link
Teachers are punished if they dare confront principals, the latter of whom hold ALL the cards.
More if you subscribe to the paper.
Note these comments:
STILLHEREAFTERALLTHESEYEARS
9:18 AM on 11/22/2011
How do you know that no teacher sounded the alarm? District gossip is that they did and no one would listen. You might want to see if there was a complaint made to the state... that is what other teachers are hearing. Most of us had heard of her "management style" as the editioral staff is so fond of calling it.
This is what you get when all avenues of real communication are dismanteled and turned into a show for the public. Teachers really have no means of reporting since AD's are also promoting this since their paycheck also depends on "scores" and that is all. Teachers are treated like hourly employees and so everyone seems surprised when the act like it and do as they are told to keep their jobs. Make no mistake about it, teachers are bullied all the time and since most are the breadwinners of their families they must keep their jobs. It sounds so easy to sound the alarm yet check to see what has happened to the teachers who have? I bet you will be surprised! Teachers on the other hand won't be. The only teachers to sound the alarm will be ones who are retiring or leaving teaching altogether. No one will risk thier income for retribution from administrators.
Who hold ALL the cards. Teachers have NO chance in such a corrupt system.
More:
KAHDallas
1:18 AM on 11/22/2011
"Until the formal inquiry began, no teacher at Field had sounded the alarm and no administrator seems to have had a clue that this extreme policy was in place."
So the DMN is aghast that teachers didn't sound the alarm at Field Elementary? Really? Really?
Go back through ALL your editorials advocating school change and reflect on your bias against teachers. Revisit your promotion of "business" models that promote more power to principals over those pesky teachers. Applaud your stance on increasing teacher accountability (DISD is spending $1.2 million to develop a new evaluation model) with no mention of increased pay.
This paper, the State of Texas, the DISD trustees, the business community, and the public have subjugated teachers to the status of factory labor (with no right to strike!) and are then incensed when they don't rise to report abuse of policy! You want top-down management of education but are bewildered when events unfold as they have at Field Elementary. You want teachers to shut up and do as they're told and then fulminate when they protect their income rather than speak up. You asked for this mess and now you've got it!
And here's another news flash: The practices at Field Elementary are MUCH more the rule than the exception in DISD schools than anyone outside the system dares to imagine.
Since another ingrained DISD policy is to intimidate whistle-blowers and protect management at all costs, guess we'll just have to rely on the integrity of those in administration and the trustees to set the standard for a high level of integrity in the schools. ...how's that been workin' for ya so far?
8 comments:
You're right on here. One thing that the entire wave of school reform has taught me is that administrators misuse and abuse power almost as a rule. They have been given so much latitude with none of the accountability. The thing i never understood is that how does merely HAVING the power always result in ABUSING that power. It is like these administrators think they are running the Death Star and not a school.
Meanwhile, teacher rights have been stripped to the nub and we are expected to prepare kids for exams, contact parents, watch for abuse, watch what we say in and out of school, differentiate our instruction and whole host of other things at the same time. Principals are treated as professionals with none of the duty. Teachers are treated like low-level functionaries with all of the duty of 6-figure professionals. It is madness.
That is the problem in a nutshell in public education. Principals have way too much power, and, unlike private industry and other government work, they are not closely supervised. They literally get away with anything, as I learned through bitter experience. They can literally destroy teachers' livelihoods and careers.
It's especially bad when you are over 50 and sole support. I was wrongfully terminated back in 2008, and I STILL cannot get back on my feet financially. I am currently living with my brother and sleeping on a couch. Meanwhile, the moronic principal who "dismissed" me is making six figures, taking fancy vacations, and enjoying life. Her only punishment for flagrantly breaking the law was reassignment.
I am very sorry that you had to encounter this so-called "administrator". I bet she has continued to try to destroy people because she has learned there are no repercussions for her vile actions.
