u/CounterSerious2480

Hi all, I wanted to share that in the job search market, many humanities majors are struggling like crazy to find something. That was the exact spot that I was in. So I was doing a frantic job search on LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, etc. back in January of this year. I was living in Manhattan at the time, now moved to Queens. I already had a bad experience with Success Academy and I quit on the first day of being hired because it was a dumpster fire (look it up on Reddit for more lore).

Then, I ended up joining Achievement First Charter School as a special education paraprofessional. It was really shit pay, $23 an hour, and only until 29.5 hours a week. If it crossed 30 hours they were lawfully required to give me healthcare, which they conveniently avoided. Classic. I remember having a quick interview in which they barely asked me any questions and hired me on the spot, said I could start right away.

I already had most of the DOE IdentoGo paperwork done and I filled out the HR stuff immediately. The front desk people, admin, and HR were genuinely sweet, kind, and helpful, hardworking people doing their best. So I thought nothing of it and walked into the workplace with an open mind.

The first week was pretty nonchalant and uneventful. Some of the students with mental health disabilities were acting up here and there, nothing too crazy, nothing I hadn't mentally prepared myself for. I knew going in that this population could be challenging and I was genuinely committed to showing up for these kids.

Then I was placed in a remedial class. One student kept screaming, kicking, and disrupting the entire room. I told him firmly but calmly to stop, the way any reasonable adult would redirect a child in crisis. A staff member immediately pulled me aside and told me not to talk to students like that. He had been cussing everyone out and kicking furniture, but apparently firm redirection was the problem. Noted.

Then D arrived.

D was a 12 year old with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and she decided from the moment she laid eyes on me that I was her sworn enemy. I don't say this dramatically, I mean she made it her daily mission to make my life difficult. Refused every instruction I gave. Talked back constantly. Made comments about my appearance. Recruited other students to ignore me. I tried every approach I knew, warm redirection, ignoring the behavior, positive reinforcement, changing my tone, giving her space, building rapport during calm moments. Nothing landed.

Part of my job was to walk behind D in the hallways as per strict protocol given to me by my supervisors. That was the instruction, clear and firm. Walk behind her, ensure she complies with hallway behavior expectations. D refused to comply with this constantly. And when I followed protocol and stayed behind her as instructed, it was somehow twisted into me doing something wrong. I was following the exact instructions I was given and still found a way to be at fault. Make it make sense.

One day D got directly in my face. I mean right in my face, close enough that I had no personal space whatsoever, screaming and cussing me out. I stepped away to give myself two minutes to regulate because that is literally what de-escalation training tells you to do, you remove yourself before things escalate further. Administration later told me that I had abandoned a student under my watch. That same student who had just screamed in my face was then coaxed into the principal's office with candy and treats, given a therapy session with the guidance counselor, and treated like the victim. I stood in the hallway processing what had just happened with absolutely zero support or check in from anyone.

That was the culture of this school in a nutshell. Bad behavior was rewarded. There was an entire sensory room where students were sent as a reward whenever they threw tantrums. A full recreational sensory room, toys, calm lighting, the works, given specifically to kids who acted out. They also got candy. Every single time. So naturally the kids figured out pretty quickly that a meltdown gets you a break in the fun room and a snack. You cannot make this up.

Then there was R. R was a student who had been raised almost entirely on social media and had what I can only describe as a full blown AI addiction. The school had to regularly turn off his Google access and block certain websites just to get him to function in a classroom setting. Even then it was a constant battle. Keeping R on task was essentially a part time job within my part time job, babysitting his screen time minute by minute while also managing everyone else in the room.

There was another student who would completely crash out the moment you asked him to do any class task. Take a quiz? He would rather take the zero and spend ten minutes cussing out the teacher first. And here is the truly unhinged part. Admin pulled me aside at one point and told me not to correct his loud, rude, disruptive behavior because, and I quote, it makes the school look bad if he tries to hit you. So we were being instructed to ignore dangerous escalating behavior because the optics of a student hitting a staff member were bad for the school. Not because it was wrong. Not because it was unsafe. Because of optics.

