I work 10-12 hours a day and at least one day on the weekend,” the teacher wrote. “The majority of this is grading/planning and not actually teaching. I truly enjoy the teaching aspect and building relationships with my students. I promised myself that if I was still working that many hours this far into it that I would do something else. I can’t work this much – it’s affecting my health.”

The teacher added that dealing with hostile parents and advancing struggling students contributed to the decision to leave.

“That is a ******* disservice to those kids, and that is the part I can’t let go of.”

Many teachers who leave traditional classrooms go on to start microschools, teach in private schools or pursue alternative education models.