The Power of One: Decision S2E1

This episode of the Tools for Success Podcast shares an unfiltered and deeply human story about leadership, public judgment, and faith under fire. Veteran educator and former principal Cathy Tooley recounts the moment one disciplinary decision ignited media backlash, community outrage, and national attention that ultimately ended a decades long career in education. Through her story, listeners gain insight into the emotional reality educators face when leadership decisions are misunderstood, sensationalized, and reduced to headlines. This episode speaks directly to teachers, principals, school leaders, and administrators who have ever felt the weight of public scrutiny or the pressure of making unpopular decisions in complex environments.

Beyond the crisis, this conversation is about perseverance, identity, and separating who you are from the title you hold. Cathy reflects on losing her position, rebuilding her life, and finding renewed purpose through faith and service. This episode is a powerful reminder that behind every educator is a human being carrying responsibility, conviction, and care for students. If you are navigating burnout, leadership challenges, criticism, or a season of uncertainty, this episode offers encouragement, perspective, and hope rooted in resilience.

Step into growth and purpose! Discover my books and resources designed to help you lead, learn, and live with impact.

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//About

Cathy Tooley is the Founder & CEO of Tools for Success and a seasoned educator with over 40 years in K–12 classrooms and school leadership. From high school teacher to principal, Cathy has dedicated her life to supporting educators. In 2014, she launched Tools for Success to provide real, in-person instructional coaching—not just “PD in a box.” She’s the author of The Education System Is Broken, a national speaker, and a fierce advocate for teachers. Through this podcast, she’s spotlighting the ripple effect of great teaching.
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Transcript

A Human Behind The Title

Cathy Tooley 0:00

I don't need your pity. I don't want you to watch this for pity. I don't want it and I don't need it. But I was a human. I was a mother and I was a wife. And I knew in that moment that a 30-year career, at that moment, it was 28 years, was over. So at my lowest point, when I sat there on that credenza, I heard the Lord say, What have you done wrong? And I thought, I haven't. And he said, Then stop acting like you have. I want you to hear and feel those tears the next time you want to think about filleting a teacher or a principal because they made you angry. I want you to listen to this podcast and that remember that on the back of that title, because I had a title of principal, there's still a woman, a human, a flawed, sinful, incorrected, not right, screw it up more days than she gets it right. Human who made a decision that you didn't like in a title that she had. But it has to start with a story. So I'm giving you all these precursors, and yeah, I'm just going to jump right in. So, you know, I those of you that know me know I have been an educator my whole life. I spent 20 years in a classroom and 10 years as a principalship, and this happened during my principalship. I had, before this happened to me, seen news stories, read news articles about a principal in trouble because insert whatever story. You know, the suspending of a kid. Oh gosh, remember one time there was a story around a pool or what they did or didn't do, or that a teacher had done this, that, or the other. I mean, I lived my life in education and I and I watched the news back in the day. That's how we got our news. For those of you that are a little young, we used to watch the nightly news. But anyway, my judgmental self in the back corners of my mind, deep, deep, deep, deep down, thought to myself, well, I wonder what you did to deserve that.

Sponsor: Tools For Success

Cathy Tooley 3:23

Thanks so much for joining the Tools for Success podcast. Every school faces challenges, things like disengage students, overwhelm teachers, and leaders stretched far too thin. At Tools for Success, we've been there too. Our team of licensed administrators and former teachers partner with schools to turn those challenges into growth. Through tailored professional development, we help teachers build confidence, leaders feel supported, and students thrive. Because at the end of the day, student success is what matters most. It starts with just one conversation. Schedule your complimentary consultation at ToolsForSuccessIndie.com. Now, back to our podcast.

The Judgment We Don’t Admit

Cathy Tooley 4:02

Well, you must have created that. Well, if you hadn't done this, that wouldn't have happened. Well, you shouldn't have let them say this, or you shouldn't have let them do this, or you shouldn't have let you know what I mean? I I almost had this caveat or this excuse of I know that's bad, and they're being fired and they're being filleted in the news, you know, their faces all over tonight's top news story. But deep, deep, deep down, they deserved it. That was my caveat. That was my caveat. I'm I'm just being honest when I start that, that my judgmental self thought that. So, fast forward to um the spring of a new principalship that I had taken over. I am intentionally going to not share the specific details because frankly, the specific details are irrelevant. But I made a decision to suspend some students for a disciplinary behavior that they had done. As an assistant principal and a principal, that's kind of what we do all day.

