In at Least One NYC School Jeans Banned ---For Teachers

In at least one New York City (P.S. or elementary) school supervisors have banned jeans ---on teachers!

“In an increasingly diverse nation where what you wear may be the ultimate self-expression, teachers are falling victim to the same dress code rules as their students.”
--USA Today, July 31, 2012
Huh?
Let's go to how clothes and electronics rules are defined and actually practiced in the NYC DOE:
First, these are strict and well-defined as to attire, just as they are to electronics.
But let's look at the hypocrisy. Students flout the rules. Administrators ignore them.
Guys, we'll perennially tolerate your way low saggin', the DOE is basically telling children. (See this Chaz post.) And everyone, you can operate any and every electronic amusement device you wish. (See this post by Life in Limbo on the lewd-mouthed student with the laptop.)
Again, this is your DOE of the 2000s and 2010s: no accountability standards for students; tough standards for teachers.
Here's USA Today's July 30, 2012 story on the getting tough on teacher adornments patterns:

When kids in one Kansas school district return to class this fall, they won't be seeing cutoff shorts, pajama pants or flip flops — on teachers.
Kindergarten teachers, who would meet new dress codes, at McAdory Middle School in Birmingham, Ala.
The Wichita School District is just one of a growing number in the nation cracking down on teacher apparel. Jeans are banned in at least one elementary school in New York City. A school district in Phoenix is requiring teachers to cover up tattoos and excessive piercings. And several Arizona schools are strictly defining business casual.
In an increasingly diverse nation where what you wear may be the ultimate self-expression, teachers are falling victim to the same dress code rules as their students.
In most cases, schools are taking the actions because they believe some teachers are dressing inappropriately. School board members received parental complaints about teacher dress at Arizona's Litchfield Elementary School District, Superintendent Julianne Lein says.
The move comes at a time when the number of public schools requiring uniforms has nearly doubled over the past decade to 19%, reports the National Center for Education Statistics. The center doesn't track teacher uniforms or dress codes. But it soon may have to, as schools have moved to:
•Ban tattoos and piercings. Teachers can't sport outlandish hairstyles or facial piercings, and tattoos have to be covered up at the Litchfield Elementary School District.
Fifth-grade teacher Tim Schooley, who says he's surprised it's taken so long to implement a dress code, isn't sure how school officials will enforce the tattoo rule. He has a tattoo on his calf, but keeps it covered . "Tattoos can be a symbol or something of extreme significance that you have," he says. "That, to me, is a little bit different."
•Outlaw jeans. At New York's P.S. 64 Robert Simon School, jeans are an absolute no-no.
•Nix skinny straps. Students shouldn't be seeing too much of their female teachers in Peoria and Litchfield school districts, as tank-top straps can't be less than 2 inches wide.
What happens to those who don't follow the new rules?
"Staff members will first be counseled by their supervisor to brainstorm options in ways to meet the code," Superintendent Lein says. "Further non-compliance will be dealt with through the normal disciplinary channels." But in this case, not detention.

UPDATED: Will Campbell Brown Play Even with Alleged Perv Kevin (Mr. Rhee) Johnson? & Haimson Scoops StudentsFirst Link

CAMPBELL BROWN HYPOCRISY, L'AFFAIRE RHEE-JOHNSON - BROWN SPOUSE, AT STUDENTSFIRST NY, IS TOP ROMNEY AIDE - JOHNSON IN SUMMER OF '95 - RAVITCH BLOGS HAIMSON (SHOWING BROWN LINK TO STUDENTSFIRST) - UNIONS MUST RAISE ISSUE OF SOFT GLOVES FOR PERVVY SUPERVISORS

Campbell Brown, a former CNN anchor of her own show, suddenly got it in her to go on a war against teachers' unions, impugning them as covering for sexual predator teachers. With Brown, and the editorial directors of tabloid newspapers such as the New York Post, there is a tack that the accused much prove their innocence. If she's going down that road, she needs to look in her own crowd, including deformer couple, Rhee-Johnson.

On scouring the Internet, you cannot seem to find a resolution to the allegations of sexual misconduct of Sacramento, California Mayor Kevin Johnson, the spouse of Michelle Rhee.

There are now ways to scrub Internet reputations. Apparently, Johnson has not found the wherewithal to do this.

"Karoli," writing at Crooks and Liars, summed up the hypocrisy:

What does this prove, really? It proves bad people exist everywhere. In unions and not in unions. In charter schools and in public schools. But the key difference is that when it comes to teachers' unions, publications like the Wall Street Journal allow intellectually dishonest so-called "journalists" to smear an entire group of people for the actions of a few. {In my book this is called discrimination. -NYC Eye} If I were to apply Campbell Brown's logic, I would smear every single charter school in the country because Kevin Johnson misused nearly a million dollars of taxpayer money and may have engaged in sexual misconduct, too. But I won't, because it's flawed, agenda-laden, political skullduggery.

In 2009 Johnson was under investigation for TWO matters: misappropriation of funds, and allegations of sexual misconduct:

Office of Inspector General report on Kevin Johnson: http://www.scribd.com/doc/101709609/2009-OIG-Report-Re-Kevin-Johnson

Now, let us go back to the full article at Crooks and Liars, which includes the reference to Cameron Brown. Could there be projection happening in her attack on teachers? The cold numbers are used to assess teachers. But if we turn the tables on her, the cold numbers hurt her, as could not compete in her time slot against the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Nancy Grace or Keith Olberman. See this report two years ago in the New York Daily News: Campbell Brown steps down as anchor of eponymous CNN cable news show due to low ratings.

