In the Matte Yehuda Regional Council, residents opened an entire alternative school just so their children would be safe from encountering their principal. In the town of Givat Shmuel, the parents held a strike on the first day of school, prohibiting their children from going.
The principal from Givat Shmuel arrived on the first day of the new school year on Sunday only to find all the classrooms empty, after local parents' decision to hold a strike protesting her.
Ariel Wittislavski, a concerned PTA member from the Moreshet Moria school in Givat Shmuel, told channel 12 news "there are a hundred parents who have come and asked to talk to her, and she has so far refused."
He added "this in not our fight, this is a fight for our children's education."
The school has seen a downturn over recent years. Teachers have reported the principal screaming at them and publicly humiliating them. There have been teacher reports of "vengeful decisions" made against children, along with a steep decline in the overall quality of education at the school.
The ministry of education tried offering her generous severance packages to leave, but she has so far refused and pursued legal counsel. She even refused a call to have a conversation with the minister of education.
A similar story has unfolded in the small town of Tal Shachar, in the Matte Yehuda Regional Council. On Sunday, local parents opened an "alternative school", all so that their children wouldn't be sent to a school with a principal deemed "unfit" by the ministry of education.
Vice-head of Matte Yehuda Regional Council, in charge of education for the area, asked Channel 12 "Do we as parents, and as a council, need to accept this policy, having bureaucracy and education ministry practices dictate whether this woman, who is clearly unfir for the job, gets to stay in her position for another year?"
After being forced out of two regional councils, she arrived in Tal Shachar. During her first year there, several instances of violence were reported, along with an overall decline in educational standards. Her second year she recieved a very harsh report about her work from the ministry of education, but for reasons unclear she remained at her position for another year.
Local parents kept their children from attending the first day of school, explaining to channel 12 news that they "won't allow [their] children to be used as guinea pigs for the ministry of education".
On Sunday morning, around 40 children attended their first day at their regular school, while 300 opted to attend the alternative school.