It did not matter one bit that I had my card. My contract specifically states, as all teacher contracts do, that you will not use any illicit substance. Marijuana needs to be taken off the LIST of illicit substances. Not legalized or decriminalized or whatever. The main list that the federal government keeps is the one that all the districts use. If it's on that list, and I signed a form already promising NOT to do anything listed, then it is my own fault.
That is how they viewed it. I knew from the onset that even with my medical card, my job was at stake. I didn't consider it a big deal because how would anybody even know? Well, I learned about how anybody could know the hard way. Unfortunately, marijuana is not the only illicit substance I enjoy. I did not have a leg to stand on. The more they found out about me the worse off I would be. I was better to walk away when I did.
I did know that if I got caught I would be in some serious trouble. I could have just not gone to this or that rave (where students saw me) or this or that concert (where students saw me) or this or that dispensary (where students saw me).
Instead, I worked hard during the week, and enjoyed the weekends whenever possible.
I never went to work high on anything though. And I think that what we as adults do on our off hours should not be able to be used against us under any circumstances. I was not getting paid 24 hours a day seven days a week but as teachers YOU ARE ON THE CLOCK 24/7.
As a teacher in a public high school California, your district owns you. All of you. What you wear, what you drive, who you can be friends with, who you can talk to, what you can say, all of that, all the motherfucking time.
And teaching is all about testing. Creativity isn't tested so creativity is not fostered in today's schools. It's all about test scores and you spend all year giving assessments to ready them for spring testing. If your students test scores go down, you go out.
Our governor suggested that our wages should be based utterly on the test performance of the students.
Most kids if you really talk to them will tell you that they guess on the tests. The tests are very long. Our kids spent two weeks testing every spring. The kids get sick of testing and just start filling in the bubbles. And that is the good kids doing this. The regular kids just fill the whole damn answer sheet up randomly penciling in to make the outline of a christmas tree or some other fanciful silhouette.
Students did like me. I had good classes. I was and hopefully will be again, a good teacher. I know my stuff and I know how to make it half way entertaining. My principal did not want my district to get rid of me. She had observed me many times, and was pleased with my progress, the progress of my students, everything. She went to bat for me as hard as she could.
Some kids, more than I would have thought, shared the gossip they heard at school with their parents. Some of those parents called the district stating they did not want their child in my classroom anymore because I was a suspected druggie.
What if I sold it at school?
What if I was a bad influence on kids?
I had one Christian girl check HERSELF out of my class after she heard rumors that I was a drug freak. She made sure when she went in the office to change her classes to tell everybody WHY she was changing.
When so many mouths are moving at once, facts get lost amongst the various adjectives and adverbs.
I mean, fact is, I was using drugs. Some perscription, some not.
Never ever at school. I would not even have it in my car, parked on school grounds.
None of that matters now, except to serve as a warning to others.
