In defence of Miss Grey.

20th August 2021.

Mrs Black hates Miss Grey. Everyone in the school knows about it. It’s really dramatic in Geography when Mrs Black comes in to borrow something, like she did today.

Mrs Black walked into our class and asked to borrow the stack of whiteboards. Miss Grey said no, she needed them. Mrs Black said they were for ‘for the department’. Miss Grey said she needed them for us in 10 minutes. Mrs Black can’t have heard her because she started to pick them up and take them away, saying they were for the senior classes and that trumped the younger years. Miss Grey said she would speak to the Head Teacher, but Mrs Black was long gone. Last week it was coloured pencils and textbooks. Soon Miss Grey will have nothing left.

It’s been going on a while. Mrs Black parks over two spaces to make sure Miss Grey can’t get her car in the department spaces. They never sit together in the staffroom, not that we can see through the windows. At the charity bake sale, Miss Grey helped out the English department rather than Social Subjects which was weird. Come to think of it the Social Subjects lot don’t really speak to Miss Grey.

I don’t really understand. How could you be mean to Miss Grey? She’s really nice to us in class. She’s a good teacher- I never really liked Geography before but now it all makes sense. Miss Grey is really good at explaining things and encouraging me to write more. I got a D in Mrs Black’s class last year. Mum was really disappointed. I hope I can do better this year.

I’m going to keep my eye on it. Miss Grey is still pretty new, she probably needs someone to look out for her.

1st September 2021.

Miss Grey held me back at lunchtime to finish an assignment, she said there were things needing tidied up. I was really annoyed! Stacey said she was going to go up to the shop to get a pot noodle and I knew she’d forget to get me one. Mrs Black came in while I was there. She was whispering to Miss Grey about some meeting she had missed and that she should check her emails more. Miss Grey stuttered but couldn’t really get a word in, Mrs Black kept talking over her about how she needs to show more commitment and how unprofessional she is. Mrs Black slammed the door when she left.

I talked to Kevin about it after school. He said he saw Miss Grey running out the Department office on her phone, mumbling about her sandwich going missing. It all seems to be kicking off. I figured the Social Subjects teachers would be chill seeing as they spent so much time talking about people and stuff. Looks like they aren’t so social.

2nd September 2021

I’m glad Miss Grey held me in yesterday. I got an A on my assignment. She really helps me and it’s the best mark I’ve ever got. Mum is going to be really pleased.

6th September 2021.

Miss Grey was crying at lunch. Kevin saw her and came to get Stacy and me. He said that the History and Politics teachers had been taking more things from her classroom and Miss Grey asked them to stop. They had told her Mrs Black had approved it.

We hung about in the corridor trying to figure out if we should say something. She came out to see us, cause teachers have that weird sense when kids are about, and she asked if she could help. We didn’t really know what to say so Kevin offered her a Jaffa cake. She gulped, sniffed, and took one from the plastic. Her thank you sounded so sad.

We left her, sniffing in her classroom. We weren’t sure what was going on. Down the corridor in the department office there was laughing. We sneaked over, trying to look through the keyhole without being seen. Mrs Black was in there with the History and Politics teachers, laughing about something and stuffing their faces with cake. We thought we could hear them mention Miss Grey then laugh more, but we had to scarper before the janitors caught us.

10th September 2021.

Miss Grey was off again. That’s 3 times this week. Mrs Black has had to cover the class and been slagging her off openly. It’s really awkward. She said it was really irresponsible of her to leave us without work and making her do it. Some of the other kids started to egg her on, realising if they kept her talking then they wouldn’t have to do any work. She fell for it. She started telling this story about how Miss Grey got really drunk at the Christmas Party and made a fool of herself. I didn’t like hearing it, it felt like the sort of nasty gossip the popular girls spread. I tried to cover my ears with my jumper and kept labelling my maps.

13th September 2021.

Someone put up a poster of Miss Grey’s face photoshopped all over wine bottles. I took it down when I saw it and put it in the bin. There were more of them in the Social Subjects corridor. Kevin said we should tell the teachers, in case it was one of the bad kids, so we took some up to the Social Subjects Department Office. Mrs Black answered the door and took the poster from us, saying she would tell the headteacher. We waited round the corner. The laughing was even louder than last time.

20th September 2021.

We haven’t seen Miss Grey in a while. I feel like all the hard work I was doing is useless now. We just seem to be given worksheets and jotter questions, no one explains anything to us like Miss Grey did. We get the other social subjects’ teachers on rota, the History one is the worst. He picks things from under his nails with a ruler and tells us Geography is just colouring in. That can’t be true. Miss Grey taught us about weather systems and how meteorologists make predictions! That’s not colouring!

Mrs Black doesn’t seem to care. She cleaned lots of stuff off Miss Grey’s desk, even the special pencil sharpener Miss Grey had- the one in the shape of a globe. I tried to say something to her and got told to mind my own business. I could only watch as it was thrown into the bin.

25th September 2021.

