If you have been following my blog and the postings, you know that one of my resolutions for the new year is to speak up and have a voice. I am going to have a voice right now expressing some personal frustration. For the past four years now, I have been back at college at Bemidji State University. With my job, I feel like I bring some talent to our staff at our school. At least I hope I do. My philosophy at work is to always put in 100% so that way I am needed as Tim and not as a body. I don't want to be that guy that is just filling a role, but at times I feel that way. I have worked at the same place as my wife for the past 10 years. Prior, to meeting her I feel like my experiences and talents have opened all the positions that I have had. My wife was working at our current school and that gave me an "in" when a position opened up. This is the first time that I ever utilized an "in" to get a job. I don't know if I needed so to say, but it was used. For the first time in my professional life, I felt average. Over the past seven years of working at my current school, I feel like I have progressed in a manner to be above average in the role I serve. A lot of what I have taken on, I have created myself in an attempt to mold myself as irreplaceable. Lately, I feel like I have been losing this battle. A few years ago, we had a great principal by the name of Larry Ronglien. There were some staff that really shared the same views as Larry, and there were some that didn't like him at all. He was the leader that introduced the concept of a behavior level system to me. A behavior level system is currently being used in our school and this is the third year of its existence. After that, the school and Special Education Department wanted to put in place an additional step in helping students with their behavioral needs. The administration of our school wanted a behavior room to give student a place to voice their concerns, process their thoughts, and hopefully help return them to a place where they were willing to return to class. This room worked very well in its first year and it reduced the number of students being sent out of school for behavior issues by 81%.
When this behavior room was being designed, the position was posted as someone needing a teaching degree, which I don't have yet. The idea of me (being unlicensed) as the guy running the behavior room was even introduced to our past superintendent, and it was turned down. I was pretty devastated because I knew what I wanted to do with that room. So I wasn't the right guy for the job apparently. So, the position was opened up publicly for a new hire to come in and operate this behavior room. A gentleman from Illinois applied and was granted an interview. He was offered the position, but then later declined it. The school district had gone through the posting, interviewing, and offering cycle in hiring a new person only ending up in him turning it down. Now, the clock was against the school in hiring this position and with the new school year approaching fast, the choices of candidates was slim. So, my wife decided to go for the position. She has a teaching degree and is a Special Education Teacher, so she was given the position. With her hiring, I now was eliminated from even being a para in that room, because we couldn't work in the same classroom, and we shouldn't work in the same classroom.
So, the first year of the behavior room had a para named Dan. The behavior room was a success, but there was a constant battle with consistency being maintained in the behavior room with expectations and rules, and it eventually led to change. This frustrated me because there wasn't anything I could do to help because I couldn't work in that room. I hated the technicality. Don't get me wrong. I was working in the resource room, which was academically assisting students with their school work. I like that just as well as I am still working in the academic resource room today. But I feel I have a lot of leadership skills, but I feel like I can't get noticed because I either don't have the degree (yet), or my wife works in the same school. Don't get me wrong here, it has been a wonderful set of opportunities for her and she is achieving a lot of success because of those opportunities, but I feel like I am missing out and I feel my career is kind of whizzing by me because there isn't really a right spot for me. As far as the behavior room goes, it is now called the Refocus Room. Dan, the original para in the behavior room, was reassigned to a different position in the school. The para position in the newly named Refocus Room was given to a para named Mary. Mary is great at that job on a daily basis and I think she was the best hire the school has made in my seven years of involvement with the school. She is a rock star. Meanwhile, I am the guy that is relied on to take things on, develop new forms, develop new programming, or organize and set up off-campus trips, but yet I am making the same as someone in the district who just has to be a second set of eyes in a classroom. My message here is not stop relying on me for these thing because I like to contribute, be a team player, and help make our school be the best it possibly can be. But I feel like that bench player in sports waiting for my number to be called for the position I am ready for.
I guess my message in this blog posting is that I feel like I am in a shadow and I feel like I am stuck. I am not sure what to do about it. Our new high leadership in the district on paper sees that I am a para and that right there devalues my opinion in some respects. I don't want be the guy that goes through the motions of a job and then gets old some day and settles for that. I still want to do great things despite the many obstacles that I have in play right now. My goals for this year involved having more of a voice, speaking my mind and feelings more often, and making more money. I have been pretty preoccupied that last four weeks and I still have a LONG way to go on the speaking my mind and feelings part. In fact, I feel like I have regressed in a sense and that needs to change. I cannot be worried about how people will react to my feelings and what I say. I just need to do it.
In the short term, I volunteered to be on a leadership team at work. This is a first step with my voice at work. I know that some of my co-workers will label this leadership team as a "club", a "special meeting", or "a secret". This is not how I view this leadership team. I did not volunteer to be on this team for any selfish reasons. I want to help our school improve. There are improvements that need to be made and I want to voice my opinion on those ideas. Like I said, a good first step. I am not sure what I am going to do about this stuck feeling, but I'll take it one day at a time.
