Principal refuses to call ambulance to help injured teacher — ends up regretting it

A school is supposed to be a temple of education where teachers are candlelighters who should be revered for enlightening pupils with knowledge. But there’s one school where, of all people, the school principal herself denied medical attention to a teacher who was on the brink of getting knocked out into unconsciousness. Her conduct ratcheted up angst in other teachers, one of whom wrote a letter to Alison Green, the editor at AskAManager.org. Green shared the letter in a February 2018 post, which has since gone viral. The writer of the letter described herself as a “certified teacher.” Her principal, she wrote, was so concerned about external appearances that she did this “cartoon-villain-level act.” Her boss was nominated as the “Worst Boss of 2018.”

The teacher wrote the letter a few months after this harrowing incident unfolded in her elementary school. On the first day of school that year, one of her fellow teachers was walking inside the premises when she tripped and fell backward, toppling down the concrete steps leading to the school’s entrance. She split the back of her head open. While the school nurse was assessing the situation, the principal jumped onto the scene, demanded that the injured teacher be helped to her feet, and ordered her to walk into the school "so the parents and students wouldn’t see her as they began to arrive for school."

The principal told the staff they were “forbidden to call an ambulance because she did not want to create a scene and scare the kids or worry the parents.” For almost half an hour, the injured teacher lay inside the principal’s office with a wad of paper towels on her head, even though the hospital was located only 10 to 15 minutes away from school. Only when most of the buses had arrived to drop off the students did the principal “allow” the nurse to call someone to take her to the hospital. But even this “someone” had to be a family member, not an EMS (Emergency Medical Services). After a series of calls, the nurse was finally able to get in touch with the teacher’s sister-in-law, who arrived immediately to pick her up and rush her to the hospital.

The incident left a shred of dread in the staff’s mind as the injured teacher had a concussion and got eight stitches in her head, while the principal was only concerned about not making a “scene” in front of the parents. “Her actions were horrible. She denied a staff member needed medical care because she was concerned about appearances,” the teacher described. Hundreds of people who read this letter flocked to the comment section to express fury over the apathetic headmistress. “If I had a child in that school, I’d wonder if the principal would be willing to call an ambulance for an injured child! What she did was unconscionable,” wrote Pomona Sprout. 

Many pointed out that keeping the teacher's injury hidden from students and parents did not make any sense. "Some parents might be doctors, nurses, or EMTs who could help. Kids are not going to be scarred for life because they know that a teacher feels unwell and needs to go to the hospital," commented Strawmeatloaf. "I’m right there with you – I’m just horrified that an adult would act this way, all the while knowing that they would eventually call 911. What possible earth-shattering disregard would you earn from parents for calling an ambulance to the school while people were around?" said Sometimes Yes Sometimes No.

Two years after this incident, in December 2020, the letter writer posted an update on the same portal. She revealed that the teacher who was injured was later transferred to a different school in the same district. Meanwhile, the experience of this distressing incident helped her handle her dilemma when the principal tried to block her resignation on time. “I’m glad I didn’t let her bully me into staying longer than I needed to. […] The only thing that worried me was if I ever needed to use that principal as a reference because she’s definitely the type to hold a grudge. But that resolved itself a couple of months later as well because she retired at the end of the school year,” the teacher wrote.