The Unpopular Suspension Decision

Cathy Tooley 5:16

Sadly. Not the funnest part of our job, but it's part of it. That decision was wildly unpopular. Wildly unpopular. I don't think I can say wildly and unpopular more. It really ruffled some feathers. I had no idea then the feathers that it was ruffling. Because at the end of the day, I'd made I'd made heavier decisions. I suspended the kids for two days. It was not that big of a deal to me. It wasn't a decision that I necessarily wanted, but it was one that in collaboration with the remaining of the administrative team that I was a part of felt like collaboratively it was being made. I certainly didn't fight it. No that I necessarily loved it, but I didn't necessarily fight it. I was a young, young principal. This was my first principalship in a building all of its own. I had been an assistant principal and led other buildings, but not in the capacity that I was now. And I made that decision, and I watched people get upset, and I thought, oh no, come on. Come on. I mean,

Protests, Media, And Threats Escalate

Cathy Tooley 6:31

I make hundreds of decisions. I suspend kids, kids are suspended often. No one was getting expelled. No one, it was, I didn't, I just didn't think it was that big of a deal. And it turned into a big deal. Um, it snowballed into students having sit-ins in my building and refusing to go to class. Um state testing, where some of those students, if they hadn't passed that state test, weren't going to graduate from high school, um, to the media, the media, the media, getting a hold of it like I had never felt in my life. At one point, I was leaving the building. This went on really heavily for about three days, the sit-ins, the parents walking into my building. I had a parent spit at me. Um the vial that over a suspension that they disagreed with me. At the end of the day, I made a decision as a principal that they disagreed with. Period. Um, it got so ugly that I had to have police escorts to leave my building. When I got on the road, they were rocking my van and spitting on it. They chased me down a highway, and I literally had to go into my house where a news station, whom I will not name, was shoving a camera down the window of my house where my children were, where I had to close the curtains. So I want I want you to pause for just a minute. I don't need your pity. I don't want you

Home Harassment And Career Shock

Cathy Tooley 8:26

to watch this for pity. I don't want it and I don't need it. But I was a human. I was a mother and I was a wife. And I knew in that moment that a 30-year career at that moment it was 28 years. It was over. And that because of what was being reported on the other side of that screen, the portion of the story that was being reported on that other side of that screen, that my my professional career was over. I knew it in my gut. Now I knew I would remain in that building and I would have a job for two more years because I signed a three-year contract. But I knew that my career was over. That all of the good that I had done, the differences that I had made in students' lives, the impact that I'd had as a leader, because I'm an aphasing leader, that none of it mattered. That none of it mattered. But because I made a decision to suspend five kids, it didn't matter. That it was the story that everyone choose to run with.

Sponsor: Faith-Based Journal

Cathy Tooley 9:51

Thanks for listening to Tools for Success Podcast. What if one minute could change your day? A gentle walk, the new faith-based journal by our founder, Cathy Tooley, offers one prompt, one prayer, one small step closer to God. Start your gentle walk today. Learn more and get your copy by visiting Warren Publishing in the link below. Now back to the podcast.

A Friend’s Call And A Breaking Point

Cathy Tooley 10:15

So at my lowest point, and it was low, that this happened in all of a myriad of about four days. I was on national news. People, friends were calling me from California and Florida saying, you've made our news, you've made our news. I was tonight's top news story, my face plastered out there with the version of the truth. Because I couldn't tell the whole story, and I'm not going to tell it here. Because that's not the point of this podcast. The point of this podcast isn't for me correcting the wrongs that were said to me that day. It's not the point of this podcast. So at my lowest, lowest, lowest point, I was in my building maybe day four. The sit-ins had basically stopped because my boss at the time decided we would overturn all the suspensions. And I got to apologize to a group of people that I didn't feel I owed an apology to. I still didn't and don't. And at my lowest point, a very dear friend of mine who had left, he and I's paths had crossed at a previous school that I'd been at, and he was an assistant superintendent now at another school district, called my phone, and I won't say his name because I don't ever want to hurt him. And when I saw the call, I hadn't talked to him in, I don't know, four or five years, and I thought it was a strange call. And I took the call. But remember, my phone had been ringing off the hook. Family in California, friends in Florida. Cathy, you're all over our news. Are you okay? Are you okay? And one of my very, very dear friends in Colorado said, This is not the Cathy Tooley I know. But he called and he said to me, Kath, where are you standing right now? And I said, I thought it was the stupidest of questions. I'm standing on hall duty, which by this point the kids were wearing signs to have me fired. There were signs painted all on my path to work that I should be fired, myself and my superintendent. It was posted all over. The humanness of who we are was irrelevant. This was a witch hunt. What

Prayer, Scripture, And Resolve

Cathy Tooley 12:20

we'd done as a suspension was irrelevant. This was a witch hunt. And I'd never been a part of it. And I said, I was standing on hold, dude. I thought it was the stupidest question. He said, I want you to go to your office. Okay. I haven't talked to this man in three or four years. So I go to my office and he said, Are you in your office? I said, Yes. He said, Lock the door. So I did, thinking this is stupid. And he said, Is there anywhere you could step in your office where no one can see you? I said, yes. So I stepped on the other side of my credenza because you know most doors nowadays have a window through them. And so on the other side of my credenza, no one could see me. And he said, I'm gonna ask you to do something, Cathy Tooley, that you don't do well. And that is, I'm gonna ask you to be quiet. There's a joke in there. For the next few minutes, I want you to just listen to me and don't say a word. And I said, okay. I'm standing behind my credenza, still thinking this is quite silly and a little over dramatic. And he said to me, I just left central office. We're gonna create a position for you. I need you to go to your computer right now, and I need you to type your resignation. They don't deserve you, they don't understand you, and they're gonna fillet you, Cathy. They're gonna ruin your career. And you are one of the finest instructional leaders I've ever known in my life. And as he was talking, I was sliding down the credenza until I got to a fetal position when my butt hit the floor, and I was listening. I was not talking, you would be very proud. And I'm listening

