Right-- and to clarify, the "avalanche" technique that I mentioned is really about "you wanted complete control? FINE. But be careful what you ask for..."
By no longer 'asking' the teacher about everyday things... and instead following the absolute LETTER of the directive from the (toxic) administrator...
I mean, when you add it all up, this is potentially a dozen or more e-mails each week, right? And yes, most of them are going to be like gnats circling the administrator's head... but the thing is, s/he TOLD you to do things this way. Totally not your fault; blah-blah-blah, know that you're busy, so apologetic about bothering over this, but...
After all, simply stonewalling you at that point doesn't look good either. Because that becomes SUPER obvious when you have a chain of "look, I sent this on this date... wow, no response... wow, still no response..."
I've only had one administrator attempt to bully me-- and this is the method that I used to make sure that he didn't get what he was after (compliance and less trouble from me).
I also was able to leverage what I *knew* were procedural violations that he admitted to in writing into better cooperation from the following administration, too. MAJOR win, that, and it also demonstrated with a whisper that I'm not the 'bad guy' because I *could* have filed with OCR... and I knew that I could have, but didn't. Show of goodwill. KWIM?
I would never, ever, EVER involve the media in something like this. That's my personal take on things-- it NEVER seems to go to any kind of good place for the family/child at the center of things.