#thanksforlistening
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
Perfectionism
I am sure there are times when we all need to feel perfect in our lives. I know I do. The proof of society's expectation to be perfect was pointed out once again. This time it was displayed in this past weekend's NFL NFC Championship game. The game was between the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers. Now, don't get me wrong here, being a Minnesota Vikings fan, I was overjoyed to see the Green Bay Packers FINALLY get a defeat handed to them in the fashion they did. With five minutes left to go in that game, Green Bay was ahead by a score of 19-7 and I was bitter. I was dreading going to work the next day and have to hear for the next two weeks about how Green Bay was going to yet another Super Bowl and how the team was the greatest thing since the invention of sliced bread. I was also dreading having to listen to how everyone should wanna make love to Aaron Rodgers just like every play-by-play commentator wants to when they are broadcasting one of his games.
Getting back to my original point of this post, what was floating around the media, and perhaps the social networking universe immediately following the game, was that the Green Bay Packers had lost the chance to go to the Super Bowl because of one of the players not coming up with onside kick recovery late in the game. This drives me nuts! When to we stop and realize that these types of accusations are the type that destroys lives....literally. A couple of years ago, there was an NFL referee who was a replacement referee while the regulars were on strike. So, it was Monday Night Football on ESPN and at the end of the game, ironically the Seattle Seahawks versus Green Bay Packers AGAIN, there was a hail mary pass. This play was referred to as Fail Mary because after "the catch" one referee signaled touchdown and the other referee signaled no catch. This call changed the outcome of the game and gave the Green Bay Packers a loss. Fast forward two years to the present day and this referee is now reportedly suffering severe depression, can't sleep, and suffers PTSD from this incident. I am a big sports fan and feel all the emotions of the excitement of sports, but why does it come to the point of someone's life being wrecked. I mean life went on. The regular refs came back and the season went on as scheduled. Now, that game happened over two years ago, and everyone is ok, except that poor ref that went through traumatic experiences immediately following that one call on the field.
This is not the only case of this happening. The famous Steve Bartman incident at Wrigley Field over a decade ago was another case of another man's life being forever wrecked because of a reaction from an incident happening at a sporting event. Steve Bartman was like every other sports fan wanting a game used souvenior by trying to catch a foul ball. Based on where he was sitting and it being the playoffs, it appears he would've paid a pretty penny for the ticket where his seat was located. When Steve Bartman went to catch that foul ball, he was unaware that it was still a ball that could've been caught for the out. As soon as he caught the ball instead of the approaching outfielder, the crowd went nuts on this guy. They didn't get physical with him, but almost immediately security had to escort him out of the arena for his own safety. It didn't stop after he left Wrigley. The next morning his picture and name were on the front of the Chicago area newspapers. In the end, again for his own safety, this guy had to end up moving from where he lived. I am not sure, but I am guessing this also meant he either had to leave his job or even lost his job. And for what? Being a dedicated Chicago Cubs sports fan. I don't get it.
This is two of many incidents where this type of thing happens and I don't know why society has developed such an expectation of perfection. When I work with students at my job, my co-workers and I (well, most of them) do not expectation perfection. There is a few reasons for this. The first being that being perfect carries a very high level of pressure that quite honestly just isn't fair to put on anyone. The second being that everyone makes mistakes and we should be learning from them so we don't make the same mistake again. Finally, the third one being the fact it's ok to make a mistake, it's human nature. Even programmed machinery that is supposed to be flawless makes mistakes and has errors and we accept them. I would never expect perfection from any student I work with and I do not think it is right that society does the same thing to people who are just trying to do their job and make a living for a simple life.
#rememberdifferentperspectives
Getting back to my original point of this post, what was floating around the media, and perhaps the social networking universe immediately following the game, was that the Green Bay Packers had lost the chance to go to the Super Bowl because of one of the players not coming up with onside kick recovery late in the game. This drives me nuts! When to we stop and realize that these types of accusations are the type that destroys lives....literally. A couple of years ago, there was an NFL referee who was a replacement referee while the regulars were on strike. So, it was Monday Night Football on ESPN and at the end of the game, ironically the Seattle Seahawks versus Green Bay Packers AGAIN, there was a hail mary pass. This play was referred to as Fail Mary because after "the catch" one referee signaled touchdown and the other referee signaled no catch. This call changed the outcome of the game and gave the Green Bay Packers a loss. Fast forward two years to the present day and this referee is now reportedly suffering severe depression, can't sleep, and suffers PTSD from this incident. I am a big sports fan and feel all the emotions of the excitement of sports, but why does it come to the point of someone's life being wrecked. I mean life went on. The regular refs came back and the season went on as scheduled. Now, that game happened over two years ago, and everyone is ok, except that poor ref that went through traumatic experiences immediately following that one call on the field.