Years Of Fallout And A New Path

Cathy Tooley 14:06

to his words, and I heard the Lord say, What have you done wrong? You made an unpopular decision, and that's what principals do every day. They have to make unpopular decisions. Um, when you are suspending a kid, or you are telling a group of bandparents that the thousand dollars you thought you had for them for that fundraiser, you don't have, you say lots of unpopular things all day long. So I it wasn't that I was unaccustomed to that or that I hadn't didn't have thick enough skin for that. That's not true at all. It's just I had never seen it blow up to this level. So at my lowest point when I sat there on that credenza, I heard the Lord say, What have you done wrong? And I thought, I haven't. And he said, Then stop acting like you have. Thanks for being a part of the Tools for Success podcast. At Tools for Success, we believe every student deserves a classroom where learning thrives. That's why we partner with schools to equip teachers and administrators with practical, research-based professional development that makes a real difference. From mastering classroom management to building data-driven strategies, our programs empower educators with tools and confidence to transform challenges into success. The result? Engage teachers, supported leaders, and students who are prepared for the future. It starts with one conversation. So let's chat. Go to ToolsForSuccessindie.com and click on Schedule Conversation and let's see what we can do to help your students thrive. Now, back to our podcast. Because prior to that moment, I and and folks, for those of you watching this podcast, it's been many, many, many years ago, and I thought of this verse in my head. Isaiah 41, 10, that says, So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am

From Pain To Purpose

Cathy Tooley 16:04

your God. I will strengthen you and help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And as I watched my career end right there in front of my eyes for what I went to college, um, those of you that have listened to previous podcasts know that I knew I wanted to be a teacher from the time that I came out of the womb. And I was watching what it felt like was that just crumble. And I would never ever work in education again. I listened and got in a word that I knew the Lord wanted me to hear. And it's John 15, verses 18 through to 19 that says, if the word world hates you, keep in mind that they hated me first. If you belong to this world, it would have, it would have, it would love you as its own. But as it is, you don't belong to this world. But I have chosen you out of this world, and that's why this world hates you. And I stood up and I dusted the nastiness that was that past four days, and I walked forward. The days were not easy. I tell people often that from that moment it was a five-year ugliness that I felt over me. I lost my job ultimately two years later. I remained for two more years because it was either that or pay me out, and I didn't want to do that. I went on to a charter school where I only lasted for six months before I was let go and

Final Reflections And Invitation

Cathy Tooley 18:11

downsized. And then I went on to start this company where I went from a six-figure income to the first year of this company, I made $1,000. Let me say that really slowly for you. I went from a six-figure income to the first year of this company making $1,000. So as I sit on the other side of the screen, I don't want you to hear anything I just said other than what I'm about to say. I wouldn't be here today had he not taken me through that storm. I wouldn't be the woman I am, I wouldn't be the Christian that I am, I wouldn't have the relationship with Jesus Christ that I do had he not taken me through that storm. Because I know for sure that whatever the Lord gives us, he intends it to use as his testimony. That story that I just told you, and sadly, the tears that I still can feel over them, I don't want you to hear or feel those tears out of pity for me. I want you to hear and feel those tears out of the testimony you're living in right now. I want you to hear and feel those tears the next time you want to think about filleting a teacher or a principal because they made you angry. I want you to listen to this podcast and that remember that on the back of that title, because I had a title of principal, there's still a woman, a human, a flawed, sinful, incorrected, not right, screwing it up more days than she gets it right. Human who made a decision. That you didn't like in a title that she had. But I want to live in a world that we separate the people from the title. I want to live in a world that never again people have to go through that. What I went through. And I want to tell you another takeaway that if you hear nothing, nothing hear this. No matter what those news media stories said, no matter what those print articles said, no matter what those parents who broke into my building and spit at me and filleted me and said horrible things about me said, you hear this. My father stretched out his arms for me, and he took a cross and nails to his hands and his feet for me. And if this podcast serves that we never again fillet another educator like I was filleted, then every ounce of pain that I went through is worth it. Because at the end of the day, regardless of what any of those stories said, I know who I am. I know that I made a decision, and I guess what I'm gonna say this ready, ready, I'd make it again. And that decision doesn't get to change a narrative on who I am. And so now as I sit back and I look at tools for success, and the fact that I, me, Cathy Tooley, am sitting on the other end of a podcast. It's ridiculous to me. I thank God for that story. I thank God for that pain. And I want to leave you with this. Romans 831 says, when then shall we, in response to these things, what then, if God is for us, who can be against? And so my invitation to you is this I have a podcast where I'm blessed to get to share my trials, my tragedies for his testimony. Why don't you share yours? Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you on the next episode. God bless.