Dear Yeshiva World,

I am a parent of two daughters that worked in schools this past year. I would like to share with you the way the heads of the schools of YOUR children deal with their staff.

With one of my daughter’s, she was told she’d get paid by the hour. In the beginning of the year, the head of the school figured out the number of hours per week she’d work, multiplied it by four, and made that the set amount she’d get paid once a month.  However, we all know that there are more than four weeks in a month.  There usually is an extra 2 days-half week in a month. So my daughter was not paid for a few days each month this whole year.

My next daughter taught in a school the full day.  However, there were many times that she was asked to substitute on last minute notice instead of doing her morning assistant job. She was told she’d get paid extra for all those times she substituted. However, although she subbed last year and this year many times, and was constantly told she’d get paid, the end of the year rolled around and the money was nowhere in sight.  So she called up her boss to request her money due her for the past two years worth of substituting.  Before she knew it, her boss started yelling and screaming at her that how dare she ask for substitute money when the whole year my daughter tutored a girl in his school and used his utilities. She never paid him for the light she used in the smallest room in the school so therefore that money surely made up for all the substitute money owed to her.  Mind you, my daughter asked to be able to use the room before she even started and got permission from him.  My daughter was tutoring a student in their school!! Another complaint he used was that because my daughter tutored the student, the parents didn’t pay 75% of the tuition.  Now can anyone explain how that gives him the right not to pay her substitute money? Can anyone explain how the school can withhold payment because my daughter sometimes used a room in their school to tutor someone when she had explicit permission from the beginning to do so? She offered to pay the utilities during the tirade however he said that surely the substitute money equals the year’s utilities my daughter used.  My daughter couldn’t get a word on edgewise so she finally just said “okay bye” and promptly burst out crying for the humiliation of getting yelled out by a “respectable” man.

This daughter was so devoted to her students; she did everything for them. She would take the students that need extra attention to the park or the ice cream shop at night on her own time and expense to make them feel good. She’d make projects etc.  But all that doesn’t count when it comes to money.

So my two daughters, devoted workers in school were both shortchanged on a large sum of money.  This was all done without a psak din.  The heads of the school just decided it doesn’t come to them, and therefore they simply held it back. Forget about the halacha about paying your workers on time and not withholding payment.

Rabbosai, these are the people responsible for molding your children in middos, hashkafos and for life.  In whose hands are we placing our children, day in and day out of their school life?

A concerned parent.