The Biggest Mistake Teachers Make

is believing they actually have "due process" rights and believing school districts have to follow the law. The fact is neither is true. All "tenure" really does is protect school districts from more wrongful termination lawsuits being filed against them; right now it is very difficult for teachers to get any kind of legal recourse through civil court. But given the fact school district administrators and politicians don't understand the real purpose of "post-probationary" or "tenure," they want to be able to gut it to put about wholesale age discrimination. After all, it is the more expensive hires--those over 50, regardless of how many years they have taught--who are the targets of nonstop principal harassment. They don't seem to understand that "at-will" employers ALSO have to follow federal prohibitions regarding discrimination against protected classes. The same is true with new teacher hires--they are still protected by federal laws against discrimination. School districts may rue the day "tenure" is done away with and more and more federal lawsuits are filed against them.

What terminated teachers discover is that school districts don't even have to follow the law; administrative law and union contracts aren't worth the paper they are written on. After all, who is going to enforce them? The arbitrators in some states (or panels in other states) who are bought and paid for by the school districts? They just make up a shit ruling supporting the principals' wrongdoing or incompetency with the knowledge few teachers have several hundred thousand dollars on hand to hire a lawyer and go through the appeals process for a job paying maybe 50 or 60 grand tops. Teachers aren't going to do it because they can't. Furthermore, school administrators and their attorneys get away with murder because they can't be held criminally liable when they commit illegal and criminal acts on behalf of a principal.

This blogger took a look at one "hearing" of a veteran teacher which took little time at all. It appears her hearing was even shorter than mine was, and my case was a blatant violation of federal law, contracts, and administrative law. The asshole who fired me is still with Washoe County School District albeit "transferred" to an easier school to run as "punishment" when in fact she should have been fired and had her administrative license pulled. She was and is that incompetent.