Speaking of unsafe, a teacher had his wrist twisted so badly by one of the problem students that he genuinely wanted to file a workers' compensation claim. The school pressured him to stay quiet about it and handed him a thousand dollars for his doctor's appointment. His wrist was seriously injured and they essentially paid him to keep it off the record. That tells you everything you need to know about how this school handled incidents involving staff safety.

The chromebook and AI situation was genuinely wild across the board. Kids as young as fifth grade were on Chromebooks constantly, using AI for everything, and work refusal was endemic. The kicker was that when a student refused to do their work, it was framed as a staff failure. You weren't engaging them enough. You weren't making it interesting enough. You weren't connecting with them enough. The kid sitting there refusing to take a quiz while watching YouTube was somehow a reflection of your incompetence, not their behavior.

The gossip culture was also something else. Information traveled through that building at lightning speed and not always accurately. Staff talked about students, students talked about staff, admin talked about everyone. It created this atmosphere of constant low grade paranoia where you never quite knew what was being said about you or to whom.

The day I was fired, I was called down to a room where the principal and an administrator were waiting. They told me I was a bad fit. I respectfully asked for more specific feedback because I genuinely wanted to understand what had gone wrong. What followed was a list of allegations I had never heard before in my entire time at that school.

One of them was that I had asked a student about his medication. Here is exactly what happened. The student himself voluntarily told me he took a small blue pill for his focus that made him not hungry at lunch. I asked him if he could share a little more so I could pass the information along to his parents or the social worker, which is exactly what any responsible adult working with a child with medical needs would do. That was twisted into me inappropriately asking a child about his medication.

None of these allegations had ever been raised with me before that day. No written warnings. No formal conversations. No documentation shared with me at any point. Just a list of accusations presented on the day I was let go with no opportunity to respond meaningfully.

When I became visibly upset, because I was blindsided and it was a lot to absorb at once, I was told to leave the premises immediately. The whole office watched. Nobody said anything.

I later asked for documentation of these allegations and was denied. As a probationary employee I had virtually no recourse. The union couldn't help. HR gave me a form letter. And I walked out of that building feeling like I had somehow failed, when in reality I had been set up to fail from the beginning in a system that had no real interest in supporting its staff.

What I learned:

• Charter schools operate with significantly less accountability than traditional public schools and probationary employees have almost no protection whatsoever
• Hired on the spot sometimes means they are desperate and will not invest in supporting you properly
• Document absolutely everything from day one, every incident, every conversation, every instruction given to you
• If you are neurodivergent like me, the ambiguity, the lack of clear feedback, and the chaotic environment of these schools can be genuinely destabilizing in ways that are hard to articulate to people who aren't wired similarly
• Rewarding bad behavior with candy and sensory rooms while blaming staff for student work refusal is not a trauma informed approach, it is chaos management dressed up as progressive education
• Your mental health and your safety are worth more than $23 an hour and 29.5 hours a week with no healthcare, which after taxes was more like 600$ weekly.

I'm okay now. I've moved, I have interviews lined up, and I'm rebuilding. But I wanted to share this because I know I'm not the only one who has walked into one of these situations completely blindsided.

If you're considering a special ed para role at a charter school in NYC, do your research first. Check Reddit. Check Glassdoor. Ask hard questions in the interview. And protect yourself.

Happy to answer questions in the comments. Take care of yourselves out there.

Hi all, I wanted to share that in the job search market, many humanities majors are struggling like crazy to find something. That was the exact spot that I was in. So I was doing a frantic job search on LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, etc. back in January of this year. I was living in Manhattan at the time, now moved to Queens. I already had a bad experience with Success Academy and I quit on the first day of being hired because it was a dumpster fire (look it up on Reddit for more lore).

Then, I ended up joining Achievement First Charter School as a special education paraprofessional. It was really shit pay, $23 an hour, and only until 29.5 hours a week. If it crossed 30 hours they were lawfully required to give me healthcare, which they conveniently avoided. Classic. I remember having a quick interview in which they barely asked me any questions and hired me on the spot, said I could start right away.

