Deb Meier acknowledges: some RR/TRC detainees are innocent / ICE proposal for RR/TRC procedure

The renowned educator, Deborah Meier, acknowledged that not everyone in the Teacher Reassignment Centers, also known as Rubber Rooms, is a pervert or violent thug.
(this post also indebted to Education Notes Online.
The Ed Notes piece itself was referring to this March 15, 2010 Anna Phillips piece from GothamSchools.)

"Note: 3rd line, 3rd paragraph: they have not been charged with anything, just accused. It's not the UFT's job to investigate and bring charges, that's the employer's job, those who made the accusation. The strategy seems often to be that they will finally resign or retire. But it's not far-fetched to say that people shouldn't be fired based on accusations, but no investigation, no charges, and no opportunity to appeal.

Having had some good friends who spent time in the rubber room--and who eventually retired with pensions, after 6-9 months of waiting to be charged--let's not get railroaded into assuming they are all child-abusers, peverts, drunks, etc. Those I knew most about were first rate people and were happy to defend themselves if they ever though they'd get a chance to do so.

Deb

And now, this proposal from the Independent Community of Educators on handling Teacher Reassignment Center cases:

I would disagree with this angle: DOE investigators are biased. ICE proposed the UFT hire paralegals to do their own investigation to give a balanced view.

One big example is that of the 22 year teacher whose Leadership Academy principal urged a parent to call the police over an incredibly minor incident that occurs in classrooms every day. After 5 policemen took the teacher out of the school in handcuffs, the lead investigator went back to the school and was so clear that this was a railroad job the teacher was released. At the 3020A hearing, the parent testified that they kept her in the station until the middle of the night trying to convince her to walk away from this. She demanded an apology from the teacher and the teacher wouldn't give one because she felt she didn't do anything wrong and she herself should get an apology. It is now over 3 years she has been in the rubber room.

I took that teacher to the UFT Exec Bd meeting a few days after the incident and she spoke there. I asked the UFT to get the cop on record and at least do something to get the story straight. "That is the teacher's responsibility," they said.

Thus the ICE proposal to address these issues in a timely matter would be extremely useful to the teacher.

Michael Mulgrew and the present city and state emergency

Yes, it is time to appropriate language of the late 1970s/ early 1980s Cold Warriors:

We are suffering from a "present danger," "present emergency."

Let us get it straight, despite appointed United Federation of Teacher's (UFT) Michael Mulgrew' occasionally blustery delivery, Mulgrew's leadership has not been "genius."

William Thompson was far from the ideal candidate. But he is not engaged in a holy war against the teaching profession that Bloomberg/Klein have.

We are enduring a crisis, one that would look different had Mulgrew had taken a proactive position immediately from his entry into his job.
UFT LEADERSHIP AND THE BEATEN WIFE SYNDROME
Except for the lawsuit that --for immediate period-- has saved 19 schools threatened with closure, Mulgrew's posture has been an inheritance of the Randi Weingarten posture for the union, which has been the beaten wife syndrome: don't raise your voice, don't speak out, don't oppose, just oppose the beatings, just hope that they don't get worse.

The UFT leadership needs an aggressive, broad ranging campaign that not only addresses city power forces and Albany (New York State legislature and governor), but also directly engages the public. We bloggers have all addressed the outrages of the city. We should also address the misguided path of the New York State government which will force draconian cuts upon the schools.

We need more than the cute animated TV advertisements for the UFT. We need the UFT to use its hundreds of officials to transform into a grassroot network that would go to the public on weekends or evening rush hours and inform the public of the terrible consequences of the planned cuts in funds from the state, the terrible consequences from laying off 8,500 teachers, the discriminatory inequity of the charter schools, the factual distortion of the small schools record.

Mulgrew has never spoken in this direction. James Eterno and the other activists of the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) and Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) have already practiced much of this suggested strategy: speaking at public fora, walking at evening picket lines at schools under threat of closure.
VOTE FOR JAMES ETERNO FOR UFT AND FOR THE ENTIRE ICE/TJC SLATE.

75% failed to vote in the last UFT election. Don't let this happen. Download this ICE-TJC flier on voting.

Judge sides with education activists -halts closing of 19 NYC schools

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Joan Lobis has heeded the arguments of many education activists and the NAACP in halting the closure of 19 New York City schools.

