Clingy teacher making me uncomfortable

I’m a female teacher in my late 30s. There is a male teacher that will not leave me alone and it’s making me increasingly uncomfortable. School is now over, and I was counting on not having to see him anymore, but I guess with the clock ticking, he’s become pushier.

It used to just be occasional interactions, like last year, he would try to drum up reasons to talk with me, and I was always polite and friendly. One day he invited me to go to his home to play board games with him, and I declined. His response was “It doesn’t have to be board games.” I declined again, and basically said that I would not be going to his personal home for any reason. In one incident he came into my classroom after school saying that he needed help using our online LMS, but instead he pulled the chair right up close to me kind of trapping me behind my desk, so close, he was breathing in my face, and just ranted about students until I could get them to leave. He may have asked me out again, but I don’t remember exactly because it was so odd.

Starting about a month ago, when he learned he was not asked back to continue teaching at our school, he started visiting my class about every other day. During his planning period, he would walk over to my building and either hang out outside my door and try to talk to me or even walk inside my classroom. I was polite and answered his questions, but I also tersely made it clear that I needed to focus on teaching my class.

A few weeks ago, his visits became daily. Every single day. I began keeping a log. His excuses for visiting were ridiculous, such as saying that he needed to speak to a student… Even though he would be seeing that student later in the day. Or he would say that a student had forgotten to write their name on an assignment in his class… And he wanted them to come back and write their name.

I spoke to administration as well as his department head, and they agreed to talk to him because they said he struggles with social skills. His visits to my class stopped, but he continues to try to corner me around school.

Every interaction I have with him makes me so deeply uncomfortable that I’ve told several people to look his way if I ever go missing. He’s constantly trying to corner me wherever he spots me on campus.

Today we are having a staff luncheon to celebrate a retiring teacher. He already went through the line and got a plate of food, but every time I move to get in line, he does this circuit where he walks around in such a way as to come up behind me, and then says my name. He’s done this twice, and I just pretended to get a phone call. Finally I gave up and left to get lunch off campus.

Most people tease me about how he must have a crush on me, so I feel stupid continuing to tell people that I feel uncomfortable. I’ve been advised to just ignore him, but he has made it his mission these past few weeks to corner me anywhere he can around campus, no matter how hard I try to avoid him.

We have our final faculty meeting tomorrow, and I’m honestly tempted to not even show up. I also need to continue to clean things out of my classroom, but I’m afraid to be up there alone when he has no problem letting himself into my classroom. Anyone have advice? Anyone else out there who has read The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker, especially other women, I feel like my feelings are legitimate. But I seem to be the only one.

Edited to add: please forgive typos; I wrote this on my phone .

UPDATE: I wrote this post shortly after I left campus for lunch. I forgot to include this earlier, but in addition to following me around the luncheon, it wasn’t enough that I kept walking away from him every time he approached me, so I straight up left the building. Then, as I was heading toward the office in the next building, I glanced behind me, and he was there. For those who seem frustrated that I haven’t directly addressed him or gotten in his face, he’s much taller, and bigger than I am. It’s hard to explain, but his intense demeanor is also very offputting.

When I came back to campus, I talked to admin. They ended up canceling the faculty meeting altogether for tomorrow, because we don’t really need it, and a lot of teachers have already dipped out. Furthermore, I’ve been waiting all day for the final signature on my end-of-year task list, and they finally signed off! This meant I was able to leave campus immediately, and I don’t have to come back tomorrow! This means I’ll never have to run into them again! At least not on campus!

Huge thanks to everyone who shared their insights, advice, and experiences. Many of you were correct that I had not been direct enough. I’ve definitely learned that saying things like “I can’t talk right now” or “I am busy” (even if said brusquely) probably gave him the impression that he should keep trying later.

Some of the staff I spoke to still think it’s just kind of silly and even adorable, but this guy creeps me out to my core and I hope I never have to see him again.