Potential project with peer I'm not comforable with.

[OatsAndHall]

I'm a math teacher and have been asked by my administrator, parents and students to help out with the Science Olympiad team this year (assuming COVID doesn't shut it down). The math teacher that was involved with it is stepping away and she had a baby last spring and doesn't have the time. I have been hesitant to give anyone a "yay" or "nay" on it as I'm not comfortable with the science teacher I'd be working with for the following reasons:

1. I simply don't like the guy. He was one of my assistant coaches within the football program and I struggled to work with him. He's exceptionally arrogant, single-minded and just one of those folks that "doesn't play well with others. He and I butted head repeatedly throughout last football season as he overstepped his bounds, didn't do his job and wasn't an effective coach. This is something that I have worked through in the past with other co-workers as I can smile,  nod and do my job. I believe it's something that I can handle with him as I survived a football season with him but there's other issues that I will list.

2. He has more of a "report" with female students than male (I'll discuss that later). Last year, he only had one male student on the team and the rest were female. This really isn't something that I can change as most male students don't like him (again, I'll expand upon this) and I don't know if that is something that I can change. I have a good reputation with students of either sex but I don't know if that's enough for the male students to get over their aversion to the science teacher. This puts me in a bind as a) I don't put myself in situations where I work alone with female students and b) there's an overnight trip involved and chaperoning that many female students puts me on edge.

3. His relationship with female students is borderline unprofessional. I've never experienced him actually crossing any line with a female student but he has a bad reputation. There are many students and faculty, male and female, that aren't comfortable with him as he gravitates towards female students. He has been described as "creepy" by students and faculty members and I would tend to agree. A minor example; we coached track together and he spent a lot of time after practice making Tik-Tok videos with teenage girls... He's well-aware of people's perception of him and he simply doesn't care. I'm not terribly comfortable with the thought of working with him and a large group female students. And, I'm assuredly not comfortable traveling with him and those female students.

But, this whole thing is a no-win for me. I won't come out and tell the administration why I don't want to work with the guy as that borders on making a serious accusation. I'm bothered by what I perceive as a lack of professionalism but making those claims is dangerous territory. But, my bosses, the parents and the student are exceptionally pushy about me helping as I've done it in past schools and it's something that math teachers are typically involved in.

Thoughts?

Edited August 11, 2020 by OatsAndHall

[CautiouslyOptimistic]

Can you get a female teacher on board to have three of you in charge of it?  At the very least, there needs to be a female chaperone.....

Gonna private message you about the "creepy teacher" vibe.

[introverted1]

What will be the hit to your career if you turn this down?

If you can decline without damaging your standing, that's what you should do, imo.

[ShyViolet]

You shouldn't say anything to your administration about the "creepiness" with female students, unless you have concrete evidence of anything.  Which it sounds like you don't. If you want to say no to this project, stick with reason #1, that you just find him difficult to work with.

[basil67]

Are the administration aware of his reputation and the gender imbalance on the science team?    I will probably ruffle feathers when I start to talk about wanting to see equal numbers of genders in a subject , but a lack of equal representation in a subject which doesn't typically attract students of one gender should be flagging that there is a problem here.

I think you should report the issue.

 

[Dork Vader]

On 8/19/2020 at 10:31 PM, ShyViolet said:

You shouldn't say anything to your administration about the "creepiness" with female students, unless you have concrete evidence of anything.  Which it sounds like you don't. If you want to say no to this project, stick with reason #1, that you just find him difficult to work with.

Agreed. Never make accusations unless you have concrete and undeniable evidence. If she can't find a way to make this comfortable and work. Then just pass it up.