In this troika of teacher attackers we see lots of people that couldn't hack it in own area, so they have moved on to safe spots from which they can take a righteous ground and attack others. This smacks of the defense mechanism of psychological projection. In Rhee, an ex-teacher who could not handle the basics of classroom management. She moved on to take over the school system, couldn't hack that without resorting to erasure-gate. Now, she gets to head StudentsFirst, and opine on Meet the Press that she will reserve comment on Republicans as she is a Democrat. Next, Johnson, who couldn't hack reserving his behavior in close proximity to youths. So, he moved on to become a medium-sized city mayor. Then, there's Brown, who had trouble competing in the brutal O'Reilly/Grace/Oberman timeslot. So, now she's winging a Wall Street Journal guest op-ed opportunity, taking the holy ground by attacking America's current easy target, scapegoats.

"Campbell Brown Slams Unions At Teachers' Expense,"Crooks and Liars, August 1, 2012

I suppose the one good thing to come out of this is that Campbell Brown, who has absolutely no business talking about education in any way, finally reveals herself as the stealth Romney campaign advisor we have all known she is. {Link to Ali Gharib piece at ThinkProgress, "Campbell Brown, Wife Of Top Romney Adviser, Says Obama Is ‘Condescending’ To Women". --NYC Eye}

Before I discuss her despicable effort to "Willy Horton" the American Federation of Teachers and President Randi Weingarten in particular, let's just review who Campbell Brown is. She is a long-gone CNN White House correspondent, married to Dan Senor, and has no classroom experience or anything to suggest that she has authority when it comes to public education.

Still, that didn't stop her from writing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal using Willy Horton tactics to smear the American Federation of Teachers yesterday by proclaiming that the AFT "goes to bat for sexual offenders." And if that wasn't enough, she then paraded herself onto Morning Joe Monday morning to whine about it and smear the teachers even more.

Surely that wasn't timed to coincide with the end of AFT's National Conference Monday, or Vice President Biden's rousing speech to the teachers in attendance on Sunday. Surely not. [Disclosure: I attended the conference at AFT's invitation]

Oh, I forgot one more thing Mrs. Senor forgot: Dan Senor is on the board of StudentsFirst NY. StudentsFirst NY is an arm of Michelle Rhee's education deform coalition, funded by Rupert Murdoch and others who have an interest in destroying teachers' unions. Dan Senor is also a senior Mitt Romney advisor, and smearing teachers' unions is one of Romney's top priorities. It certainly didn't hurt to have that Dan Senor/Morning Joe connection when Campbell wanted to put a little traction under her smear, either.

But you know, Campbell Brown should have checked with Michelle Rhee before taking this tack. Because now it's my non-reportorial duty as a citizen of this great country to point out that Michelle Rhee goes to bat for sexual predators, too. This is actually a story I haven't talked about because I happen to think Rhee's personal life should not be involved in her effort to wreck schools.

But Campbell Brown opened up Pandora's box, so let's just go ahead and lay it out there.

Michelle Rhee's husband Kevin Johnson was under federal investigation in 2009 for misuse of funds connected with his charter school, St. Hope Academy. This was a big right-wing story at the time, but mostly underreported by mainstream press or the left, because the Obama administration fired the OIG in charge of the investigation shortly after his report was issued. The timing gave rise to a shrill whine from the right wingers about cronyism, etc, while they ignored the actual report about Johnson's malfeasance. Here's a snippet of the letter from Chuck Grassley wrote concerning the investigation:

In September 2008, after reviewing the facts that the OIG investigation presented, the Corporation’s Debarment and Suspension Official (Official) determined that the grantee’s two principals, Kevin Johnson and Dana Gonzalez were responsible for six acts of diverting grant funds to non-grant purposes, and found that “immediate action is necessary to protect the public interest.”

In total about $850,000 was misused. As a result, the OIG requested that the Official suspend all future Federal grant funding to both St. HOPE Academy and Kevin Johnson and Dana Gonzales individually. The Official ultimately suspended St. HOPE Academy and its principals “from participating in Federal procurement and non procurement programs and activities.” None of the respondents exercised their right to submit facts objecting to the suspension.

What Grassley does not mention in his letter is that Kevin Johnson was also under investigation for inappropriate sexual conduct with a 16-year old student at the school. Skip to page 26 of the report below to read the specifics.

2009 OIG Report Re: Kevin Johnson
And what does this have to do with Dan Senor, Michelle Rhee and Campbell Brown? Well, it seems that Michelle Rhee actually interfered in the federal investigation, and covered for her "friend" Kevin Johnson, who she married in 2011. See also here regarding Rhee's conduct on Johnson's behalf.

When Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, was under investigation last year for alleged financial misdeeds and inappropriate behavior with female students, he had an important ally behind the scenes.

