No Support Where It's Supposed to Be

What can you possibly do to make admistrators and parents see that you're a good teacher when:

• you give ridiculously small amounts of homework and complaints are made that it is too much?
• administrators won't take care of serious discipline problems when you finally have to send a student to the office after all classroom interventions fail?
• administrators allow students to abuse you, the teacher, but if a student offends them in the slightest way, the students is immediately suspended?
• the teacher next door gives As for bags of candy brought in, despite all staff being told that it must not be done, and is subsequently named teacher of the year while you are reprimanded for doing your job to the letter while trying to be lenient with students who simply will not do a bit of their assignments?

You start to realize that after nearly 15 years of teaching, it's time to quit. It's nearly 3:30 am on a Wednesday, so I will try to sleep now that I have this set up. I'll be adding more, I just need to get some rest that lately has been evading me every night until the wee hours of the morning. This is not an atypical time for me to finally get to sleep as of late.

I hope that I wake up early enough to put the gel eye pack on and hopefully remove some of the swelling in my eyes, because I've been trying to release my stress in the only way I'm allowed, and it always shows the next day. I guess I should be relieved that nobody ever notices the next day how swollen my eyes are. I don't think they'd really want an honest answer about it, because it tends to make people a little uncomfortable if you honestly tell them you're thinking about suicide again.