Say what?!

It's crazy story time! It's been a while so it's about time.There is a school my friend teaches at about an hour into the desert on the way to Dubai. One day a young student (Kindergarten I think) was complaining about "a bug" in the classroom. The Emirati teacher went over to see it. It turns out that this "bug" was a poisonous scorpion whose venom can kill you within 10 minutes! Right. So they evacuated the school and our employer came to assess the situation. They "didn't see anything" but the principal insisted they sign a paper saying they were responsible for the children's lives before she would let them back in. Of course, all of a sudden, school was cancelled. They brought in a team of fumigators(? Maybe? How you even kill scorpions?) and they said that the scorpions had laid eggs all over the school so now the school is infested with them. So, they cancelled school for the kids. But wait, here's the best part- they are still making the teachers attend work!!!!!!! We definitely don't get paid enough for that.

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Discipline at my school can sometimes leave something to be desired. Okay, it pretty much always leaves everything to be desired. The administration has often told us that they are too busy to come help discipline students, meanwhile they are BUSY sitting on their duffs and drinking tea. We are used to this by now, since it's fairly typical. Today was a new low, though, when my colleague-who is an excellent teacher and disciplinarian, I might add-went to the Principal to talk about a problem with a student. The Principal's reply to the teacher: "Your hair looks very beautiful today!" This is coming from the same woman that wears 8 inch heels to work everyday and sits at her desk watching a camera and screaming over the intercom while teachers try to teach.

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