This is not the only case of this happening. The famous Steve Bartman incident at Wrigley Field over a decade ago was another case of another man's life being forever wrecked because of a reaction from an incident happening at a sporting event. Steve Bartman was like every other sports fan wanting a game used souvenior by trying to catch a foul ball. Based on where he was sitting and it being the playoffs, it appears he would've paid a pretty penny for the ticket where his seat was located. When Steve Bartman went to catch that foul ball, he was unaware that it was still a ball that could've been caught for the out. As soon as he caught the ball instead of the approaching outfielder, the crowd went nuts on this guy. They didn't get physical with him, but almost immediately security had to escort him out of the arena for his own safety. It didn't stop after he left Wrigley. The next morning his picture and name were on the front of the Chicago area newspapers. In the end, again for his own safety, this guy had to end up moving from where he lived. I am not sure, but I am guessing this also meant he either had to leave his job or even lost his job. And for what? Being a dedicated Chicago Cubs sports fan. I don't get it.
This is two of many incidents where this type of thing happens and I don't know why society has developed such an expectation of perfection. When I work with students at my job, my co-workers and I (well, most of them) do not expectation perfection. There is a few reasons for this. The first being that being perfect carries a very high level of pressure that quite honestly just isn't fair to put on anyone. The second being that everyone makes mistakes and we should be learning from them so we don't make the same mistake again. Finally, the third one being the fact it's ok to make a mistake, it's human nature. Even programmed machinery that is supposed to be flawless makes mistakes and has errors and we accept them. I would never expect perfection from any student I work with and I do not think it is right that society does the same thing to people who are just trying to do their job and make a living for a simple life.
#rememberdifferentperspectives
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
The Interview and the Golden Globes
For those of you who know me, I tend to prefer comedies when I go and see movies. So I bought into the hype a bit. I went and saw the movie "The Interview". For the most part, I don't mind Seth Rogen movies. I liked "The 40-Year Old Virgin" and I didn't mind "Knocked Up". I did not care for the film "Pineapple Express", but for the most part I am ok with Seth Rogen films. So I went and saw "The Interview" and it was terrible. There were two thoughts that came to my mind after viewing this film. The first was that this was one of the worst films I have ever seen and I regret paying movie theater pricing to see it. The second thought being that I don't know why North Korea got so upset with this movie. I didn't get it. I have seen much worse films for United States theaters that were far worse by targeting the White House and going after our President. Now I am not a person who buys into conspiracy theories, but, was Sony accurate in the threats they received from North Korea. I mean, did I really have to worry about North Korea leveling us because of this pile of crap thing that was supposed to be entertaining. I am wondering if Sony was behind creating the hype to get people into the theaters to see this movie because they knew it was going to bomb on its own because of the lack of quality in this film. Seth Rogen has really taken some chances that I think have paid off by being big hits. Those films include "Superbad", "Zack and Miri Make A Porno", and even "Neighbors" (barely). Movies like the previously mentioned "Pineapple Express", "Observe and Report", and now "The Interview" makes Seth Rogen a hit or a miss. I was disappointed in the most recent film and will rethink seeing future Seth Rogen films, even though I probably will.
The Golden Globe awards were on the other night, and I usually tune it to them to at least see if any intoxicated celebrities will make any foolish mistakes that their P.R. team will have to fix the next morning. I did not watch the popular award show this year, but I am aware that Tiny Fey and Amy Pohler again were hosting. This was their third and final time hosting the show, and there is a reason why they were asked back multiple times. They like to push the envelope. Amy and Tina didn't hesitate to shy away from the "those" topics that are not supposed to be mentioned, they instead took aim on those topics. Ricky Gervais also took aim on the celebrities that were supposed to be off limits the couple of years that he hosted. I love this formula for success. The reason why it is successful is because the rulebook is thrown out the window. I, myself, tend to use this type of formula (when appropriate). I like to push the envelope when it needs to be pushed. At times in life when you get into those moments where you feel that "you shouldn't do or say something" tempts me to speak up and face that topic head on. Now there is one thing to remember here. Maybe the celebrities at the Golden Globes are more tolerant because of the alcohol flowing. I know when I tend to push the envelope, it is when my audience has had a few and it tends to take place after a long work week or story-filled school year.
