Principal Killed The Radio Encore

(I work as a substitute teacher to pay the bills. I get a class of talkative seventh graders who are supposed to work on an assignment. I notice there’s a radio in the room.)

Me: “Tell you what. If you agree to work quietly, I will play [popular radio station] while you work.”

Class: “Ooooh!”

(They all quiet down except for the occasional murmur, so I turn on the radio per my promise. A couple of minutes later they get stone cold silent, and I hear a voice from the doorway behind me.)

Assistant Principal: “Why is the radio on?!”

Me: “Oh, hello! I turned it on for the students to listen to after they agreed to stop talking, and—”

Assistant Principal: “Turn it off! They don’t deserve to listen to the radio. Did the teacher even say you could do that?”

Me: “I didn’t see anything in her notes. But it got them to be quiet and work!”

(The assistant principal scoffs.)

Assistant Principal: “Oh, they didn’t get quiet because of anything you did. They only got quiet because I walked in here.”

(She turns on her heel and leaves. Thanks to the assistant principal loudly undermining me in front of the class, they lost all focus and didn’t stop talking for the rest of the hour.)