Mastodawn

I was a bit unprofessional today. I asked the host of a meeting to mute the zoom participants, then I addressed the two staff present in-person about their insistence on using a student’s dead name. One staffer used the excuse that the name is in the official paperwork. I called it an excuse and reminded them both that this is a human being. I might not be called back to interpret more of those meetings, but I couldn’t bear keep hearing them treat the student like that.

Bureaucracy is not an excuse for mistreating others.

ADHDeanASL 1h ago

This is moving fast for a Mastodon post, so please friends, allow me to say this: PROTECT TRANS KIDS!

Amy Maybe 1h ago

@adhdeanasl Thank you! ❤️

Hates Decaf 3h ago

@adhdeanasl I’m so proud of you! KICK THAT BEE’S NEST!

Daniel Lakeland 3h ago

How is that unprofessional? You did well! Protecting students from bureaucracy is important work.

ADHDeanASL 3h ago

@dlakelan Interpreters aren’t supposed to interject personal comments into work situations. But when I see someone being disrespected, I can’t help it.

1.3.6.1.4.1.61513 2h ago

@adhdeanasl @dlakelan seems like a professional way of handling it tbh

Ezra Freelove 1h ago

@dlakelan @adhdeanasl an access office provides services to students a bureaucracy would normally make impossible.

@adhdeanasl Thank you for saying something!

Chris Alemany 3h ago

@adhdeanasl bravo!! 🙌

Great job!

Jody Hughes 3h ago

@adhdeanasl Thank you.

Weird Socks 3h ago

@adhdeanasl
Remind us all: Which one of these United States do you work in?

ADHDeanASL 3h ago

@ohmu I work in a very Deep South state. Two of them, really.

Weird Socks 3h ago

@adhdeanasl
Got it.
What you did would have been challenging anywhere, I suspect.
Thank you for sticking up for somebody.
I hope the repercussions are minor.

CaliCarol 3h ago

Good for you. I hate bullies and I consider dead naming someone clearly bullying. They are also cowards so you probably stopped them from doing that again lest they get called on it.

Nix is Risen (not hungover!)3h ago

@adhdeanasl good humaning!

Good work, you big ol legend you.

trachelipus 3h ago

@adhdeanasl You know for sure if the kid's birth name was Richard or Robert, they'd have no problem following the kid's wish to be called Rick or Bob or even Racer. It's just if the kid wants to be called Olivia that it's suddenly an issue.

Verđandi K Soldusty 3h ago

@adhdeanasl
Nicely done, thanks for being such an awesome human being.
Hate people with that attitude. Need to sort their attitude & their paperwork out, both are clearly out of date.

@adhdeanasl Thank you for doing the right thing.

@adhdeanasl
Professional badass!

eestileib (she/hers)3h ago

🏳️‍⚧️🩷🫰🏻

Thank you Dean!

Professionalism takes a back seat to human dignity.

Dr Neenah Estrella-Luna 3h ago

@adhdeanasl This is an issue that comes up in mediation training. What do you do when one of the parties is engaged in clearly discriminatory or abusive behavior? Some mediators interpret their ethical obligations as staying neutral and not intervening. I encourage my mentees that impartiality does not require neutrality in the face of oppressive or abusive behaviors. We have a social obligation to protect those who are marginalized or vulnerable.

@adhdeanasl Thank you. <3

ZenHeathen 🇨🇦3h ago

@adhdeanasl Yes! Dean FTW! (Damn it! I got the smallest image I could find! Is that stupidly giant for everyone else too? Sorry.)

Roknrol like the slur 1h ago

@ZenHeathen Appropriately sized, I would say, considering the size of the thanks.

@adhdeanasl If I were there, I would shake your hand and buy you a beer, Sir!

Darth Osler 2h ago

@kimlockhartga @adhdeanasl being a professional is doing the right thing even when it's hard to do

Like why I'm in the sin bin at work right now.

😁

Alison Meeks 2h ago

@adhdeanasl Well done you! Well done indeed.

Ludwig Vielfrass 2h ago

@adhdeanasl If professionalism requires de-personing people, then fuck professionalism.

@adhdeanasl good on you. Cant imagine this was an easy thing to do but can never go wrong setting an example for someone else. It could cause a wave of good and we wouldn't know it

You're the best kind of professional!

Hotter, More Cross Bunny 2h ago

Well, I'd like to thank you for doing that. If you can't stand up for what's right people will keep getting knocked down.

Evelyn Octavia 2h ago

@adhdeanasl good job!

Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe 2h ago

@adhdeanasl This is how to do it. Well done, you.

Thankful Machine 2h ago

@adhdeanasl Unprofessional my ass! The world needs more protectors like you. Thank you.

mouse.sys ▒2h ago

@adhdeanasl thank you for putting your standing with the client on the line to take a stand for someone vulnerable!

ADHDeanASL 1h ago

@0 This student has multiple vulnerabilities, and the staff KNOW THIS and they KNOW BETTER. I’d just had enough. Sigh.

ennenine 1h ago

@adhdeanasl thank you! That's a pretty lame excuse. I doubt they address other students by their full legal name as well and instead employ nicknames and other shortened versions. Either way, this is still the right thing to do. Bravo!

@adhdeanasl I think that was very professional. And human.

Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag ⛈ 🐸1h ago

@adhdeanasl
Doesn't sound the slightest bit unprofessional to me. Indeed, the staff members deadnaming the student were the unprofessional ones.

ಚಿರಾಗ್ 🌹✊🏾Ⓥ🌱🇵🇸 (he/him)1h ago

@adhdeanasl Fuck yes.

Glowing Cat of the Nuclear Wastelands 1h ago

@adhdeanasl I wish more people would be unprofessional like this. Especially since "it's the name on their official paperwork" is such a common excuse from people who should know better, and is especially fucked up since many think they mean no harm.

Em & future cats 🇺🇦🐈🏳️‍🌈1h ago

@adhdeanasl I think that is completely professional of you 🩷 and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise!!!😾😹

Vickie Gray 🍁1h ago

@adhdeanasl well done.

3Jane Tessier Ashpool 54m ago

@adhdeanasl you’re a good egg

ADHDeanASL 39m ago

@3janeTA I just try to not contribute to others’ harm

@adhdeanasl
I'll chime in with my two cents.
That is the best kind of professional:
Identify standards of behavior and call out folks who aren't living up to them.

manchicken 42m ago

@adhdeanasl I’m proud of you. Thank you for advocating for students, though I do think professional conduct allows for real-time accountability scenarios like this one.

transgender_flag

@adhdeanasl I think addressing someone being actively hateful is a good reason to interrupt a meeting.
It was the right thing to do

Gnorzaps 39m ago

@adhdeanasl thank you

MizFidd 37m ago

@adhdeanasl As an educator, you were beyond professional. You were courageous. Thank you for leading by example.

MizFidd 35m ago

@adhdeanasl I wanted to slap a former colleague every time he would deadname a student. Asshat goes by his middle name!

FeloniousPunk 35m ago

@adhdeanasl Good on you Dean.

Tracey Thekla Rolandelli 34m ago

@adhdeanasl thank you

@adhdeanasl
There are more important things than being professional.

Ben! (Boo!)23m ago

@adhdeanasl This is one of many reasons I like you, great job.

🍄slow learner, ❤️‍🔥deep feeler 17m ago

Sometimes, the rules of professionalism are there to deprive us of our humanity.