#carefulwithsoberaudiences
The Golden Globe awards were on the other night, and I usually tune it to them to at least see if any intoxicated celebrities will make any foolish mistakes that their P.R. team will have to fix the next morning. I did not watch the popular award show this year, but I am aware that Tiny Fey and Amy Pohler again were hosting. This was their third and final time hosting the show, and there is a reason why they were asked back multiple times. They like to push the envelope. Amy and Tina didn't hesitate to shy away from the "those" topics that are not supposed to be mentioned, they instead took aim on those topics. Ricky Gervais also took aim on the celebrities that were supposed to be off limits the couple of years that he hosted. I love this formula for success. The reason why it is successful is because the rulebook is thrown out the window. I, myself, tend to use this type of formula (when appropriate). I like to push the envelope when it needs to be pushed. At times in life when you get into those moments where you feel that "you shouldn't do or say something" tempts me to speak up and face that topic head on. Now there is one thing to remember here. Maybe the celebrities at the Golden Globes are more tolerant because of the alcohol flowing. I know when I tend to push the envelope, it is when my audience has had a few and it tends to take place after a long work week or story-filled school year.
#carefulwithsoberaudiences
Thursday, January 8, 2015
KidNation Childcare & Preschool
About 11 year ago, when I was still trying to figure out life, I wanted to continue with working with kids. At that time, my experience included working a lot of hours with the School Age Childcare Program at Rockford Schools. I drove by a new childcare center that was in the process being built and it had a great big sign in the front of it stating that they were hiring and one of the positions open was a school age childcare position. I thought this was right up my alley. So I applied and and was granted an interview. The interview took place at the home of the business owner where she was operating a home daycare. I was offered the position as school age childcare teacher and at this point I didn't realize what a life experience this was going to be.
This business owner was doing the obvious by expanding her home daycare into a commercial childcare setting. She was seeing dollar signs. If you are not familiar with the difference between a childcare center and a home daycare, there are many. Both obviously have to be licensed, but the differences are numerous. The required ratios are different and the requirements of a center are pretty detailed. Anyways, KidNation was a built to be a quality childcare facility and it was. To the perspective customers' eye, it was beautiful and it was the Cadillac of childcare facilities. The beauty of the facility drew in the customers. It hit capacity and had nearly 100 clients immediately without even advertising. The business did not even need to run an ad in the phone book (remember those!). It was crazy. Another nice feature of the center is that each parent had their own code to get in the front door to drop off and pick up their child. It was very secure.
So I was working the school age childcare room....by myself. Which was fine, except the ratio of staff to children in a school age childcare room with the Department of Human Services for the State of Minnesota was 15 children to one employee. I started to get alarmed when I was up to 19 children and hearing that there was no conversation of bringing in any additional staff. With the kids going to school during the day, this meant that I was going to be helping out in other areas throughout the center which was fine. What was not discussed was having me do all the cooking for center. Some people who know me know my Dinty Moore Beef Stew issue. All of a sudden I was cooking for almost 100 children. Heck, I was living alone at the time. This was quite an adjustment for me, but I did it. The food situation was interesting. The owner, Kristal Zimmerman, decided that she was only going to buy food from Reinhardt Food Service for some things and then have her husband go to Cub Foods to buy the rest of the food, including the milk. I wasn't the owner so I wasn't going to say anything.
Kristal Zimmerman was enjoying her new found financial success. She was buying a new GMC Yukon Denali with personalized license plates and taking many expensive trips during my tenure at the center. Again, that was her business, but it really was coming off in a manner where it was starting to come off that Kristal was more in it for the money than working with kids.
So one day I was serving lunch, probably that shitty beef stew, in the preschool room. As I got done serving the food, I stayed in the room to help watch the preschoolers during lunch time. This is the point when everything changed. I saw Kristal, the owner, sitting with a preschool child who did not like the food being served. This was unacceptable to Kristal and she grabbed that child's mouth and pushed the cheeks to open the child's mouth and force fed this child. While she was doing this, she stating that the food costs her a lot of money and none of it was going to go to waste. This shook me up literally. I couldn't believe what I saw and I wasn't the only one on staff that noticed these actions. I didn't know what to do. I was young, I needed the job, and I had never been in this situation before. Everyone who saw it knew it was wrong, but we didn't really know how to handle this because it was the OWNER who was doing it. Usually when you see some issue with a co-worker, you go to your boss or supervisor and report it. She was the boss and nobody knew what to do. For the next week, it continued, and then she was starting to yell at the children when it was nap time and they were not going to sleep right away. There were 21 people on staff working for Kristal Zimmerman, and 17 of them decided to report her to the Department of Human Services...including me.
So the next thing I know, I go to work one day, and there is an investigator from Hennepin County at the center and I was to be interviewed to follow up on what I reported. Things really started getting strange when the interview was being conducted in our employee break room where there was an intercom system that was linked to Kristal personal office. To show the true lack of intelligence of Kristal Zimmerman, there would be a light that would come on when she turned on the intercom from her office. The light was not a dim one, and the investigator caught her every time she activated that intercom. It got to a point during my interview with DHS, that the investigator got out of her seat and went up to the intercom and said, "I know you are listening and if you continue to do this, I will take your employees off the property to interview them." This was that "oh shit" moment when you knew that it was hitting the fan.