Michelle Rhee, the nationally known education reformer who is now head of the Washington, D.C., public schools, had several conversations with a federal inspector general in which she made the case for Johnson and the school he ran in Sacramento, according to the inspector general. Rhee, who had served on the board of the school and is now engaged to marry Johnson, said he was "a good guy." { - Above two paragraphs are from 2009 L.A. Times story -NYC Eye}

What does this prove, really? It proves bad people exist everywhere. In unions and not in unions. In charter schools and in public schools. But the key difference is that when it comes to teachers' unions, publications like the Wall Street Journal allow intellectually dishonest so-called "journalists" to smear an entire group of people for the actions of a few. If I were to apply Campbell Brown's logic, I would smear every single charter school in the country because Kevin Johnson misused nearly a million dollars of taxpayer money and may have engaged in sexual misconduct, too. But I won't, because it's flawed, agenda-laden, political skullduggery.

Of course, we'll never know one way or the other, because Michelle Rhee married Kevin Johnson, so she wouldn't be compelled to give evidence against him in any prosecution one way or the other, and she interfered in the original investigation as well.

Where is Campbell Brown shouting about how the president of an organization covered up for a man who may have sexually assaulted young women in a charter school where there are ZERO requirements for any kind of due process before teachers are fired? Where is her outrage at the possibility that Kevin Johnson behaved inappropriately toward a minor and other Americorps volunteers without any investigation, largely because Michelle Rhee stood up and defended him as a "good guy"?

Sorry, but Campbell Brown has absolutely zero business writing about education, unions, or sexual misconduct as long as she's willing to disguise her obvious ties with StudentsFirst NY, Michelle Rhee, and Kevin Johnson and ignore the evidence on the record about their misconduct. Not only does her cynical ploy to discredit the AFT fall flat, it simply affirms her reputation as a Washington insider has-been who is trying to revive her career by papering over Mitt Romney's utter failure as a viable candidate.

[Footnote: Kevin Johnson is now the mayor of Sacramento, and despite right-wing claims that he's a darling of the Obama administration, the truth is that even Democrats can't stand the man. Or his wife. "Why Labor Doesn't Like Rhee"]

Actually, Karoli, see my last post, for the photo of vice president Joe Biden with his hand on Rhee's shoulder, and mayor Johnson grinning at Biden.
And all that funny money moving around at the charter school under Johnson's watch? Could that have been hush money to keep someone quiet, in a manner akin to out-of-court settlements? Just asking.

Bravo to American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, for standing up to Brown, in a twitter battle. She is reminding Brown that the accused deserve the rights of due process.

Fred Klonsky at his blog, rightly called out the mass character impugning and the pass given to Johnson: "Male teachers are sexual predators and the union protects them."

ALLEGATIONS OF MAYOR JOHNSON'S 1995 SEXUAL IMPROPRIETY WITH MINOR
From the Phoenix New Times, Paul Rubin, May 8, 1997
"The Summer of '95: A teenage girl tells police Kevin Johnson won her confidence, then took advantage of her. While her allegations are open to question, there are many questions about KJ's behavior."

Phoenix Suns fans who were puzzled by the inconsistent play of Kevin Johnson during the playoff series against Seattle should consider this:

Days before the series began, an attorney for a 17-year-old Phoenix girl delivered a letter to Johnson. It demanded $750,000 before 5 p.m. on April 28.
If Johnson failed to cut a check, the attorney warned, a lawsuit would be filed promptly.
"Despite your current, very positive image and persona," civil attorney Kent Turley wrote, "[the girl's] experience with you will cause us to use the theme in any litigation that you were in fact a wolf in sheep's clothing."
. . . .
The alleged sexual contacts, Turley wrote, had occurred in the summer of '95, when Kim was 16 and Johnson was 29. He quoted Kim Adams extensively in his demand letter, including this account:
"He [Johnson] said I could sleep in his room or the guesthouse and I chose the guesthouse. . . . We got into the bed and he took all of my clothes off and all of his but his shirt. He was on top of me touching me all over--my breasts, butt, in between my legs, and stomach. Then he took off his shirt. I didn't really know what to do--I was very confused because I thought we were friends, but I didn't know what else to do than to go along with it. . . . He told me to pinky-promise not to say anything and when I asked why, he said I knew why."
In an understatement, Turley concluded that public disclosure of the alleged revelations would be scandalous. The comment was an attorney's attempt to maneuver--some would say strong-arm--Johnson into agreeing to a rapid and secret disposition to the case.
Neither Turley nor Kim Adams claims Johnson and the girl had sexual intercourse; she claims Johnson fondled her genitals on several occasions. If it was done without her consent, such acts could be considered felonies and can call for a prison term upon conviction.
Last January, however, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office reviewed a Phoenix police investigation of the girl's claims and declined to prosecute Johnson, saying the case did not meet the agency's threshold of "reasonable likelihood of conviction."

Then, there are more sordid details of shared physical intimacy with other youths, a 16-year-old, in the summer of 1995 and improper touching at his charter school. Click to the latter part of this article. RAVITCH REPOSTS HAIMSON
What a great couple of days it has been. People are not sitting silent amidst the vulgar smears of teachers. Diane Ravitch has posted this piece from Leonie Haimson, which documents the cronyism of Campbell Brown, connections with StudentsFirst. Waiting for Brown to blow a whistle on Rhee or Johnson? Don't hold your breath.
In "Campbell Brown and Michelle Rhee: Another Odd Couple," Ravitch wrote an intro to Brown's stone throwing, and reprinted parent activist Leonie Haimson's contribution which documents Brown's spousal link to the StudentsFirst family.

Leonie Haimson is a leading parent activist in New York City and a co-founder of Parents Across America, which keeps tabs on the depredations of the corporate reformers.

