Morning Joe Had the Makers of the "Rubber Room" Documentary

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The filmmakers barely got a word in. All I heard was bullshit about if this was a business, these people would be fired, blah, blah, blah. Teaching is totally different from private businesses, and never mind most of the allegations against teachers are bullshit.

Teachers are put on administrative leave, paid or unpaid, for one reason only and that's to force them to resign (or retire), thus saving money on lawyers and unemployment compensation. That was the reason the union's executive director LIED to me about my eligibility; since she was figuratively kissing the ass of her soon-to-be boss in human resources, she felt it would benefit her to lie about it so I would be desperate and settle. Thank God I didn't.

But of course these filmmakers, being young it appears, didn't state the obvious. Meanwhile, crappy principals are allowed to keep their jobs.

"The Rubber Room" Documentary

will be released next month at long last.

I wonder how much effect it will have on public discourse because, after all, teachers can't be fired because of "tenure" unless they did something truly egregious towards kids or did something criminal.

Welcome to the real world of teacher terminations.

Snip from Rupert's paper:

Their footage reveals the maddening culture in which more than 600 banned city teachers -- fighting being fired or waiting for their names to be cleared -- are kept in this purgatory and try to stave off boredom any way they can.

The filmmakers found one teacher who had been in a rubber room for 12 years.

Doodling is a popular pastime. Others read every word of the newspaper. Many gulp down cup after cup of coffee.

The more motivated among them work on laptops -- sometimes to earn higher-education degrees or to run side businesses, both of which are against the rules.

The rooms are depressing. One space is large and windowless, flooded by bright florescent light, jammed with rows of large aging desks, metal folding chairs and debris, including foam cups, newspapers and plastic bags.

The walls bear the same blue-and-white pattern used at Rikers Island.

It IS all about cost cutting by forcing senior teachers out to quit or resign. What's 60K a year to pay a teacher to sit in a room when the DOE can save FAR more than that on salaries and benefits if the teacher quits or retires?

The Education Wars

Another good post from the Teachers.net New York chatboard (typos are from original):

How to be POLITE about the RUBBER ROOM

Should we be polite for the benefit of the people who fund these
prisons that are made for teachers? That would be the taxpayers,
who pay to keep these teachers - many of whom are experienced and
qualified, none who have received due process, to sit in a room and
do nothing. Taxpayers who think they are paying for education, not
to incarcerate our work force. Should we be POLITE and not let them
know they are funding the RUBBER ROOM, NYC’s big dirty secret?

Should we be POLITE to reporters and those people who call
themselves “journalists”, and never bring this atrocity to light as
a major story? Because it’s not politically correct, or heavens,
certainly not POLITE!

Should we be POLITE like the administrators who put them there with
bad evaluations, because they had their own agenda? They have no
problem being very POLITE.

Or should we be POLITE like the unions, who, if they only took a
stand and did what they were supposed to do, by following the
contract and due process of law? Or should we be POLITE. Whimps
are polite.

Klein & Bloomberg must be very POLITE too, because even though they
are the few people powerful enough to effect change, they choose not
too, because they are better at smiling and looking the other way,
and have more lucrative issues to address. The RUBBER ROOM works
for them. They are very POLITE.

Explain how to be “polite”.

The Education Wars

Asshole principals in NYC defy union orders and orders to fill vacancies with overaged or excessed teachers because they want to hire cheapo bimbos instead.

Time to fire these bastards.

With the teachers’ contract up for renewal this fall, Mr. Klein said he would push for a limit on how long teachers could stay in the reserve pool before they could be laid off. But an arbitration board has rejected such a limit.

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, said that the Education Department had not made a great enough effort to place teachers and that Mr. Klein had unfairly maligned them, making it even harder for them to find jobs. And, Mr. Mulgrew said, principals are reluctant to take on their higher salaries.

...

Several principals — who did not want their names published for fear of angering the administration or the teachers’ union — said they were circumventing the restrictions by offering new teachers jobs as long-term substitutes or hiring them as specialized teachers but placing them in regular classrooms. Some said they planned to eliminate open positions from their budgets rather than take on teachers they considered undesirable, and others said they were holding out in the hope that Mr. Klein would lift the restrictions.

I wouldn't want my name published either if I were defying orders. "Poor performing" schools is just another political excuse to get rid of more experienced teachers in favor of the bimbos.

This incident should illustrate to all the world what is going on in school districts throughout the country.

I Mentioned the Upcoming

documentary about the so-called "rubber rooms" of the New York City public schools which are designed to humiliate so-called "bad" teachers while their cases are being handled by the union. Here are a couple of links with audio of teachers who had gone through this humiliating and really unconstitutional process. The pictures shown are not actual pictures of the teachers talking on the audio:

link link


Teachers are so complacent, but being paid all during that time is apparently incentive enough to endure the indignities.

I Will Have to Watch

this documentary when it comes out.

I have never heard of such a thing for teachers accused of "wrongdoing." In this neck of the woods, when you are suspended, you are sent home, with or without pay. And if you were like me and wrongfully terminated and stupidly went through arbitration instead of hiring an outside lawyer and filing a civil suit in federal court, you still stay home.

Never, ever teach without having an outside attorney for obvious reasons of threats and intimidation from students, parents, and especially asshole administrators. I learned this truism the hard way.

More is here and here.