I just left a job at a school where everyone seemed...just a little cold and unfriendly? I did befriend a few people at the beginning of the year, but there were only two who I felt like I could really trust, and they worked in another grade. They hired me to consult, but no one ever implemented my recommendations. The coworker I had to collaborate with to do my job was constantly out for personal reasons, so I often ended up doing both of our jobs, but no one ever thanked me, or even acknowledged that I was doing extra work.

When I talked to our direct supervisor about it, she was very sympathetic and also confused about what was going on. Last week, she forwarded one of my emails to the principal, in an attempt to get clarity. He ignored all of the content of the email (which was about how I was having trouble getting the resources to do my job, and was feeling very overwhelmed and like I wouldn't be able to complete the project), and instead blew up at her about how unprofessional and inappropriate my tone was (it wasn't either of those things; just direct, and addressed to her, not to him).

Rather than talking to me directly, he sent her back to tell me how he felt. I could tell she was upset and felt terrible about the whole thing, so I went directly to him. He talked to me in that creepy calm narc voice about how bad my attitude was, and how inappropriate it was to send an email like that for 45 minutes, until I started crying.

I wanted to stick it out until the end of the specific project I'm working on, but earlier this week, he came into a meeting I was in, and started asking me a bunch of questions that were obviously designed to put me on the spot and make me look stupid. So... I quit. He called me into his office where I offered two weeks notice, and instead he told me more about how terrible my attitude was, took my school laptop and had me escorted from the building.

I only worked there for two months, but I'm so upset! I felt absolutely terrified when I was waiting for him to speak to me in his office that last day, and I can't stop thinking about it and spontaneously crying. I don't even understand what exactly I'm upset about. We only had two conversations the whole time I worked there, but I feel like he just emotionally beat the crap out of me. What happened?? How do people like that manage to have such a powerful effect, and is there any way to protect against it in the future? Or is the answer just to make sure I have enough savings to always leave after the first bad encounter?

(ETA: The title I wrote was confusing - I worked there for two months, but the final encounter just happened on Wednesday.)