Here is Leonie’s take on l’affaire Campbell Brown. One would think that Michelle Rhee and her organization StudentsFirst would be wary of getting too deep in the weeds with the issue of sexual misconduct. Yet they seem to want to exploit it to the full in a fact-free fashion.

The text of Leonie’s commentary follows, in full:

Campbell Brown was the first witness chosen to testify at the Cuomo Commission hearings last week, all about how the UFT protects sex abusers. She repeated the same claims in the WSJ a few days later.

Bloomberg & Students1st NY (which essentially works for him, under the direction of Micah Lasher) are pushing a bill in the legislature, S.7497, that would allow him to fire any teacher accused of abuse, no matter what the arbitrator decided.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Brown’s husband Dan Senor, a senior Romney advisor, is also on the board of Students1st. There is more on this here and here – including about how Rhee’s own husband, Kevin Johnson has been accused of sexually molesting a minor under his supervision.

Here is the Students1st NY email blast sent out today:

We need your help, right now, to speak out against sexual misconduct in our school — and against sexism in the education debate.

On Monday, Emmy Award-winning journalist Campbell Brown — who previously served as White House Correspondent for NBC and as an anchor for CNN — wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about how New York law, supported by the teacher’s union, keeps sexual predators in the classroom.

Last night, the union responded — by attacking Campbell’s husband (who, among other things, serves on our Board).

National teachers union president Randi Weingarten took to Twitter and started republishing comments about Campbell’s “hubby” and his political views — as if Campbell’s accomplishments and perspective on this issue didn’t count. This morning, many of Ms. Weingarten’s colleagues have pursued the same line of attack.

Will you help us send a message that sexual misconduct has no place in our schools, and that sexism has no place in this debate?

Click here to speak out on Twitter. Tell Ms. Weingarten that she should focus more on protecting kids and less on sexist spin. Please use #protectourkids.

Of course, the union is looking for anything to distract from the issue at hand: that the union fights tooth-and-nail against giving school districts the authority to terminate anyone who engages in sexual misconduct.

Hopefully, if enough people speak out, we can convince the teachers union to put down the poison pen (and keyboard) and join us in trying to do something about this issue.

Click here to make your voice heard. Urge the union to put students first.

Chandra M. Hayslett
Director of Communications
StudentsFirstNY
http://twitter.com/StudentsFirstNY

Ah, Campbell Brown, if you live in a glass house, do not throw rocks.

And, thanks again to those that did the right thing and stood up against the blanket smears of teachers as perverts: AFT president Randi Weingarten, NYU professor Diane Ravitch and Class Size Matters head Leonie Haimson. It is refreshing that when there are sleazes like Brown, some people will stand for truth.

HEY, HEY, HO, HO, SOFTER GLOVES FOR SUPERVISORS' SEXUAL IMPROPRIETY HAVE TO GO

Since major media personalities and outlets are side-lining serious issues and making a smoke-screen of an non-epidemic of sexually predatory teachers, teacher unions also raise and fight the media and the city for bias in the areas of principal sexual improprieties as compared to teacher sexual improprieties. (Albeit, don't get me wrong, sexual misconduct is a terrible offense. Victims of sexual assault remain scarred for decades. But let's not broadly impugn teachers as a class or negate due process rights.)

As Chaz's School Daze, a New York City blog reported, a New York City school supervisor impregnated a subordinate. Chaz's cited news story told of an additional case in which a principal several times was found in "compromising positions" with an assistant principal. No termination, in spite of the clear violation of Department of Education regulations. According to the 3020-a law any educator found guilty of sexual misconduct is automatically terminated.

And while we're on the subject of softer gloves treatment, let us go to the case of Mychael Willon, who was caught doing a perverse act in a Wichita, Kansas adult video store. His professional life after this? He got a bogus (mail order) PhD and became a LIS/Network supervisor of school supervisors in the Bronx (New York City) for several years. (He couldn't have done too much work during the day, as blogger SouthBronxSchool found that he lived in Owego, NY, 3 and 1/s to 4 hours from the Bronx.)
Rutland, Vermont rejected him for superintendent after it learned of his diploma mill "PhD". Leominster, Massachusetts rejected him for superintendent after learning of his public lewdness arrest. NYC DOE? Hired him. His life after the NYC Department of Education? A job in the growing for-profit virtual education industry, as Chief Academic Officer at Alternatives Unlimited.

Where is the pious posturing by Brown on pervvy principals???
Why does it take bloggers to bring down serial harassers? Why does the NYC DOE demote such supervisors to assistant principal instead of boot them out of the education profession? Look to the case of Bronxdale High School principal John Chase, Jr., and Gothamist's reportage:

According to a Sept. 19, 2011 police report, Chase told one school staff member, “We have a fancy copy machine that does all sorts of things. It even has a hole to stick your ---- -- for a ---- ---." In addition, Chase talked about a hole in the wall—left behind by phone repairmen—with great enthusiasm, because he said it meant he could shove his member into it whenever he wanted. But alas, Chase will now have to shove his proverbial member into some other school's hole in a lesser role.

STAND BY YOUR MAN
And what does the DOE do with a John Chase? [Assigning him to assistant principal] "It was just an agreement that it would be best for him to do it right now," said Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.
New allegations surfaced about Chase, whereby he allegedly said things that made a 15 year old girl feel uncomfortable. What did Chancellor Walcott say?

On the new allegation, he said, “Just because an accusation is made doesn’t mean a person is guilty.”

