Scott Hogan is a Math and Physics teacher in a public high school.
As Real as It Gets
It was the start of a new school year. I sat next to the new chemistry teacher, Dr. Sayid. He was in his early 60’s, with gray hair, about 5 and a half ft. tall. I had been at the school for 4 years and this was the 4th chemistry teacher in that time—a new one each year.
The first one was enormously overweight and died in the middle of the year. His name was Mr. Vickers. He was in a wheelchair most of the time. The 2nd one was named Mr. Bond. He had long hair and a braided ponytail and lived by himself. He was from South Carolina and had a southern accent. He was an odd bird, showing off pictures of his pet monkey to students. The third one was Mr. Flowmax, an African American man in his late 30’s. He had worked in boarding schools and considered himself a superior human being. His method of communication was sarcasm, as he acted above everyone else. He sat in his room at lunch and played chess by himself. He once asked me if I had any heroes, and I did not know what he meant. “Didn’t you watch Hogan’s Heroes on TV?” he asked me. Then he gave me a sarcastic laugh and said “that was before my time.” I never spoke more than 2 sentences to him the entire year. Students hated him.
Dr. Sayid was different. He was from Egypt, soft-spoken, with a distinct hard-to-understand accent. He had worked for the Department of Water Quality in Arizona and also worked in an inner city high school teaching chemistry for several years. He had a doctorate in environmental studies from University of Arizona. Kind and deeply knowledgeable about chemistry, he was a bit of a loner, eating lunch by himself in his room each day.
The first 2 weeks of school I visited his classroom each day, in the morning and after school. He was teaching juniors and seniors in AP and Honors Chemistry classes. He had a list of math problems I borrowed for bell work. My favorite was this one—“If 20 mits equal 1 erb, 1 satz equals 2 levs, and 10 erbs equal 1 satz, how many mits are equivalent to 5 levs?” He complained each day that his lab lacked the proper equipment; it had only 8 glass beakers, some old triple beam balances and a handful of sensors. In his quiet way, he was discouraged about the paltry chemistry supplies. I noticed he was using handouts from modeling chemistry, a fancy pedagogy, and I told him it might be too hard for the students, but he didn’t listen.
The teacher who ran the STEM Club last year had left and I volunteered to run this year’s STEM Club along with Dr. Sayid. We had a banner made and posted it in my classroom. Announcements were made over the intercom for our Tuesday lunch time meetings. We got 5 students to attend. We met for three Tuesdays. He told the students “there is a difference between struggling and not trying!” as we tried to motivate them to design experiments. We discussed events students would like to do at our district STEM CON festival in February.
The next day, Wednesday, the 3rd week of school, I was sitting next to Dr. Sayid in our PLC meeting. He looked worried and agitated but said nothing. He was called to the principal’s office and walked out of the room.
That was the last I saw of him. By the middle of the day, he had quit. I learned this when a few new students were transferred into my 4th period class. His classes had been disbanded and all his students were sent to other teacher’s classrooms. No longer would there by AP Chemistry or Honors Chemistry.
No one knew what happened. His name is still posted on the door, but the room itself is locked and he will not be replaced. I went in to see the principal on Friday of that same week to inquire about what happened to Dr. Sayid and she told me “For privacy reasons I can’t talk about it, but Dr. Sayid is no longer here.” Administration never said a word to any of us about what had happened.
A few days later at lunch, I asked Mitch, an anatomy teacher, if he knew anything about Mohamed’s leaving the school. He had heard rumors that Dr. Mohamed did not feel respected or supported at the school. He had heard that Dr. Sayid had gotten into an argument with one of his students who was making fun of his last name and calling him a “crazy Muslim” and a “terrorist.” Students had apparently made fun of his accent with his soft-spoken, hard to understand manner of speech. They had complained to their parents and parents called for a meeting with the principal. The final straw was a parent that had yelled at Dr. Sayid in a meeting with the principal “You can’t teach and my daughter can’t understand you”. That meeting was on Wednesday, his last day, the very day he left the PLC.
Either way, Dr. Sayid is gone. The students had won. Once they started complaining and making fun of him, once the disrespect took its course, it only took the first 3 weeks of school to get to him and he was gone. How quickly we can be flushed down the toilet as teachers—and no one standing up for us. Despite all his qualifications, the kids had gotten to him with their disrespect. There were a few ways he could fight back—join the teacher’s union or hire a lawyer–but Dr. Mohammed did not fight back at all—he just quit and walked away.
I found his home address on the web at “people finder” and sent him a card with a note, telling him we were concerned about him and what happened and gave him an email address to get in touch.
It is a week later now and I have not heard anything from him. As of now, no one is talking about him and it’s as if he was never here.
As a follow up to this story, today the tech came into my room looking for Dr. Mohamed and wanted to get his laptop. I told him I had not seen him since last Wednesday. The tech had been told by the principal’s secretary that Dr. Sayid had given his 2 week notice and was around campus. This was completely false information. My sense is that is what administration was telling parents or anyone who asked, to protect themselves.
By chance I went into the chemistry room yesterday and found this note on the desk dated August 29, 2018:
Fulton High Chemistry Parents:
Due to unforeseen circumstances Dr. Mohammed will no longer be teaching at Fulton High School. Today, August 29, we met with all students and moved them to other chemistry classes or other upper level science classes of their choosing.
We are sorry for any inconvenience, please call us if you have any questions.
Administration
Scott Hogan 9/7/18