Deasy admits that LAUSD never filed with California Teacher Credentialing (CTC) about Martinez or the other pervert teachers his and prior administrations have dropped the ball on. So what does he propose? Blame all teachers and give LAUSD Regional Superintendents the right to summarily fire teachers without the minimal due process offered by the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH).
Ironically, as my own case shows, it is not the OAH that is not doing its job in a timely manner, but rather LAUSD's stalling that stops truly culpable teachers from being removed. In my case both LAUSD and UTLA have colluded to stall my OAH hearing for what will be almost 3 years before its now scheduled September 10, 2012 hearing date - and who knows if that date will not be continued like LAUSD has succeeded in do several times already.
In Isenberg's case, the district is dragging it out hoping he will retire early. That's what his case is actually about more than silencing a whistleblower. He's in his sixties, way too long in the tooth for this (and any other) district, so LAUSD is trying to starve him into retirement. Isenberg details further in his post just why the district doesn't do its job.
Meanwhile, truly dangerous teachers are still allowed to teach, probably because these teachers have connections or the administrators don't want to admit they screw up.
The comments following the post are worth posting here because they tell the truth:
Time and time again I've seen capable and motivated teachers terminated or denied tenure (which is the same thing) because they questioned some policy issue in the course of following through on their professional duties and responsibility to the community.
Meanwhile, teachers who are even openly admitted by administration to be completely incompetent and derelict in their duties to their students and their parents are kept on in our public schools simply because they see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing, and do nothing, and all because of the political pressures within the public school bureaucracy designed along the lines of authoritarian top-down "management" if you don't honestly call it a "gang" in terms of retaliatory practices that are commonplace and which further cost taxpayers millions of dollars in legal costs and liability.
Further, administrators are at-will employees, and they can only be terminated by the superintendent or board (or their own supervisors), all of whom are beholden to public opinion, but none of whom seem to care about serving the needs of the body politic (instead wasting their tax dollars on targeting good teachers for "reform" measures or firing, if not actually setting people up on false criminal charges), embezzlement (they only change districts when this happens, never going to jail), lack of accountability to the public out of an attitude of "father knows best," and the rest just plain old marketing hoopla that passes for "school reform" but which is baseless in terms of scientific empirical studies and resulting data. They are useless in addressing the vital educational needs of our society and a sustainable economy.
In a casual conversation I got in one day with the executive administrative assistant for the superintendent of schools in D.C. and told her of all of the corruption and abuse in the public schools in California that have become nothing short of a toxic work environment, and asked her what a superintendent did to deserve a salary tantamount to serving as president of the United States. I was surprised when instead of brushing me off and diminishing my concerns, she took pause and replied, "I can't tell you how many people call from all across the country and locally with similar stories, and as for your second question - not much."
Anne O'Neill | February 23, 2012 10:49 AM
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This evening I've had two reliable sources confirm that Deasy intends to open all accusation files on teachers going back three years and hand them over to the state. Also, you may remember two weeks ago when I mentioned the teacher that was sent into detainment on accusations along with all the classified sp.ed. staff in his room. That same teacher is the latest to make the news for inappropriate behavior. I have also been informed that the teacher who was accused of being the co conspirator at Miramonte was accused by two 18 year old girls from when they were in second grade. One has already recanted her story. It just keeps getting wilder and wilder. It looks like we’re in for a full blown inquisition. Deasy only seems to have one tactical approach and that’s to keep the attention off himself and the administrative hierarchy by imposing entirely on the certificated and classified staffs.
Mark Hemphill | February 23, 2012 12:40 AM
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These are truly terrifying times to be a teacher.
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