Care to take the same position about teachers, Campbell Brown or New York Post editors? Until CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News and the New York Post back off from their campaign to paint a mass plague of perverted teachers, AFT president Weingarten and local union leaders should remind the media of the presumption of innocence, the rights of due process and the NYE Department of Education's kid gloves treatment of supervisors accused --or found guilty-- of sexual misconduct.

No E-Mail Accountability for Cuomo, Man of Transparency

No E-Mail Accountability for Cuomo, Man of Transparency

His government is very busy hiding some things. (For the latter, scroll down to Perdido Street blog, for the link.)
July 31, 2012 UPDATES from the New York Times, via Perdido Street blog. Scroll down.

The man that is touting himself as a promoter of transparency (a while back, called open government) is actually being quite secretive with his handling of his e-mails. In an effort to seep them away from being on the record.

In the New York Times:

"Despite Cuomo’s Vow of Sunlight, a Bid to Keep Aides’ E-Mail in the Dark"

By THOMAS KAPLAN, Published: July 16, 2012

ALBANY — Aides communicate with untraceable messages sent from BlackBerry to BlackBerry. Nothing delicate is shared using e-mail. And in-boxes are regularly wiped clean.

When he ran for office, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vowed to operate the most transparent administration in New York State history. And his aides argue that he has: they say that their communication methods differ little from those of other elected officials, and that Mr. Cuomo will preserve more documents than any of his recent predecessors.

But while Mr. Cuomo has taken steps to improve citizen access to the State Capitol, literally as well as digitally, he and his aides have also set up an executive chamber that prides itself on leaving few footprints.

“It communicates a culture of — I don’t know if paranoia is the right word; maybe it’s control,” said Bill Samuels, a Democratic activist and the founder of the New Roosevelt Initiative, a government-reform group. “But it’s not healthy long-term.”

The Cuomo administration’s sensitivity to sunlight is well known. Aides in the governor’s office have been warned about discussing work matters at Albany haunts. On one occasion, Mr. Cuomo’s spokesman worried publicly that someone was rummaging through the office’s trash. And the administration has been aggressive in redacting documents before sharing them with the public; in June, when it turned over months of Mr. Cuomo’s schedules to The New York Times, even the daily weather forecast was blacked out. (The office has since pledged to release the forecasts.)

Click here for the full original article.

Huffington Post's reportage on the issue.

* * *

We go back to the issue of accountability, an issue for teachers, but not for the police, not for the governor's praetorian guard or Governor Cuomo himself.

He is not only circumventing e-mail. He is removing some archives from public view. Go to Perdido Street School blog. I will not make the pretense of improving on what she or he wrote. Therefore, I will include just the beginning.

July 24, 2012, "What's Cuomo Hiding? (Continued): Another day, another story about Cuomo hiding something from the past:" [typo corrected]

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration, already drawing attention for its focus on secrecy, has now begun editing his record as New York attorney general, sending aides to the state archives to remove key documents from public view.

The aides have declared off limits all of Mr. Cuomo’s files related to a 2007 inquiry into the use of the State Police for political purposes, which was one of the most prominent public corruption investigations he oversaw as attorney general. And, in a change of practice, the administration is also pre-emptively reviewing all documents sent by the governor to the archives and removing anything it deems sensitive from public view.

The review of the archived material comes at a time when Mr. Cuomo is being much discussed as a 2016 presidential candidate. Many public figures with national ambitions have been concerned about being tripped up by old documents; when Mitt Romney left the governorship in Massachusetts, his administration wiped all e-mail from the government server and allowed his top aides to buy their work hard drives, so no electronic record remained.

Mr. Cuomo’s office defended its conduct, saying that the archives mistakenly made public documents that should have been private, and that it has simply been correcting those errors. It said that the documents related to the police inquiry — known as Troopergate — were exempt from public disclosure because they were “work product,” or protected by attorney-client privilege, and that researchers could find some of the documents through the files of other agencies, like the Albany district attorney.

And then we get what sounds an awful lot like Cuomo's people specifically trying to cover something up:

Go to Perdido Street School blog for the full article.

UPDATE:
The latest, July 31, 2012, from the New York Times: "Cuomo Bullied Witnesses, Is Now Covering Up How He Handled Trooper Case" or "Cuomo Said to Dissuade Lawyer Use by Witnesses."

Principal in Sex Harass of Women; Walcott Stood By Him

Two standards of justice exist in the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE). For staff there are few rights. For principals and other supervisors there is tremendous leniency and forgiveness.
A Regents test cheating scandal or a sex harass case, the accused stays on the job. Demoted maybe, but usually not fired.
Now a clarification, I say for such cases, staff or supervisors, that the claims, the charges must be recognized as allegations, and there should be stronger cases than rumor. There should be due process, and trials outside of the news media. Accused should be innocent until proven guilty.
However, we must also say that there should be a consistent standard. Staff are guilty until they can prove their innocence. We do not find consistent application of standards with the higher-ups in the education field, particularly in the NYC DOE.
Last month, the South Bronx blogger raised this point and he brought renewed attention to the case of "Dr." (from a diploma mill) Mychael Willon, someone with the equivalent of a guilty plea to the charge of lewd acts in a Wichita bookstore. South Bronx reminds us that the DOE eventually let him go from his "LIS" [local instructional superintendent] position supervising principals in the Bronx. "Dr." Willon did get to move to a plum executive position at a private Texas education firm. Now, South Bronx raised this case in the context of publicizing the case of the accused principal John Chase, Jr. It is alleged that he made vulgar comments to female staff about a copy machine's ability to do things for his private areas. Click here for the quotes too vulgar for this blog, from the police report.
Lost amidst other "education news" over the past week was the news that the DOE demoted principal Chase. NY1.com reported on May 15 that the DOE has moved Chase over to the position of assistant principal at a location yet to be determined.

