This didn’t start out as revenge and I never imagined it would amount to even a slap on the wrist. It was all about our son’s middle school, some really bad, lazy, teachers, who played favorites and the even lazier principal who protected them by lying and blaming our son (a 12-year-old!).

One teacher refused to give boys the grades they deserved and instead focused on the girls alone. Another was so old she was demented and kept losing our son’s work, resulting in low marks. In Mass., teachers must meet with parents at their request, by law, but these two creeps refused. Finally, someone got them to meet with us only if the principal or assistant principal was there.

The one who only liked girls refused outright, so we filed a complaint. No matter what they did, the principal kept backing them up and blaming us or our son unfairly. Finally, after they canceled a few meetings or just didn’t show up, my husband resorted to storming into the principal’s office, even interrupting his meetings. He’s not a violent guy but very tall and strong-looking. When angry, his face is quite scary, so I’m guessing that’s why they listened to him and not me.

But it still didn’t result in improvement for our son. They struck back by “losing” all his doctor’s notes for absences (he had a chronic bronchial condition). The doctor was asked to re-submit the notes so many times (by us) that finally, they said they would no longer do it—that it was pointless (they were right) and suggested that we send copies by registered, return receipt mail. We did.

Then, the jerks put our son on the truant list and we had to go before the District Attorney! When we presented our evidence, he was so disgusted that he chewed out the assistant principal (the principal didn’t even show), threw him out and threatened to fine him. He took our son’s name off the list.

I filed a formal complaint against the principal with the state Department of Education. They called and asked a few questions, then said they would investigate. I also got the same notice in writing.

We were getting desperate and luckily, a new charter school was about to open. The admittance was by lottery and after attending an info session, we signed our son up. He got in and off he went, to a much better school! He also managed to get several of his friends to ditch the horrible city school and go to the charter school as well. Someone actually called us from the Superintendent’s to complain and I told them to stuff it…that they brought this on themselves.

A couple years went by and I got one notice from the DOE that their investigation was almost complete. I figured it would amount to nothing. But one day I picked up the paper and on the front page was an article about angry teachers protesting the firing of the principal! He was canned a few months shy of retirement, without a pension! You can’t imagine the joy I felt! I’m not prone to Schadenfreude, but this was like a religious experience!

I laughed with amazement as I showed the article to my husband and son. We couldn’t believe how many teachers claimed that this guy was a “great guy” and “so dedicated”..bla-bla-blah! Dedicated to covering their asses, is the actual story.

The town buzzed for months with news of this, both for and mostly against him. I’ve never met anyone who deserved firing more than this guy. He never gave a damn about the pain he caused our son, so why care about him?

It took over two years, but yes, revenge was so sweet!