I reported the force feeding, and I also reported the ratio concerns I had. After the interviews were completed with all the employees, the Department of Human Services had determined that it was time to get the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department involved and open an official investigation. What this meant for the short term was that Kristal Zimmerman was not allowed to be on her business property during operating hours during the course of the investigation. If you are familiar with how the state and counties operate, it isn't exactly fast. So this investigation went on for months. The sad thing about this is that it gave Kristal the opportunity to spend more of her money by taking many trips. When they were in town, she would send her husband to the center with groceries or her mother to check on things. It was awkward to say the least.
So what about the parents of the children? Well, the employees didn't want to quit, because at this point if you were to quit you would be admitting to Kristal that you were one of the whistle blowers, so everyone stayed working there through the investigation, which DHS actually advised us to do. I don't remember what their reasoning was, but it was advised. The parents were absolutely disgusted with Kristal Zimmerman, but they loved the staff that cared for their children. The one holiday season I had working there was like the best Christmas I ever had as far as gifts go. I ended up with like $500.00 in gift cards, it was ridiculous. The parents were OK with having their children go to the center because they knew Kristal was not allowed on the premises and they trusted the staff, especially after they knew the staff had the courage to report the actions of Kristal Zimmerman.
So for a while, things kind of died down. Operations were going as normal as they could've gone, and one day during the late afternoon when the majority of parents were picking up their children, the doorbell rang. The doorbell usually only rang when there was a perspective new client wanting to enroll their child(ren) or it was a relative picking up a child that did not have a code to get into the building. When the doorbell rang, a staff had to physically go to the front door and let that person into the building. So this time when the doorbell rang, I was closest to the front door and I went to go answer it and I didn't expect who had arrived. It was a KSTP Channel 5 news reporter. I opened the door and asked if I could help her and she asked for Kristal Zimmerman. I said she is not here and I got an interesting response. This was just after 4:30 p.m. when this reporter showed up and she informed me that she was going live at 5:00 p.m. and this was going to be the top story on their newscast. I just about dropped logs. I went and informed our staff member who was "managing" the center. Of course, the newscaster wanted interviews from staff and everyone was afraid to go on the news and talk. So they stood on the property line and interviewed many parents as they drove in to pick up their children. A couple of days later, I was getting calls on my personal cell phone from FOX 9 News out of Minneapolis wanting an interview about the investigation. This was crazy and it was out of control.
One of the parents that spoke to the news reporter lived across the street from the center, two days later all four of her tires were flattened. And this was a paying active client. One night after work, I went out with my friends and I left my car at the center for a couple of hours. The next day when I was driving through the town I lived in, my entire front wheel came off my car (rim and all) and shredded my front fender. When I got the vehicle back to my home, I checked the other tires and three of the five lug nuts were loosened on every tire. This was just the first tire that happened to come off. After this had happened, I was in panic mode. I didn't know how this was going to turn out and I didn't see how it could've had a good ending. Whatever the hell a good ending to this mess was.
When the report from the Department of Human Services was released. All the employee names were not identified in the report for protection to the employees. However, what hung me out to dry was when the report said that the school age child care teacher reported numerous out-of-ratio violations and I was the only school age child care teacher on staff, even Kristal Zimmerman could put two and two together on that one. So in the State of Minnesota, an employee is protected as a whistle blower for 90 days. On the 91st day after I reported her, I was working at the center like normal. Then all of a sudden these two big men in suits came in through a back door and approached me. They were Kristal Zimmerman's lawyers. I don't think I have ever felt as intimidated in my life as I did that very moment. The started to ask me questions and I began to answer. As they continued to ask me questions, I got very scared as I had never been through anything like this. I told them that I had to go to the bathroom. Instead I went into our break room and called my aunt who was working for an employment attorney at the time. She informed me that I should not answer any of their questions and they may tell me that I am being insubordinate by refusing the questions. So I went back into the room where the her lawyers were and sat back down at the table. They asked me the next question and I informed them that I was not going to answer anymore of their questions. The lawyers did tell me that I was being insubordinate and they were going to have to call Kristal to see how she wanted to handle it. They called her, talked with her briefly, and then gave me the phone. She told me to talk to her lawyers and I told her that I was not going to and she followed it up with this, "You are now being insubordinate and you need to get off my property immediately." So that was that.
