I’m an outspoken person, and several times during those 5 years I got in BIG trouble for speaking out against blatant wrong-ness (even got blasted privately once by a district co-ordinator for ‘muddying the waters’, man, he was all in my face, spitting and everything, while I stood there in shock—he’d just praised me publicly in front of my other grade level teachers for standing up for what was right!)
and that’s when I learned the district would try to blackmail you into ‘behaving’ and toeing the line!! Feh.
It was probably a machine. They just wanted to process the kids through. Not a surprise.