In the context of the current United Federation of Teachers elections, people should remember that it was the dissident community, activists from the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) and Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) slates that fought long and hard, and early against the closure of city schools. The dominant UFT caucus, the so-called Unity caucus, only joined the struggle against the school closures in the last few months.
The Daily News broke the news Friday night: Tanyanika Samuels and Rachel Monahan, "Judge sides with teachers; halts city plan to close 19 schools" "Daily News," March 26, 2010

In a stunning blow to education officials, a judge halted the controversial closing of 19 failing schools that some teachers and students fought to keep open.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Joan Lobis's ruling Friday sided with the teachers union and the NAACP in their case against the city, which temporarily delayed the high school admissions process.

The surprising decision elated critics of the mass closures, who packed hearings to speak up for their schools, while city officials vowed to appeal.

"The principal made an announcement over the loud speaker and immediately cheers sounded throughout the school," said Christine Rowland, a teacher at Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx. "We are thrilled. This is very exciting."

"Some people ran out into the hallways yelling 'yay,'" said Carlos Perez, 16, ninth-grader, at Global Enterprise High School, in the Bronx. "I think it's great. They should have just left the school alone."

The lawsuit charged that the city had not followed the requirement under the new mayoral control of schools law that officials must provide a full explanation of how the closings would affect school communities.

Lobis found the city "failed to comply with the requirements" of the law and ruled that the middle of the night vote that approved the closing schools in January is "null and void."

"We feel vindicated about our concern that closing these schools without a real process was problematic," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, one of the elected officials who sued.

City Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo said the city is planning to appeal the decision immediately. "We are disappointed by today's ruling, which, unless it is reversed, requires the Department of Education to keep open schools that are failing our children," he said in statement.

"Contrary to the ruling, we believe that the Department of Education complied with the notice and public hearing requirements in the new law."

Lobis had temporarily banned the city Education Department from giving eighth-graders high school decision letters, which were slated to be handed out Wednesday.

But her judgment allows the letters to go out to all but 8,500 students who applied for admission to the closing high schools. The decision did not come in time for the letters to be given to students before spring break.

"As soon as possible, the Office of Student Enrollment will mail your child's high school admissions letter to the home address listed on his or her high school application," Chancellor Joel Klein wrote in a letter to parents.

There was no immediate indication from the city on whether they will appeal the decision, which will also affect at least 10 new school slated to take over space in closing schools next fall.

After a teachers union lawsuit last year, the city Department of Education backed down on closing three schools - Public Schools 194 and 241 in Manhattan and PS 150 in Brooklyn.

Those schools remained open and were not put on the closing list again.

"We're ecstatic," said James Eterno, a social studies teacher and the teachers union chapter leader at Jamaica High School, in Queens.

"The word is spreading like wildfire throughout the school. We feel like we're born again, like we got a stay of execution."

List of the 19 schools:

1. Academy of Environmental Science

2. School for Community Research and Learning

3. Christopher Columbus High School

4. Global Enterprise High School

5. Monroe Academy for Business/Law

6. Metropolitan Corporate Academy

7. Robeson High School

8. W.H. Maxwell CTE High School

9. Beach Channel High School

10. Jamaica High School

11. Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School

12. PS 332

13. KAPPA II

14. Academy of Collaborative Education

15. Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence

16. New Day Academy

17. Choir Academy of Harlem High School

18. Frederick Douglass Academy III Middle School

19. Norman Thomas High School

Read more.

Public forum: NYC school closings on March 28, at John Jay College

NYC teacher activists have planned a public forum on NYC school closings for

March 28, 12 PM (noon), John Jay College, Room 1311 of The North Building
445 West 59th Street (west from Columbus Avenue, toward 10th Avenue)
The conference is open to the public, not just to teachers.
For more information call: 718-601-4901 or email: asc.ice.uft@gmail.com

Speakers will also address: the Absent Teacher Reserve ("ATR") issue, as well as high-stakes testing.

Here are the websites of the main sponsoring organizations: UFT-ICE, Independent Community of Educators,
and a non-caucus groupNY CORE, New York Community of Radical Educators.
The conference has been endorsed by Teachers for a Just Contract and other teachers' organizations.
Click HERE for a pdf flyer for the event.

Dozens of schools have closed under Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. Click here for a list (posted by Norm Scott) of the high schools that the Department of Education has closed since 1999. The number has leapt considerably, since Joel Klein replaced Harold Levy in 2002. Scott has listed schools by the last year that freshman classes were accepted. Bayard Rustin High School, Louis Brandeis High School, both in Manhattan, and Franklin K. Lane in Brooklyn, are the latest casualties.