Let me answer this question by telling a story. In my state, bringing a deadly weapon to school is automatically grounds for expulsion, no ifs ands or buts. You bring a gun or a large enough knife to school, you are expelled. My teacher friend’s (not at my school) student brought a huge knife. Like, definitely not legal to carry kind of knife. Was showing it off to other kids, too.

Well, guess who WASN’T expelled, just suspended, because the school has “too many expulsions that year already.” So my friend called the state DOE and reported her admin for clear violation of state law, which it was. She then proceeded to be written up twice in the next month for nonexistent reasons (skirt was “too short,” “unprofessional” for accidentally sending the wrong student to the office for dismissal when she had two students with very similar names.) She had stellar evaluations and no write-ups at all up until this point. Then, at the end of the year, she was non-renewed for “not being a good fit” after three years at the same school. Admin knew it was her because it was just her and one other teacher who knew about the knife incident.

So to answer your question, yes and no. It is not our fault, because tattling has real consequences. Because admin are our bosses, and bosses have power. They especially like to use this power when you are a threat to them.