AITA for pulling rank unprofessionally on an employee for bullying?
I (26M) work in administration at a private school in Latin America, kind of like a vice principal. Part of my job is supervising and evaluating English teachers.
At the start of the school year, we hired a new English teacher (25F). She struggled a bit with the older students, so later she was moved to younger grades in primary school after another teacher left the country. At our school, English and Spanish teachers co-manage the same groups of students. The issue is that the Spanish teacher (25F) clearly disliked the English teacher from the beginning. She constantly made snarky comments about her classes to other teachers and even students. Over time, some staff started excluding the English teacher, and students stopped respecting her.
A couple days ago, the English teacher rearranged the classroom seats for an activity during her class. The Spanish teacher wasn’t even assigned to that classroom at the time, but she suddenly opened the door, rising her voice, told her to not move the seats because she had “strategically arranged” them already, ordered the students back to their original places, and stormed out.
Later, the English teacher came to my office upset and explained what happened, so I asked the principal and the Spanish teacher to meet with us. Before the meeting, I found out the principal had already had several meetings with the English teacher about classroom management issues, but I had never been informed because I mainly handle academics.
During the meeting, it honestly felt like the English teacher was being ambushed. The Spanish teacher spent most of the time criticizing her abilities instead of discussing the actual incident. The principal also seemed to side with her immediately. When the Spanish teacher claimed the seating arrangement had been approved by the principal and couldn’t be changed, I got frustrated and asked why she was even entering another teacher’s classroom during class time in the first place and "putting up a show" in front of the students, like she was the principal. She didn't answer.
The meeting ended with the principal basically dismissing the English teacher’s concerns. She left crying. As I was leaving, I overheard the Spanish teacher make a snarky comment about her to the principal, and the principal agreed. That’s when I lost my temper. I went back in and told the Spanish teacher she needed to be careful about the comments she makes about the English teacher to students, other teachers, and parents. My tone was definitely condescending, and I think it was obvious I was implying I had more authority at the school. Then I walked out.
When retelling the story to my family they said I was too harsh on the Spanish teacher and that I should never make a comment like that to a subordinate. Also, the principal seems to be ignoring me since that day... AITA for using my position to make the Spanish teacher back off and what I think was defending the English teacher?