Mrs Black didn’t realise her emails were being cast up onto the screen of the smart board today, the old fool. Of course, no one told her. It’s far more fun seeing what she’s up to. We saw her clicking her tongue while reading an email about workplace bullying. The teachers are supposed to be having a meeting about it tomorrow, kids are getting an extended lunch to compensate. I feel ill. I knew it.

I spoke to Kevin and Stacey at lunchtime. They are angry about it. Kevin says he saw Miss Grey at the corner shop last night, she didn’t look very well. Stacey says she knows it’s Mrs Black and her Social Subjects’ cronies- they are always making jokes about her. Who knows what their problem is! We can’t let her think she’s won. We want Miss Grey back.

26th September 2021.

We have proof now. Kevin heard her on the phone to Miss Grey when he went to the bathroom. He said Mrs Black asked her how she was and yawned then said she didn’t need to come back too soon as her job was easy enough for anyone to do. I knew it! Mrs Black is stopping us having our teacher. I hate the worksheets. I hate the cover. I want my teacher back! Mrs Black has to pay.

1st October 2021.

It’s Friday. Stacey went to the corner shop last night and picked up a can of tuna. We sneaked into the Home Economic room at break to use a can opener. Mrs Black leaves really early on Fridays, probably because she doesn’t care about school, or us, or Miss Grey. Kevin stood guard while Stacey and I put chunks of tuna down the back of her radiator. The school doesn’t seem to turn the heating off over the weekend, so this should get really nasty.

4th October 2021.

That morning was gold. Mrs Black was SCREAMING in the hallways about the smell. She found hard pink chunks at the bottom of the radiator and figured it out pretty quick. The History teacher came running with the air freshener, trying to cover the stench with ‘lily of the valley’ but it didn’t work. The other kids were gagging, refusing to go into the classroom. One boy even threw up into the bin.

I stared at Mrs Black, the evil old hag, as she flapped around bossing around the members of her little group. The Politics teacher was sent to fetch the janitor. The History Teacher was told to fetch the broom. She did nothing because she is lazy. I hate her.

She noticed me. She stared back. She marched over to me and asked what I was staring at. I asked her how Miss Grey was. She shouted at me. I stopped listening when I realised that she wasn’t going to answer. One of the other boys heard me say Miss Grey’s name. I looked at him and he put it all together.

“Hey Mrs Black, where is Miss Grey?”

“Yeah, Why do you keep taking her parking space?” Another kid chipped in.

People were making the most of the chaos and shouting to ask the questions we had been thinking about for a while. She kept screaming at us to go and sit down. The vomiting boy wretched again and heaved into the bin. There were more questions-

“Was it your poster Mrs Black?”

“Was she really drunk at the party or was it you?”

“My mum said she saw you get kicked out the pub.”

“Why do you keep slagging of Geography?”

She became flustered, lost without her minions around her. She turned around, not sure who to shout at first. She tried to mumble it wasn’t true, but I don’t think anyone was listening. She turned back to me. I scowled. Her face turned a deep red and she screamed into my face. GO. NOW.

We spent most of the afternoon in Mr. Henderson’s office. To end up sitting with the Head Teacher is really bad. He said he had to call our parents. How were we supposed to know that there was a security camera in the hallway? Stupid Mrs Black. After a while he asked us why we did it. We told him all about the bullying- the posters and the laughing. We told him everyone knew Mrs Black was really nasty to Miss Grey. He listened.

I thought we were going to get shouted at but instead he sighed. He asked us why we didn’t report it and we told him we didn’t really know how. He said what we did was wrong, and we had to say sorry. Stacey was so angry! She said she wouldn’t until we knew Miss Grey was OK. Kevin was quiet. He looked at Mr. Henderson and asked him if he had known. Mr. Henderson said it was an issue being dealt with. I was surprised, that’s Kevin though. He has a knack for reading the adults. We asked him if we could send a card, ask if Miss Grey was ok. He said that would be nice.

Mum came to the school to get me, asked me if it was true. I said Miss Grey believed in me more than Mrs Black ever did. Mum surprised me, and instead of telling me off said:~

“I’m glad you did. That Mrs. Black has always been a right old cow. She chased out the last teacher and all.”

Mum took me to McDonald’s. I even got ice cream. It didn’t really feel like I was in trouble. I asked Mum why.

“Becky, what Mrs Black does is bullying, you knew that. Her and her clique make people feel small when really, they are the ones who are bad. You weren’t happy last year, but this year? I don’t know what Miss Grey did to get on that hags’ bad books, but this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of her picking on the new teachers. She thinks she runs the place.”

Mum laughed when I told her Mrs Black’s reaction to the tuna. “Well, you’ll have knocked her off her pedestal that’s for sure. She won’t feel so safe picking on other teachers if she knows the kids are onto her. Good work… I mean. Please don’t do it again.” Mum winked at me. I promised I wouldn’t. “Now then, how about you tell me more about that weather assignment where you got an A?”