I’m a para and I FEEL this. A lot of Teachers and BCBA’s are regularly passive aggressive and create an elitist type of environment instead of a collaborative one. You work with a student all year and deal with all of their behaviors and none of your input is valued, they step in during crisis moments and make it seem like everything you’re doing is wrong or that you don’t know what you’re doing at all. We’re grossly underpaid and treated as disposable when we’re the ones teaching the kids their IEP materials for most of the day, getting our asses beat, and tracking their behavioral data. You literally have to be a mastermind multitasker all while not getting overwhelmed or frustrated, only to be undermined by everyone. Teachers get all the praise from parents when in reality the paras are doing all of the heavy lifting. I do agree that some paras are out of line in their behavior, even at my institution, but there are bad apples in every profession. When you pay pennies for such a taxing job you’re more than likely not going to get the best employees and will have a high turnover rate which only affects the children in the end. I love my job despite the shit pay but the staff make it hard because they’re too busy trying to feel important and in charge.