I already had most of the DOE IdentoGo paperwork done and I filled out the HR stuff immediately. The front desk people, admin, and HR were genuinely sweet, kind, and helpful, hardworking people doing their best. So I thought nothing of it and walked into the workplace with an open mind.

The first week was pretty nonchalant and uneventful. Some of the students with mental health disabilities were acting up here and there, nothing too crazy, nothing I hadn't mentally prepared myself for. I knew going in that this population could be challenging and I was genuinely committed to showing up for these kids.

Then I was placed in a remedial class. One student kept screaming, kicking, and disrupting the entire room. I told him firmly but calmly to stop, the way any reasonable adult would redirect a child in crisis. A staff member immediately pulled me aside and told me not to talk to students like that. He had been cussing everyone out and kicking furniture, but apparently firm redirection was the problem. Noted.

Then D arrived.

D was a 12 year old with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and she decided from the moment she laid eyes on me that I was her sworn enemy. I don't say this dramatically, I mean she made it her daily mission to make my life difficult. Refused every instruction I gave. Talked back constantly. Made comments about my appearance. Recruited other students to ignore me. I tried every approach I knew, warm redirection, ignoring the behavior, positive reinforcement, changing my tone, giving her space, building rapport during calm moments. Nothing landed.

Part of my job was to walk behind D in the hallways as per strict protocol given to me by my supervisors. That was the instruction, clear and firm. Walk behind her, ensure she complies with hallway behavior expectations. D refused to comply with this constantly. And when I followed protocol and stayed behind her as instructed, it was somehow twisted into me doing something wrong. I was following the exact instructions I was given and still found a way to be at fault. Make it make sense.

One day D got directly in my face. I mean right in my face, close enough that I had no personal space whatsoever, screaming and cussing me out. I stepped away to give myself two minutes to regulate because that is literally what de-escalation training tells you to do, you remove yourself before things escalate further. Administration later told me that I had abandoned a student under my watch. That same student who had just screamed in my face was then coaxed into the principal's office with candy and treats, given a therapy session with the guidance counselor, and treated like the victim. I stood in the hallway processing what had just happened with absolutely zero support or check in from anyone.

That was the culture of this school in a nutshell. Bad behavior was rewarded. There was an entire sensory room where students were sent as a reward whenever they threw tantrums. A full recreational sensory room, toys, calm lighting, the works, given specifically to kids who acted out. They also got candy. Every single time. So naturally the kids figured out pretty quickly that a meltdown gets you a break in the fun room and a snack. You cannot make this up.

Then there was R. R was a student who had been raised almost entirely on social media and had what I can only describe as a full blown AI addiction. The school had to regularly turn off his Google access and block certain websites just to get him to function in a classroom setting. Even then it was a constant battle. Keeping R on task was essentially a part time job within my part time job, babysitting his screen time minute by minute while also managing everyone else in the room.

There was another student who would completely crash out the moment you asked him to do any class task. Take a quiz? He would rather take the zero and spend ten minutes cussing out the teacher first. And here is the truly unhinged part. Admin pulled me aside at one point and told me not to correct his loud, rude, disruptive behavior because, and I quote, it makes the school look bad if he tries to hit you. So we were being instructed to ignore dangerous escalating behavior because the optics of a student hitting a staff member were bad for the school. Not because it was wrong. Not because it was unsafe. Because of optics.

Speaking of unsafe, a teacher had his wrist twisted so badly by one of the problem students that he genuinely wanted to file a workers' compensation claim. The school pressured him to stay quiet about it and handed him a thousand dollars for his doctor's appointment. His wrist was seriously injured and they essentially paid him to keep it off the record. That tells you everything you need to know about how this school handled incidents involving staff safety.

The chromebook and AI situation was genuinely wild across the board. Kids as young as fifth grade were on Chromebooks constantly, using AI for everything, and work refusal was endemic. The kicker was that when a student refused to do their work, it was framed as a staff failure. You weren't engaging them enough. You weren't making it interesting enough. You weren't connecting with them enough. The kid sitting there refusing to take a quiz while watching YouTube was somehow a reflection of your incompetence, not their behavior.