In the end, there was another childcare about eight miles away that was struggling, but wanted me to come in and help get the center back on track. I knew as soon as the parents at KidNation knew I was gone and only eight miles away, they would start pulling their kids from KidNation. I played this move very carefully and made sure I talked to nobody about pulling their kids from KidNation. With all the other events that took place, including the purposeful actions towards my car, I figured she would do anything to me in response to me talking to me. At that time, I was even afraid of her showing up at my home after she slashed the tires on one of her own client's car. The story concludes with the other employees finding out where I went to and were interested in joining me at the new location. Two other employees that I worked with, along with myself and the parent whose tires were slashed actually purchased the center that I moved onto in a four way partnership. About two weeks after assuming ownership of the new center that was eight miles away from KidNation, Kristal Zimmerman sued me and the other three partners citing that we were violating a no-competition clause. I had signed nothing mentioning a non-compete clause and she was suing for in excess of $50,000. Again my mind was blown. We seeked legal advice, which my share cost a couple of thousand dollars. We went to court and the judge basically laughed at her. She continued to try legal action until she could no longer afford to pay her attorneys. The timing of the ownership was not right, however, as I just financially wasn't prepared to do this. I ended up with this result after what started with my just wanting a job at a childcare center as a school age child care teacher. After six months at the new center, I took a month leave of absence to help move some relatives up to Minnesota from Louisiana. When I returned, I chose to leave the business and sold back my share of the business to the others.
As far as the final result of the investigation from the Department of Human Services and the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. She was found guilty to the maltreatment of minors. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, whose investigator often referred to her as KidNazi, gave her two options. The first was to continue to own KidNation Childcare Center and face criminal charges or sell the center and their will be no criminal charges with the condition that she could no longer work with children again. A few years later, her oldest child was killed by being struck by lightning in the front yard of her home. She then went on to move to Stillwater, Minnesota and starting a business featuring fetishes and fantasies where she referred to herself as a "Taboo Goddess". The city of Stillwater thought it was prostitution and cited her with a crime. Despite the money it cost me, and the experience I went through, the payoff was knowing that she could never work with children again and traumatize any more children.
To see the WCCO story about her Stillwater, Minnesota incident you can click this link: Stillwater 'Taboo Goddess' Charged
#justiceserved
This business owner was doing the obvious by expanding her home daycare into a commercial childcare setting. She was seeing dollar signs. If you are not familiar with the difference between a childcare center and a home daycare, there are many. Both obviously have to be licensed, but the differences are numerous. The required ratios are different and the requirements of a center are pretty detailed. Anyways, KidNation was a built to be a quality childcare facility and it was. To the perspective customers' eye, it was beautiful and it was the Cadillac of childcare facilities. The beauty of the facility drew in the customers. It hit capacity and had nearly 100 clients immediately without even advertising. The business did not even need to run an ad in the phone book (remember those!). It was crazy. Another nice feature of the center is that each parent had their own code to get in the front door to drop off and pick up their child. It was very secure.
So I was working the school age childcare room....by myself. Which was fine, except the ratio of staff to children in a school age childcare room with the Department of Human Services for the State of Minnesota was 15 children to one employee. I started to get alarmed when I was up to 19 children and hearing that there was no conversation of bringing in any additional staff. With the kids going to school during the day, this meant that I was going to be helping out in other areas throughout the center which was fine. What was not discussed was having me do all the cooking for center. Some people who know me know my Dinty Moore Beef Stew issue. All of a sudden I was cooking for almost 100 children. Heck, I was living alone at the time. This was quite an adjustment for me, but I did it. The food situation was interesting. The owner, Kristal Zimmerman, decided that she was only going to buy food from Reinhardt Food Service for some things and then have her husband go to Cub Foods to buy the rest of the food, including the milk. I wasn't the owner so I wasn't going to say anything.
Kristal Zimmerman was enjoying her new found financial success. She was buying a new GMC Yukon Denali with personalized license plates and taking many expensive trips during my tenure at the center. Again, that was her business, but it really was coming off in a manner where it was starting to come off that Kristal was more in it for the money than working with kids.
So one day I was serving lunch, probably that shitty beef stew, in the preschool room. As I got done serving the food, I stayed in the room to help watch the preschoolers during lunch time. This is the point when everything changed. I saw Kristal, the owner, sitting with a preschool child who did not like the food being served. This was unacceptable to Kristal and she grabbed that child's mouth and pushed the cheeks to open the child's mouth and force fed this child. While she was doing this, she stating that the food costs her a lot of money and none of it was going to go to waste. This shook me up literally. I couldn't believe what I saw and I wasn't the only one on staff that noticed these actions. I didn't know what to do. I was young, I needed the job, and I had never been in this situation before. Everyone who saw it knew it was wrong, but we didn't really know how to handle this because it was the OWNER who was doing it. Usually when you see some issue with a co-worker, you go to your boss or supervisor and report it. She was the boss and nobody knew what to do. For the next week, it continued, and then she was starting to yell at the children when it was nap time and they were not going to sleep right away. There were 21 people on staff working for Kristal Zimmerman, and 17 of them decided to report her to the Department of Human Services...including me.
