John did do one thing here...he made a connection that I hadn't made from the first reading of James' account of his experiences.

If you moved your girlfriend into on-campus housing at a university, without the university's permission to do so, then you did indeed violate a rule that universities take very seriously. Melodrama aside it probably isn't going to land you in prison, but it IS going to draw the ire of the university. Not to say that the uni's draconian overreaction was justified, but I can understand that they would freak out over this.

James, before any further criticism takes place, can we assume you were in on-campus housing? If so, did you have the university's permission to bring her in?

This incident is noteworthy because it marks the first argument John has posted that holds any water whatsoever.

If you look at John's posting history, mostly over on the Reviews side, it's hard not to notice that John seems to exist for one thing and one thing only: to try and shoot down any complaint that any foreign teacher makes about any school. He puts a lot of work into making it look as if any problem that happens in China is entirely the fault of the foreign teacher.

He jumps readily into situations where even he admits he has no knowledge and no connection. He posits a bunch of rather condescending and cowardly after-the-fact hindsight. He uses small and often irrelevant details to try and cover over tales of the most blatant thievery and malfeasance on the part of the schools.

The one thing he DOESN'T tell us is why he expends so much effort on this campaign to exonerate the schools and make all of us look bad. I can think of only 2 possibilities:

1) He's trying to ingratiate himself, at the expense of all of us, with some group of school owners or aducation administrators. Boo, hiss!

2, and my money's on this one) He's ego-fluffing. By making all of us look stupid and superficial and a bit dodgy, he must be better than all of us, right?

Wrong! I ain't buying it and I don't intend to endure it in silence. There ARE cases where the teacher is clearly in the wrong; when this happens I'm happy to call that spade a spade.

However, the history of EFL education in China is rife with cases of lying, cheating, thievery, abuse and intimidation on the part of the schools. For every teacher who's been a perpetrator there are at least a thousand who have been victims. I for one will not put up with an attempt to wallpaper over this with technicalities just so some bozo can please his friends or tell himself what a great fellow he is.

It's a bad thing to treat an employee in an abusive and dishonest manner. It's an even worse thing to help excuse, and thus help perpetuate, this behavior. It's becoming very clear that John is, for whatever reason, sleeping with the enemy.