The gossip culture was also something else. Information traveled through that building at lightning speed and not always accurately. Staff talked about students, students talked about staff, admin talked about everyone. It created this atmosphere of constant low grade paranoia where you never quite knew what was being said about you or to whom.

The day I was fired, I was called down to a room where the principal and an administrator were waiting. They told me I was a bad fit. I respectfully asked for more specific feedback because I genuinely wanted to understand what had gone wrong. What followed was a list of allegations I had never heard before in my entire time at that school.

One of them was that I had asked a student about his medication. Here is exactly what happened. The student himself voluntarily told me he took a small blue pill for his focus that made him not hungry at lunch. I asked him if he could share a little more so I could pass the information along to his parents or the social worker, which is exactly what any responsible adult working with a child with medical needs would do. That was twisted into me inappropriately asking a child about his medication.

None of these allegations had ever been raised with me before that day. No written warnings. No formal conversations. No documentation shared with me at any point. Just a list of accusations presented on the day I was let go with no opportunity to respond meaningfully.

When I became visibly upset, because I was blindsided and it was a lot to absorb at once, I was told to leave the premises immediately. The whole office watched. Nobody said anything.

I later asked for documentation of these allegations and was denied. As a probationary employee I had virtually no recourse. The union couldn't help. HR gave me a form letter. And I walked out of that building feeling like I had somehow failed, when in reality I had been set up to fail from the beginning in a system that had no real interest in supporting its staff.

What I learned:

• Charter schools operate with significantly less accountability than traditional public schools and probationary employees have almost no protection whatsoever
• Hired on the spot sometimes means we are desperate and will not invest in supporting you properly
• Document absolutely everything from day one, every incident, every conversation, every instruction given to you
• If you are neurodivergent like me, the ambiguity, the lack of clear feedback, and the chaotic environment of these schools can be genuinely destabilizing in ways that are hard to articulate to people who aren't wired similarly
• Rewarding bad behavior with candy and sensory rooms while blaming staff for student work refusal is not a trauma informed approach, it is chaos management dressed up as progressive education
• Your mental health and your safety are worth more than $23 an hour and 29.5 hours a week with no healthcare

I'm okay now. I've moved, I have interviews lined up, and I'm rebuilding. But I wanted to share this because I know I'm not the only one who has walked into one of these situations completely blindsided.

If you're considering a special ed para role at a charter school in NYC, do your research first. Check Reddit. Check Glassdoor. Ask hard questions in the interview. And protect yourself.

Happy to answer questions in the comments. Take care of yourselves out there.

Hey y'all it feels so surreal knowing this drama unfold and me knowing the inside tea. I do not know them IRL, and how I met Urwah was thru Insta. I made a post a long time back like last year around this time talking about how I was a revert Muslim with autism. I'm diagnosed with aspergers since I was a kid, and I also have adhd (shared about how I have been taking focalin for a long time) etc. She found the post and we immediately connected, and she was the KINDEST person, and friendship love bombed me for a few weeks. I really felt over the moon, knowing that someone was like on a similar boat to me.

She then started going batshit crazy. I remember posting something about the fact that autism does not give you the excuse to treat people badly and react without self regulation. She flipped out, cussed me out, and screamed at me and wished that I would break up with my "kaafir boyfriend" and that Allah would send me to Jahannum. It was absolutely insane. It told her wait let me reply in a while and she blocked me everywhere.

I cannot say much about the situation with the husband, other than that he is heartbroken, went thru various types of abuse from Urwah and that he is scared to return to the USA to complete his studies. Let's just pray for him. I really WILL NOT AND CANNOT answer any more questions about him, and I am urging him to get a restraining order on her if he returns to USA.

I also know that she ruined Zonerahs and Ayesha's life, and is a narc and forced her husband to cut his entire family off.

The whole ARFID thing is a drama too. She literally would chomp sushi and cake and stuff her face when she felt like it or got high. She's literally insane, even her parents are scared to confront her.

Again I really wish I could provide some evidence but I have promised many times I cannot share any more specifics.