Sounds to me like management has to change, In the case of your niece, for instance, they should have been supporting her. So bad.

I have a number of teachers in my family, all of them in Scotland. I need to check to see how they view things.

It's too bad, Bebe.

I LOVED teaching and only had a couple of contretemps all up. One of them almost crippled me. I should have taken leave, but I soldiered on. I wouldn't do that these days.