Take an inventory, there was a police report. The allegations against accused the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) president did not reach the level of a police report. However, his case garnered two days of front page coverage from the New York Post.
More of an inventory of the DOE kid gloves treatment of the accused principal, compared with accused teachers removed from the classroom:

DOE officials say there was no formal disciplinary hearing.

and:

After the report came out in November, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott let Chase keep his job. The accused principal received a letter of reprimand and was forced to undergo sensitivity training.

Oh, and the Gothamist site reported, May 16, the additional news that

Could this [decision to move Chase over to an AP position some place] have anything to do with the fact the DOE is now investigating NEW claims by a 15-year-old girl that Chase made comments that made her uncomfortable?

Actually, very creepy comments. See the details at Chaz's post, comments that spurred to child to contact the police. For comparable sub-administrator educators, the outcomes are routinely, four-digit fines or suspensions of pay, and feeding of stories to the Post that would make rabid wolves blush.
Remember, when Walcott or another big, or the media speaks, accused teachers are guilty when charged. Chaz gave us Walcott's latest standy-by-your-man. Principles of fair treatment apply to principals:

On the new allegation, he said, “Just because an accusation is made doesn’t mean a person is guilty.”

The allegations against Chase involved non-consensuality, harassment by a superior over subordinates, features of a hostile work environment, and plenty of salaciousness. Where was the public media execution of Chase as there has been for countless accused New York City teachers?
Additionally, disturbing, disgusting was Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott's statement that amounts to an instance of "Stand by Your Man," albeit in January. "'We're going to make sure he goes for the appropriate training, but at the same time we have an investment to make as far as leadership is concerned,' Walcott said in January," NY1.com reported last week. Interesting. Walcott is overlooking the alleged abuse and trauma of women workers, with the justification of standing by "an investment" of leadership.
Let's be clear, there should not be public media trials. We have just noted how the DOE has double standards when it comes to allegations and justice. Yet, the media practices the same double standards. We are not calling for public trial; but we are calling out the outrageous, classist inconsistency in the media treatment of the accused.

Why Post-Scooped Mulgrew Sex Story has Political Relevance --UPDATED

(Go to the bottom of this post for UPDATES; these updates also deal with the political ramifications.) This New York Post salacious story, "UFT ‘sex coverup’: Union chief caught in act at school: lawsuit", is just another media outlet's union-bashing attack on a powerful union official who helps the less fortunate. Not so fast.
The Post's story this morning of United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew does indeed have great significance.  It moves beyond the level of a salacious tee-hee story to one of great importance.  For the first half of the article it justs reads as sour grapes gloating over an embarrassing story of improper behavior.
However, the story matters a great deal for the integrity of UFT president Mulgrew.  If the facts are indeed true, they raise highly disturbing concerns for the membership.
First the details: an aggrieved teacher at the Frank Sinatra High School of the Arts in Queens alleges that Mulgrew engaged in a sexual act on a shop table in a wood shop of the school campus of William E. Grady Vocational High School --Mulgrew's last teaching assignment, and that he was caught "in flagrante delicto" [Latin, "in blazing offence"] by a school janitor. His alleged partner in the act was a school guidance counselor. So far, just a sleazy story of misconduct and more than a little bad judgment.
Then come the political details. The article reveals that his act partner received a nice union office job on the side. (For the uninitiated, the union office jobs generally come with a second pension and a token appearance at the school.)
One former staffer at Grady High School made comments that cut to the core of the issue:

“The sex thing, it’s between them and nobody’s business,” one said. “The thing that upset me is the patronage job to Mendez — rewarding her with a high-paying job with my union dues.”

Coincidentally, soon after the alleged encounter, Mulgrew ascended to the position of UFT Vice President of Vocational Schools.

In 2005, soon after the alleged incident, Mulgrew became UFT vice president for career and technical high schools. Around the same time, Camacho-Mendez transferred to the HS of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn, but got a part-time job in Mulgrew’s union office.
She was later given the full-time position of UFT liaison for special education. She gets two paychecks — $22,000 in UFT compensation on top of her $85,000 city salary, although she’s no longer a guidance counselor. In 2010, Mulgrew presented Camacho-Mendez with a UFT award.
“No one ever heard of this woman until Mulgrew brought her on board,” said a longtime UFT rep. “She had no union credentials.”