So the next thing I know, I go to work one day, and there is an investigator from Hennepin County at the center and I was to be interviewed to follow up on what I reported. Things really started getting strange when the interview was being conducted in our employee break room where there was an intercom system that was linked to Kristal personal office. To show the true lack of intelligence of Kristal Zimmerman, there would be a light that would come on when she turned on the intercom from her office. The light was not a dim one, and the investigator caught her every time she activated that intercom. It got to a point during my interview with DHS, that the investigator got out of her seat and went up to the intercom and said, "I know you are listening and if you continue to do this, I will take your employees off the property to interview them." This was that "oh shit" moment when you knew that it was hitting the fan.
I reported the force feeding, and I also reported the ratio concerns I had. After the interviews were completed with all the employees, the Department of Human Services had determined that it was time to get the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department involved and open an official investigation. What this meant for the short term was that Kristal Zimmerman was not allowed to be on her business property during operating hours during the course of the investigation. If you are familiar with how the state and counties operate, it isn't exactly fast. So this investigation went on for months. The sad thing about this is that it gave Kristal the opportunity to spend more of her money by taking many trips. When they were in town, she would send her husband to the center with groceries or her mother to check on things. It was awkward to say the least.
So what about the parents of the children? Well, the employees didn't want to quit, because at this point if you were to quit you would be admitting to Kristal that you were one of the whistle blowers, so everyone stayed working there through the investigation, which DHS actually advised us to do. I don't remember what their reasoning was, but it was advised. The parents were absolutely disgusted with Kristal Zimmerman, but they loved the staff that cared for their children. The one holiday season I had working there was like the best Christmas I ever had as far as gifts go. I ended up with like $500.00 in gift cards, it was ridiculous. The parents were OK with having their children go to the center because they knew Kristal was not allowed on the premises and they trusted the staff, especially after they knew the staff had the courage to report the actions of Kristal Zimmerman.
So for a while, things kind of died down. Operations were going as normal as they could've gone, and one day during the late afternoon when the majority of parents were picking up their children, the doorbell rang. The doorbell usually only rang when there was a perspective new client wanting to enroll their child(ren) or it was a relative picking up a child that did not have a code to get into the building. When the doorbell rang, a staff had to physically go to the front door and let that person into the building. So this time when the doorbell rang, I was closest to the front door and I went to go answer it and I didn't expect who had arrived. It was a KSTP Channel 5 news reporter. I opened the door and asked if I could help her and she asked for Kristal Zimmerman. I said she is not here and I got an interesting response. This was just after 4:30 p.m. when this reporter showed up and she informed me that she was going live at 5:00 p.m. and this was going to be the top story on their newscast. I just about dropped logs. I went and informed our staff member who was "managing" the center. Of course, the newscaster wanted interviews from staff and everyone was afraid to go on the news and talk. So they stood on the property line and interviewed many parents as they drove in to pick up their children. A couple of days later, I was getting calls on my personal cell phone from FOX 9 News out of Minneapolis wanting an interview about the investigation. This was crazy and it was out of control.
One of the parents that spoke to the news reporter lived across the street from the center, two days later all four of her tires were flattened. And this was a paying active client. One night after work, I went out with my friends and I left my car at the center for a couple of hours. The next day when I was driving through the town I lived in, my entire front wheel came off my car (rim and all) and shredded my front fender. When I got the vehicle back to my home, I checked the other tires and three of the five lug nuts were loosened on every tire. This was just the first tire that happened to come off. After this had happened, I was in panic mode. I didn't know how this was going to turn out and I didn't see how it could've had a good ending. Whatever the hell a good ending to this mess was.
When the report from the Department of Human Services was released. All the employee names were not identified in the report for protection to the employees. However, what hung me out to dry was when the report said that the school age child care teacher reported numerous out-of-ratio violations and I was the only school age child care teacher on staff, even Kristal Zimmerman could put two and two together on that one. So in the State of Minnesota, an employee is protected as a whistle blower for 90 days. On the 91st day after I reported her, I was working at the center like normal. Then all of a sudden these two big men in suits came in through a back door and approached me. They were Kristal Zimmerman's lawyers. I don't think I have ever felt as intimidated in my life as I did that very moment. The started to ask me questions and I began to answer. As they continued to ask me questions, I got very scared as I had never been through anything like this. I told them that I had to go to the bathroom. Instead I went into our break room and called my aunt who was working for an employment attorney at the time. She informed me that I should not answer any of their questions and they may tell me that I am being insubordinate by refusing the questions. So I went back into the room where the her lawyers were and sat back down at the table. They asked me the next question and I informed them that I was not going to answer anymore of their questions. The lawyers did tell me that I was being insubordinate and they were going to have to call Kristal to see how she wanted to handle it. They called her, talked with her briefly, and then gave me the phone. She told me to talk to her lawyers and I told her that I was not going to and she followed it up with this, "You are now being insubordinate and you need to get off my property immediately." So that was that.
