The (now former) head librarian (Natalie Lum aka Miss Lum) was very difficult to deal with! We did start out with good relations, but things got worse, then got better, than got worse.
Not to say I'm a perfect person. In a life where you have to make split-second decisions in real time, you obviously will make imperfect decisions that you learn from.
But there's a reason why I left during what is possibly the worst economic time in my lifetime. The reason is that me and the (now former) head librarian were totally incompatible as partners. Yeah, I could've waited a few years until the (now former) head librarian retired. But that's too much time wasted with all this drama.
The (now former) head librarian is "Never Wrong" and gets offended when anyone questions her majesty! The administration was informed about her rudeness and her negative attitude towards Micronesians. They gave her a warning, and the whole staff had to go through sensitivity training! While her racist comments stopped, her general rudeness continued! I left and I exposed her on social media. She retaliated with a restraining order which has since been withdrawn!
So here are the documentations!
First, the documentations related to Lum's negative remarks about Micronesians.
This I wrote and placed in Lum's mailbox on February 2019 concerning her negative remarks about Micronesians.
These comments continued occasionally, so I documented them. I sent the following document to the school's principal. I also noted that long-term substitute teacher Ms Susan Galariada was also involved in making similar repulsive comments.
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The vice-principal was dispatched to handle the situation. The following are the summary of conferences I had with the vice-principal on Lum's prejudice as well as her rudeness in general.
The first conference was on 9/11/2019
While waiting for the VP to finally meet with Lum on this issue, I started a Google Doc detailing any additional incidence of Lum's pattern of rude behavior.
After excessive delays, the VP finally met with Lum on my grievances on 9/23/2019. Here's the summary of conference.
The VP met with me later that day. Here's the summary of conference.
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There have been some improvements in Miss Lum's style communication, but our day to day relations is still mostly awkward silence. I was still looking for an exit strategy, while still putting a somewhat united front in front of students & staff.
Then on March 2020, the coronavirus crisis shut down the schools. This lasted for the rest of the school year. I had almost zero communication with Miss Lum for much of the time.
One of the student helpers asked me what to do with the books he borrowed right before the lockdown. I stated that we are not demanding returns right away (because some parents are nervous about allowing their children outside for any reason during that time), but he could return it to the office on packet pickup days.. I also cc’ed that email to Natalie Lum and Vice-Principal Randiann Porras-Tang in case there was anything they want to add.
In an email (dated 5/17/2020) to me and Porras-Tang, Natalie Lum expressed anger about my saying “we won’t be demanding returns until we return to school.” She also mentioned that she has been contacting teachers about overdue books (note: this was the first time I heard about that). I mentioned my concerns about not being informed about any of this. Miss Lum responded with one of the most tone-deaf responses ever, with an email that started with "nothing was hidden from you".
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I wrote a blog post on May 20, 2020. Unfortunately, it was deleted from my blog after the TRO case was settled on 07/01/2020. But after much reflection, I'll put the contents here. Restrain this!
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I resigned from the school with my last day being 5/31/2020. Here are the documents related to my resignation.
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A few days later (6/3/2020), I was working on what I intended to be my 2nd (and hopefully the last) blog post on Miss Lum. While working on it, HPD came to my apartment to notify that Miss Lum filed a TRO petition against me. So I stopped working on my blog post. But now I'll just post my contents here. Restrain this!
Here's my response to the TRO
As for Lum's statement about my alleged "poor work performance", she actually signed a document stating that I met performance appraisal expectations
Since she signed that form noting that I met performance appraisal expectations, any talk of "poor work performance" is just sour grapes that she got exposed as a bigot and poison to any work environment.
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[in the court appearance on 07/01/2020, Miss Lum’s attorney told my attorney she was willing to drop the TRO if I took my posts down. I told my attorney I’ll do it if she apologize for her racist comments and rudeness. He said “I don’t think she’ll do that”. I then said “Can she at least admit those statement?”. He said Lum’s attorney admitted those statements but Lum felt I took it out of context.
At that time, I was in the middle of a time-sensitive temp job involving the inspection of ballots being printed for the Primary Election. I didn’t want to take any more time off work over this case, so I took down that post. One of my biggest regrets. . But I’ll post all this on my website! This is now public information!
The fact that she was willing to withdraw her TRO against me is proof that she felt zero danger from me, she just didn’t want anyone to publicly disagree with her majesty! If she felt real danger, she wouldn’t have withdrawn her TRO petition!
This website is not a threat to her, it’s just an expression of disagreement with her majesty.
RESTRAIN THAT!
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PS: If Miss Lum wants an external entity to solve this dispute, she should contact a private mediation service (which I'm willing to meet with) to handle this situation instead of wasting the court's time & resources. The courts should be for real victims of abuse, not so-called "victims" of disagreement.