Laughably Easy

It isn't hard to "fire" a teacher, as I know only too well. Administrators, however, are a completely different ball of wax altogether.

I get so sick of the term "tenure" misused to refer to public school teachers who have the same "due process protections" as other civil service employees. "Tenure" is a lifetime appointment after a long, arduous probationary process in higher education, both in public and private colleges and universities, to preserve the concept of academic freedom for professors. "Academic freedom" doesn't exist for K-12 because education is compulsory, at least for children under 16.

"Due process" for K-12 teachers is there because a government job has been seen by courts as a property right, and the government cannot deprive one of property without "due process." It's totally different than "tenure."

It also isn’t “hard” to “fire” a teacher–teachers are booted out all the time. In fact, there is no such thing as a “fired” teacher–they are “dismissed” if they go through the show trials called “due process” hearings and lose, which they do 75 percent of the time nationally. Very few teachers go through the show trials preferring instead to take the severance packages called "settlements" in school district jargon. They are “non-renewed” if a school district decides to cancel a contract of a teacher who is probationary. Teachers “resign in lieu of a dismissal” if they take a severance packing in lieu of the hearings, thus saving the districts money on lawsuits and administrative hearings and possibly unemployment insurance as well. Teachers are often forced to resign or forced to retire, and that’s another way districts have to boot unwanted teachers.

ALL of these are actually “firings” because the districts have decided not to keep teachers on and they are not laid off (RIF’d). However, districts hide behind the jargon and say “few” teachers fired when in fact they know better than to spew lies like that.

Most teachers kicked to the curb have done nothing wrong other than being too old, too expensive, too outspoken, or too independent of administrators.

BTW, for those who come here trying to find "dirt" on me, you won't find it because there isn't any. The 2008 insurance claim called a "lawsuit," filed against WCSD by a lawyer who didn't properly vet the plaintiffs' claims, and named me and a school counselor who is still employed there, was a bunch of bogus shit settled out of court for a pittance. Some Reno blogger and UNR employee in Reno has refused to take down the libelous post. I can't get it removed because the SOL of one year of getting a court order has long since past, so this asshole continues to leave it up and hurt me more instead of doing the right thing and remove it. For the record, I wasn't let go over that at all; it was filed after the asshole in another school dismissed me and after I had my hearing over a bunch of trumped up shit stemming from an FMLA form I filed. The asshole in HR had somebody else, a colleague about to retire from the district, he wanted put in my place. The whole thing backfired on them, so I was scapegoated to cover their worthless asses.