Custodian Forced to Resign From Position at Middle School for Leaving Shift 8 Minutes Early

A TikTok highlighting a 2016 incident between former Webb Bridge Middle School custodian Jonathan Holley, and the institution's principal, Susan Opferman, has gone viral. According to Thrilling, Jonathan said that he was forced to resign from his job after Human Resources told him he would no longer be allowed to work for the school.

The video highlights what many have called a clear example of abuse of power in progress: Opferman, who reportedly left her job in May of 2016 due to health-related issues, but many believe it was due to the negative feedback she received as a result of the video's posting.

Jonathan posted a follow-up video pertaining about the incident in May of 2017, where he stated he found it difficult to secure work and was driving for Uber to make ends meet.

His interaction with the school principal has been making the rounds on TikTok, stunning a new wave of folks who've watched the clip posted to @sarah_conner1's account.

The video appears to be a recording taken during Jonathan Holley's meeting with a Principal Opferman, who asks him at the top of the clip what his work hours are supposed to be. He tells her that he works between 6:30 am-3:00 pm.

The administrator then asks him why he left his shift at 2:45.

"I didn't leave at 2:45," he tells her, to which she responds that he did.

"I did not leave at 2:45."

"We were calling you," she replies.

"What time do you think you left?" she asks him.

As he tries to tell her when he left for the day, she asks him several times "What time do you think you left?"

"2:52," he informs the school administrator. She informs the custodian that he left his shift early, however, he denies doing so, because, he argues, he ultimately arrived for his shift prior to his official start time.

Opferman asks him again what his official hours are, and as he tries to explain why he left at 2:52 pm, she tells the man to "stop talking," before requesting that he stated his set hours during their meeting.

Jonathan remains silent, and she asks, yet again, "What are your hours? I just wanna hear them again. What are they?"

"I told you my hours already," he says to her.

"Tell me again."

"From 6:30 to —"

"6:30, to 3 o'clock," she replies.

"Okay and you left early today," she insists once more, before Jonathan corrects her and argues, also once more, that he didn't leave his shift early and that he still worked a full shift.

"Did you leave before 3 o'clock?" the administrator queries.

"I left before 3 o'clock —"

"Why?"

He explains that he had to enter the building early because there were folks from the fire department waiting outside to get into the building in order to service the fire alarm.

"So I had to come in the building at 6:15."

"Who told you to come at 6:15?" she asks before he explains that he didn't want to enter the building at that time, but he was sitting in his car outside and that the folks from the fire department were waiting there as well.

He argues that instead of all of them waiting outside until his official shift time begins, he thought it would be a better idea to let the folks inside of the building so they could get to work.

The administrator responded that they should've just been left to wait instead of being allowed to come into the building early to do their job.

"We are not open until 6:30."

"So they have to wait till 6:30 to get inside the building [to work on] the fire alarms?" he asks her.

She argues back that "if they don't have a key [that] the building is not open till 6:30," and that he isn't allowed to "adjust [his] hours because [he] feel[s] like it."

When he tells her that he didn't change his hours because he didn't feel like it, she tells him that that's what his intention was for entering the building prior to the school's official 6:30 a.m. start time.

"Did your boss, Susan Opferman, tell you to start your hours early today?" she questions him further.

Jonathan again tries to explain what he believes were extenuating circumstances that led him to begin his shift earlier than his designated 6:30 a.m. start time.

"Who is your boss?" she asks him, plainly. "Is your boss, Susan Opferman? Or the Fire Marshall?"

She goes on to say that because his hours are 6:30 to 3, and that he was needed at 2:45 and they couldn't get a hold of him, adding, again, that if he leaves before 3 p.m., then he's leaving his shift early.

Jonathan then begins to address what appears to be a double standard in measuring time at his job, stating that a day earlier when he finished a staff meeting, he wasn't able to leave the school until 3:15 p.m. The administrator denies his version of the events, stating that she finished the meeting "on time" because she doesn't want to keep employees past their hours.

She then appears to put the blame on him for leaving his job at 3:15 after the staff meeting on him because she was sure to end the meeting by 3 p.m. "I did not give you permission to leave early today," the administrator goes on. "You left before your shift was over, you left before your shift was completed. Your shift finishes at 3 o'clock."

At this point in the clip, it appears that a quick jump occurs, and the administrator is still talking. "The only one that changes your schedule is me. The only person that gives permission for your schedule to be different from 6.30 to 3, is me. They are not your boss, I am very upset you did not work your full shift today," she tells Jonathan.

Jonathan replies that if she's getting on his case about leaving his shift 8 minutes early, then she should speak with other workers in the building about their early leave times as well. "It seems like I'm being picked out," he informs her, before going on to say that he feels as if she's constantly singling him out and is currently "harassing" him during their discussion.

"You always seem to be yelling and screaming at me, always telling me this, that, and the third, and it's getting to that frustration point," he informs her.

She denies harassing him, to which he replies that she is.

"We're finished," she tells him. "This meeting's done. Please stop yelling at me," she says.

"I'm not yelling, I'm just voicing my frustration because just like you are frustrated with me I'm frustrated too."

She ends the video by stating that she's going to see him the next day and that she's going to let him know "what HR says," before Jonathan responds, "okay," and the clip is over.