In the end, there was another childcare about eight miles away that was struggling, but wanted me to come in and help get the center back on track. I knew as soon as the parents at KidNation knew I was gone and only eight miles away, they would start pulling their kids from KidNation. I played this move very carefully and made sure I talked to nobody about pulling their kids from KidNation. With all the other events that took place, including the purposeful actions towards my car, I figured she would do anything to me in response to me talking to me. At that time, I was even afraid of her showing up at my home after she slashed the tires on one of her own client's car. The story concludes with the other employees finding out where I went to and were interested in joining me at the new location. Two other employees that I worked with, along with myself and the parent whose tires were slashed actually purchased the center that I moved onto in a four way partnership. About two weeks after assuming ownership of the new center that was eight miles away from KidNation, Kristal Zimmerman sued me and the other three partners citing that we were violating a no-competition clause. I had signed nothing mentioning a non-compete clause and she was suing for in excess of $50,000. Again my mind was blown. We seeked legal advice, which my share cost a couple of thousand dollars. We went to court and the judge basically laughed at her. She continued to try legal action until she could no longer afford to pay her attorneys. The timing of the ownership was not right, however, as I just financially wasn't prepared to do this. I ended up with this result after what started with my just wanting a job at a childcare center as a school age child care teacher. After six months at the new center, I took a month leave of absence to help move some relatives up to Minnesota from Louisiana. When I returned, I chose to leave the business and sold back my share of the business to the others.
As far as the final result of the investigation from the Department of Human Services and the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. She was found guilty to the maltreatment of minors. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, whose investigator often referred to her as KidNazi, gave her two options. The first was to continue to own KidNation Childcare Center and face criminal charges or sell the center and their will be no criminal charges with the condition that she could no longer work with children again. A few years later, her oldest child was killed by being struck by lightning in the front yard of her home. She then went on to move to Stillwater, Minnesota and starting a business featuring fetishes and fantasies where she referred to herself as a "Taboo Goddess". The city of Stillwater thought it was prostitution and cited her with a crime. Despite the money it cost me, and the experience I went through, the payoff was knowing that she could never work with children again and traumatize any more children.
To see the WCCO story about her Stillwater, Minnesota incident you can click this link: Stillwater 'Taboo Goddess' Charged
#justiceserved
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Resolutions 2015
This is a new year of 2015 and it has started off in a shaky manner. That is the best way I can put it. This year I feel is going to be a year of change. In 2014, I started the change. I started this blog and I started to open up with some feelings that I have been carrying for many, many years. 2015 will feature more opening up. I am in a place in my life where I want those who are close to me to know me. I have said this before, and in 2015 I mean it. Resolutions 2015 will also feature a Tim that will be speaking up more. I am the type of guy that has never been one to rock the boat because I don't want to be that guy that is a big pain in the ass to be around. I will continue to not rock the boat, but I will be more vocal. I also do not want to be that guy that always has problems going on because that simply isn't true. Right now in my life, things are not looking so positive and I will get through it because I always do. I just don't know how much time this one is going to take to get through. I will be more forward and assertive because I, now more than ever, want my voice to be heard. I want this to start immediately. This will eventually become more evident at work because I don't want to be the guy that will just take care of things and do them because that is all I am good for. I feel that in some ways that is the role I have slipped into at my job in some aspects. I may not be a certified teacher, but I have worked hard to develop my role and position at my job and I feel I need to not be so afraid of the crowd reaction, but instead make sure that I am being heard. This change will occur sooner than later.
Another resolution that I have for 2015 is to make more money. I struggle with amount of money I make for the job I do. I feel this way for all of my support staff co-workers who bust their ass at their jobs. If I had to live on my own, my job would not pay me enough to survive. I would be living in poverty and that is a scary thought. I don't know how I am going to go about this, but I can tell you it will be done legally. I want 2015 to be the year where I start to not worry so much about financial stuff.
Resolutions 2015 will also feature a healthier lifestyle. My goal this year (when I can afford it) is to join the Brainerd YMCA. I want to start working out on a regular basis. With the wonderful world of technology and podcasts, this will help me accomplish this goal. If I can have something that interests me to listen to, it will help kick ass in exercising.
My final resolution for 2015 is a big one and it may be the most difficult challenge for me this year. I want to figure out who my friends are. My goal for doing this is because I have been slapped in the face with a lot of negativity in the past six weeks by many in my family. I don't feel like I have much family left. There are a few left who are talking to me, but that list is short. This is a lonely feeling. This negativity that I have been going through has been dominating my time, thoughts, and reactions. It is time for me to analyze the people I know and figure out who my friends are. I feel like I have a lot of acquaintances and that is a good thing, but I feel like I don't have many I can call my friends. This is all my fault and I want to fix it for 2015. I need to figure this out so I can expand my support system for the times when I need friends, times like now. Happy New Year!!!
#plentyofworktodo
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