You say anything at all that dares to challenge "authority," you are dead in the water as far as your career goes.
Of course he was "too old" to be a teacher in the first place.
But in September 2011, school administrators placed uncertified teachers -- and a conga line of unemployed teachers who came for one-week stints -- in classrooms filled with special education students, which is to say those children most in need of expert help.
This violated federal regulations.
Mr. Lirtzman, 56, decided to speak up. As he was not yet tenured, he stepped gingerly.
"I am NOT trying to cause problems," he wrote in an e-mail to his assistant principal, but, he added, "we're violating" court-mandated educational plans for students.
Mr. Lirtzman, unwittingly, became sand in the school's gears.
He had received nothing but satisfactory evaluations. But in December, he said, the principal, Grismaldy Laboy-Wilson, said that she would not recommend him for tenure. The next day, she told him to leave immediately.
The asshole principal, of course, couldn't take it that a lowly teacher, let alone an "untenured" one, could possibly find some illegalities. She couldn't take her own career being on the line, so it was time to get rid of him to cover her own ass.
Kind of like what happened to yours truly.
Some choice comments following the original article:
This sort of situation - an immoral or illegal policy procedure mandated by administration - happens all the time in nearly all schools. Often the administrators remain willfully unaware that the policy is illegal (sort of the head in sand approach); sometimes they do it knowingly. It is more likely to happen where special ed is concerned because special ed is a huge unfunded mandate, exorbitantly expensive at a time that schools' budgets are slashed. But I've seen such things nearly every year I've taught.
This teacher was certainly brave, but everyone knows that if you speak out, you will be fired. And he put it in writing. If you have tenure, you will be punished, usually by administrators giving you really awful classes & stripping you of any beloved extracurricular you might have run, even if you've run it successfully for years, say, as a theatre director (the administrators couldnt' care less that students will suffer too from this arrangement).
These sorts of illegal/immoral policy decisions will happen FAR more if tenure is abolished.
Read the editorial today about Mr Gates' 'reform' proposals for 'how to make a better teacher.' Every 'reformer' utterly ignores the system the teacher is immersed in and the cronyism/power games they endure. It would be funny how clueless he is if he didn't impact millions of children's lives.
No reform can take place in a vacuum. To ignore the systemic failures is to condemn our students to a race to the bottom.
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Bravo Mr. Lirtzman!
My son's IEP meeting is tomorrow. I dread having to waste my time. He's in an ICT class that does nothing helpful. The school, one with a stellar reputation for teaching talented kids, puts all the students with behavior problems in that class. Looks like he'd do just as well in a regular class, and that's fine at this point. If I ask how he can place out of it, the teachers and administrators will look at me with pity and contempt. Then they describe just how limited they think he is. This is not constructive in any way, shape or form.
In the past, his schools flagrantly violated the IDEA federal legislation, which protects kids in special education and makes IEPs legal documents. So none of Mr. Lirtzman's experiences surprise me. All of this makes me sad and angry.
What has been done to my son is just infuriating and I'm sure I'm not the only parent who feels that way. He has been stigmatized unspeakably for having epilepsy. He hates going to school every day even though he is a kid who genuinely loves learning.
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This is typical of the principal's who went to Bloomberg's academy of administration. He taught these "people" to be business managers in a career that requires integrity, morality, courage and love for the children that you are accountable to. These prinicpals have cart blanch to do as they please with school funds, IEP's and teacher's careers. If you should question or stand in their way you may find yourself getting transferred or terminated because you dared to go against their corrupt practices. Senior teachers are targets because they have been around long enough to know what is wrong or right. The young teachers coming in are so undervalued they feel discouraged and don't want to make this into a career. They are observed daily with no nurturing feedback and extraordinary demands are made on them that they lose any desire to teach. And it's because of administrators mentioned in this article who probably hardly ever taught themselves but yet go around under the pretense of being experienced. So good for you Mayor Bloomberg-thanks for destroying education as a career in this city. Closing schools and getting rid of teachers is your legacy. And your academy cronies did a good job of making anyone with love for teaching totally lose faith.
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Bravo to this courageous gentleman. I started teaching at 50, and had previous experience working with individuals with disabilities. This past year I went to the Special Education division of the UFT because my own school was out of compliance. I'd also contacted Advocates for Children.
My principal retaliated against me by programming me to be with a particularly difficult group of students for half my day. I've recently contact the Children's First Network for support in dealing with this group of students. They are the pariahs of my school's community, and include many students with disabilities.
An AP at my school told me that everyone "accepts these kids (with disabilities) and uses the (extra) money in other ways". Thank you venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, and Goldman Sachs executives for insinuating your bottom-line mentality into our school systems. Our most vulnerable kids will be living in deep poverty and social isolation for the rest of their lives due to these mindsets.
God bless you, Mr. Lirtzman. May your energies, values, and commitment find an appreciative venue.
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