Last year I stepped up and became the chapter leader at my school and it was the biggest mistake of my career. The principal immediately went after 2 of my best friends, both of them popular veteran teachers. He lied and perverted the truth at every turn. Even now after one was forced to pay a massive fine and the other is still awaiting her 3020a hearing, he harbors nothing but hatred towards them. Someone this petty and vindictive should not have any power over anyone lives, yet he is allowed to run a school and nobody questions him.
Even worse than him are the other teachers who allowed this to happen. The young teachers who only care about themselves and the UFT who would never return my calls when I asked for help.
The UFT always acted like I was bothering them when I called to ask a question. Yet, at the end of the year last year, they wanted to make a plaque for the teachers at our school who were there during 9/11 (we are close to ground zero) and they called me EVERY SINGLE DAY over the summer to get their names. I, of course, ignored them like they ignored me. I don't pay my dues for you to make plaques. I pay my dues so you can protect my job.
I am sorry that this happened to you. Stories like yours disgust me on so many levels. Have you been able to appeal the decision?
I went through the phony "due process" hearing, and I lost, of course, because the arbitrator didn't even bother to follow the law. It is nearly impossible in Nevada to appeal administrative decisions; there are laughably narrow grounds on which to appeal.
This happened to me over three years ago. All of the statutes of limitations for filing a civil claim have expired. Thanks to my sham "union" and its law firm, I was never told about EEOC, the Department of Labor, or advised to get an attorney to sue Washoe County School District civilly. They were all in bed together to protect this idiot administrator, who in turn was put up to doing the dirty work for the head of human resources. It was CYA.
Here I sit in total poverty, and what the school district did to me will last me the rest of my life. Since I didn't pay into Social Security having worked in Nevada, I get that little amount reduced because of WEP. Just theft upon theft while the crooks are allowed to keep their jobs.
The principal before me wrote me up on trumped-up allegations because he was mad he didn't get his way when he wanted me to violate NCLB and put all my life skills students (special ed students) on alternate testing, despite the fact all but two of them were classified as LD and didn't qualify. It was illegal for him to approach me, as I was told by my attorney friend, but by the time she found out about it, the two-year statute of limitations had expired. The "union," WEA, knew about it and gave me no advice at all in how to proceed. I demanded to get out of that school only to be dumped into a worse situation and with a principal who wrongfully fired me.
The principal who wrote me up, by the way, was finally demoted, but only because an irate husband of a subordinate the principal was having an affair with blew the whistle. He should have been fired outright.
I am so sorry about what happened to you. It disgusts me that there are so many immoral people running our schools. Everywhere you look you see harassment, corruption and collusion.
The collusion even comes from our supposed fellow teachers as well. Too many clueless young teachers who think that what happened to you would never happen them. They go along with the flow, to the point of even lying about other teachers so they can keep their jobs.
It is a rotten, inhumane system. The only way to change it is to make people understand that the disgusting people that went after you also went after every other teacher out there. If something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. That is what solidarity is supposed to be about. It is a word our unions have forgotten the meaning of.
Stay strong. The retribution they get will far outweigh what they did to you. It is tough to go through life being disgusting to people without facing repercussions later on. They cannot take away your humanity and dignity.
Teacher abuse is the dirty secret in education, and unfortunately the public has been so brainwashed against teachers that it is an uphill battle to inform people of this nationwide scandal.
You are right about colleagues. They cannot ever be trusted, unfortunately, because they will turn against you and lie for the higher ups should you face termination. It happened to me. It was just disgusting they were willing to perjure themselves at a hearing. Of course they would argue they "had to lie" or else be charged with "insubordination." Morality has nothing to do with it.
The education system is such that it is almost impossible for a terminated teacher to "move on." Not with the files full of derogatory information and with school district applications asking you if you ever left before the end of your contract term or were terminated.
And what kills me is this idiot principal fired me over a sick leave form when everybody but the HR head knew I was telling the truth. He was too lazy to get off his overpaid ass and place a phone call. When he found out I was telling the truth, he and the superintendent wasted thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to go through with a "due process" hearing rather than drop the matter like they should have. I was not allowed to put in a new FMLA form or revise my original one. I didn't even merit an oral reprimand, let alone a firing. It was a completely illegal termination.
Post a Comment