I thought I was teaching high school, not reliving it???

Venting/Ranting about something that’s been sitting with me all day.

To make a long story short, I came back to work today after having a sub due to cardiology appointments yesterday. This morning, one of my students (one of my most trustworthy students) came into my room and told me about something that happened yesterday.

She was going her schoolwork underneath my desk because she likes the cozy rug (which used to be part of a seating area across the room where students could sit and do their work, but those privileges were last this semester, so I just recently moved it under my desk) I have under there, so she was completely unseen. Two teachers came into my room and proceeded to talk shit about me, my decorations, and even my personal pictures I have on my wall (including MY BOYFRIEND????) while she was hidden under there. They were dropping f-bombs left and right, just verbally trashing the place up. Now apparently my sub came in the room and heard some of it, informed them that a student was underneath the desk the whole time, to which they fell silent for an extended period of time before leaving.

This student knows who these teachers are, and they’re both women who are 10+ years older than me. I’m a first year teacher. This isn’t giving a lot of incentive to keep at this career if the grown ass staff is acting more childish than the students. Seeing adults act like clique-y mean girls who peaked in high school, especially towards A FIRST YEAR TEACHER, is very off-putting and doesn’t give me much desire to stay in this district for long.

Imagine being almost 50 and talking shit behind a 29-year-old’s back, in THEIR OWN CLASSROOM? Seriously thought I was teaching high school, not reliving it all over again.

EDIT: Since this seems to be an issue, I don’t let this student work under my desk. That has never happened while I’m there, but since I HAD A SUB THAT DAY, I had no control over the situation. Admin unlocks classroom doors every morning before school starts, so free access for students isn’t even on me or other teachers.