Recently, I saw an article titled “Trials of a Whistleblower,” and when I began to read it, it brought back memories of some personal experiences that were so real it caused me to experience a little PTSD.

You see, I was new to administration at the time, and if there was a phrase that best described me it would be someone “who didn’t know what I didn’t know.”

In fact, that pretty much summed up how I found myself in a no-win, whistleblower situation that nearly cost me my career.

In some ways it was a déjà vu type of circumstance because, as a new, young teacher, I had witnessed what appeared to be inappropriate behavior between a peer and a young female student that now might minimally result in potential dismissal, and if it had gone as far as it might have, his actions would have resulted in jail time. (An early cancer death came before prosecution did to this alleged perpetrator.)

Almost ironically, a year later, a former teacher at my wife’s school district ended up being convicted of inappropriate interactions with students and was sentenced to decades in prison.

Of course, my observation of this behavior took place in the early ’70s, and not unlike drinking and driving and other activities that most certainly would not be ignored now, this type of behavior was overlooked as just one of those things.

The remorse I felt because of my personal lack of responsiveness though, has never fully left me, and it also contributed to my deciding later in my work life to...

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