Bulletin Board Destroyed

Just need to rant because tell me why I walked into my classroom to discover my bulletin board, which took me (a 34 week pregnant woman) and my mom half a day to set up, to be completely torn down and partly destroyed/thrown away.

I decided to come in a few days this summer to get my classroom ready before school starts since I wanted to make going bts as easy as possible since I’ll be ready to pop come September. I’ve worked incredibly hard to make my classroom an inviting space, that is within code to avoid issues with fire inspections.

I guess the fire inspectors didn’t like my “better than paper” bulletin board paper, because someone ordered our school janitors to go into rooms with violations to take down said items. As a result, my board is completely bare, the posters were left but some damaged from being carelessly ripped off the board, and they threw away all my bulletin boarders (which I had purchased with my own money). They left the “paper” folded up on a student desk.

I went right to admin to ask why my this happened to which they didn’t really have an answer other than the fire inspectors and school grounds people have been doing laps of the building all week and apparently items around the building have been thrown away (table cloths, fake plants, etc.). I am baffled that personal items are being thrown away without notice and that since this conversation, there’s been no communication with staff regarding the fact that their personal items could have been thrown away during this fire inspection raid.

I’m so frustrated that all the hard work I put into my room was just trashed like this. In my pregnancy rage, I found the policy regarding wall coverings which states no more than 50% of the wall can be covered, and while my bulletin board is large, it is not 50% of the wall. Additionally, on the Teacher Created Resources website it states “Yes! Better Than Paper has been tested, and is not considered to be a flammable solid material according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission 16 CFR 1500.3(c)(6)(vi).”

What is also frustrating to me is that not all rooms with bulletin boards decorations were taken down. Some rooms that have the same size bulletin boards as I do with regular bulletin board paper on them were untouched.

So I guess you can have regular old flammable paper, but material that has been tested and is considered non flammable isn’t allowed?

I notified my union rep, but as an untenured teacher who is about to be out on maternity leave, I can’t make a stink about this….so thanks for letting me rant here!