WHY THIS MATTERS POLITICALLY
This article alleges that the school's administration, the principal, participated in the hush-hush. Here's where the story gets political. You cannot be a strong union advocate of teachers when the principal, and now, by extension, the Department of Education (DOE) higher-ups, "have the goods on you." This is why Mulgrew is caught literally, in a compromised position. Compromised positions affect integrity and the ability to fully serve out duties. This is why military and security agencies are expected to treat this issue with vigilance.
Mulgrew demonstrates a profound weakness with his handling of several high-profile matters. First, he has sold out the union by agreeing to the tying of teacher performance evaluations to student test scores. He himself has conceded that the tests are statistically inconsistent. The New York State Department of Education's Meryl Tisch publicly upbraided the makers of the latest test, Pearson, publishers of several tests recently administered to elementary school aged children, for rampant test errors. Yet, scholars have often cited poverty as a greater factor in the appearance of low test scores. For example, see former principal Mel Riddile's "PISA: It's Poverty Not Stupid."
Second, there is the Absent Teacher Reserve matter. ATR teachers are senior teachers. The city Department of Education, under mayoral control --which Mulgrew and Weingarten in principle agree with, only allots so much to particular schools. Thus, the city encourages principals to hire down the pay scale. So, while the media excoriates Last In, First Out, the reality is that principals hire new or relatively new teachers over experienced ones. Where does this leave excessed teachers? The ATR pool. The DOE will create hundreds of ATRs in June with the shuttering and the immediate reopening of the schools with new names and new budget numbers. The UFT's mantra was that it would protect ATRs. Now, some teachers will question this with talk of a buy-out.
We wonder why the lack of real strength on cutting edge issues? Could it be that the DOE had the goods on Mulgrew and this restrained him from going further on some of the most pressing issues for teachers? Could it be that Mulgrew is now of the two percent with his "$250,400 a year [salary], plus benefits," rather than the 98 percent?
Interesting: both the evaluations cave in announcement in February and the ATR cave in this Thursday, came in 24 hours after the Delegate Assemblies, where trouble could brew, in the absence of rehearsed, scripted opponents of statements by those representatives truly defending members' interests.
THE REAL MYTH OF MULGREW
Many UFT members are snow-under by Mulgrew's scowl when interviewed and by his grandiose acts such as dissing New York Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to his face with his D rating of the Department of Education's performance. They and UFT-friendly outsiders are saying that "Mulgrew is better than Randi" [Weingarten, Mulgrew's successor]. This Post article furthers the myth, giving Mulgrew the "fiery" label.
But these gestures by Mulgrew are comparatively tame. He needs to go beyond the nyeh-nyeh-ing to Walcott and show the real potency of the union, and have mass rallies.
All of this is why many union members are viewing the union leadership as a royal fiefdom insulated from the mass of the membership, why some members are looking for a UFT caucus with MORE action, real defense of members, rather than empty bluster, to give deeper analysis of the issues, not the Mulgrew clique's brief soundbytes.
Read more of Susan Edelman's story at the Post: UFT President Michael Mulgrew accused of sex-scandal cover-up in federal suit - NYPOST.com
UPDATE
See Betsy Combier's Parents Advocate blog for 2005 principal lawsuit query: http://www.parentadvocates.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=8300
She closes her contribution with the clincher,

So, what's the truth, Mike? Why did the Principal of Grady sue you and Ellie Engler in 2005? What was the settlement? The public does need to know.
And why are you on the payroll of the DOE through 2010?
Did you hide your affair and other actions at William Grady, then decide you would not help members put into the same situation? If so, perhaps you should resign.

We go now to the 2005 lawsuit, by a principal against Mulgrew for defamation.
It appears to be retaliation against Mulgrew and other union officials for complaints over alleged principal misconduct in asbestos removal. Mulgrew and company complained of the principal's asking teachers and students to work on the site: [he] "directed students and a teacher to tear down library walls and shelves even though he knew the room contained asbestos, then tried to cover up the incident".Here is the substance of the case between Mulgrew and Grady HS principal Ivor Neuschotz. This lawsuit? It was settled out of court the next year. Was there an I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine quid pro quo, agreement between Mulgrew and Neuschotz to keep hushed about each other's scandals?
2005 a special year for Mulgrew. As we noted before, he had the on-campus fling with his colleague. And in the same year UFT president Randi Weingarten chose him as vice-president of the vocational school division of the union.
So, Mulgrew had the goods on the principal, who kept hush-hush. Again, this cuts to the core of how this is a valid political story. Just how can you go toe-to-toe with opponents when the opponents have you in mutual agreements to keep hush-hush?
Back in 1993 president Bill Clinton was searching for an attorney general. His first two appointees had minor legal problems stalling his appointment for the office.
That episode should be an object lesson that you thoroughly vet candidates for high or sensitive positions. We wonder, why did Randi Weingarten fast-track Mulgrew to the Presidency when he had the Camacho-Mendez affair in his closet? Were there not any Janet Reno-clean candidates that she could have considered?
[This story reeks of double standards. The alleged classroom tryst of two language teachers at James Madison High School, like Mulgrew were caught by a member of the custodial staff. These teachers, in 2009, the year of Mulgrew's moving to the UFT presidency, got assigned to a "rubber room." Mulgrew, when he was supposedly caught in an improper intimate act was on his way to Vice President. The end of their story: termination. The end for Mulgrew: the insulated presidency. The question some teachers might at this point ask: do we have a rubber room president?]
* * *
Finally, the Rubber Room Reporter has linked Gotham Schools' page on Grady H.S. It got a D rating for 2009-2010. It is a mostly male school; yet the top graduates are female. The graduation rate is 49 percent. That is not exactly the model of success in the DOE's eyes. It is the kind of school that might head soon for transformation. Mulgrew's old peers at Grady HS could soon be out of their positions and find themselves ATRs. Don't you think that Mulgrew is relieved that he is a mere mortal teacher?
His track record as a union leader, looking out for his fellow teachers shows a failure of compassion and understanding. The settling for a test score-based evaluation program. The abandonment of teachers whose school becomes a turnaround or transformation school to excessed status. Does he ever imagine if his fate was more like the hapless teachers at James Madison or dozens at Grady?
As Combier asks, "What was the settlement? The public does need to know."
* * *
Our brotherly blogger at Ed Notes added these observations about the story:

For those of us who are challenging his leadership for NOT battling the ed deformers and protecting teachers, this story is meaningless other than it exposes the level of Unity Caucus corruption and how they protect their own while leaving most teachers to hang.
--------UPDATED with comment from Michael Fiorillo
I agree with Norm that UFT collaboration with Bloomberg predates Mulgrew, and is predicated on much deeper corruption and deception, which also includes the self-deception of the leadership and its patronage recipients.
If the UFT/AFT didn't already accept or agree with the outlines of the neoliberal project on education, would this (alleged) tawdry episode be enough to maintain it? Not likely.
On the other hand, John Kenneth Galbreath said that all revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door, and we all know the UFT structure is rotten, despite the presence of decent, hard working people in the union. That's the destiny of every entrenched, single party state, and that's the potential significance of this story: at a certain point, the superstructure is so internally compromised that it can no longer support itself, and crumbles before a gust of wind.
If this is that gust of wind (doubtful in my mind, but you never know), the question then becomes, who will benefit from the resulting crisis: an invigorated rank and file fed up with years of lies and abuse, or the Overclass, which seeks to use it for its own avaricious ends?

Memo to Mayor Mike: Lay Off the Irish and Jewish Stereotypes

TEFLON MIKE THROWS AROUND IRISH, JEWISH STEREOTYPES
In this time of public figures and other elites terrified of labeling the powerful with the bigot label that they deserve, we can expect little negative repercussions from New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's bigoted, anti-Irish statements this week at thee American Irish Historical Society.

Everything rolls off mayor Mike and everything his imprimatur touches. Witness his sham chancellor Cathie Black's creepy (albeit vague, but whatever it meaned... who can tell what was going on in her mind) Holocaust quip about "Sophie's Choice" when speaking about school placements, and her quip about birth control as a solution to over-crowding problems.

Here's Imperial Mayor Mike's anti-Irish comment, dredging up stereotypes about the Irish and alcohol:
He said that he had seen "people that are totally inebriated hanging out windows" [out of the Irish Historical Society].
So, he invoked low-life behaviors at a high-brow association. As "Irish Central" wrote on February 9,

The American Irish Historical Society, located at 80th Street and 5th Avenue in New York, is one of the oldest Irish societies in America and emphasizes support for scholarship, culture and research. It recently won an architectural award for best renovated building in the city.

(No surprise that "The New York Times" today called the institution "a very sober place": "Mayor Aimed Drunken Irish Joke at a Very Sober Place" A Criticized society Seems Far Removed From a Stereotype.")

Hmmm, I wonder how the sober Irish-American school administrators feel about following his every order...

Sound rather offensive? "But, wait! There's more!" --like late night TV ads say. In the less widely circulated quote includes the words that preceded and followed the famous inebriated line, Bloomberg also stereotyped wealthy Jews as sympathizing with his feelings. (That's how I read the next quote. You'd like to spin it differently?)
Here's the fuller quote, as "The New York Post," directing from the front page to page 7, published it:

"I live in the neighborhood, right around the corner," the mayor said. "Normally, when I walk by this building, there are a bunch of people that are totally inebriated hanging out the window. I know that's a stereotype about the Irish, but nevertheless, we Jews around the corner think this."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/eire_head_mike_joke_draws_gags_YIDPHuqxPWR7Ry0D62vfsJ#ixzz1DmUvmc7b

Is it me, or did anyone notice how he lumped Fifth Avenue area Jews into a group sharing his stereotypical thinking? Seems to me that he is following one stereotype with another one. No, the whole tone of the statement does not sound like an accidental gaffe.
Click to this Feburary 10 New York Times site, "Irish Eyes Not Smiling Over Bloomberg Remark," for the audio of the mayor's ethnic slur.

EVEN HIS PET SPEAKER OFFENDED
Rumors have it that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is imperial mayor Mike's hand-picked successor for the mayoralty for when he finally leaves to his own Sharm El-Sheikh. This could explain why she blends into the wallpaper every time Mike pursues one of his more outrageous policies. Yet, even she was offended too:

Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and the granddaughter of Irish immigrants, called them “surprising and inappropriate.”

--from Fernandez, "Irish Eyes Not Smiling Over Bloomberg Remark," "The New York Times."

A DOUBLE STANDARD
So, I ask, again, where's the outrage? Sure, there are a few quotes from people insulted by this classic stereotype slur. But where are the endless demands on talk radio for his resignation? You can bet that if any famous African-American said this there would be calls by area pols for his resignation and angry mobs calling for the same and worse.

No, Mike, all Irish are not drunks, and not all Upper East Side Jews share your thinking. --Then again, maybe the bizarre quotes of Black and imperial mayor Mike in the last five or six weeks suggest that those two have been drinking.

Brooklyn parent challenges Black appointment in court with Article 78 proceedings

The public, thank goodness, refuses to stay quiet on the farcical Cathie Black appointment. The protests are continuing each work-day evening rush-hour at the Tweed Courthouse building-assigned to the Department of Education.

Now, a lawyer parent's lawsuit may, we hope, escalate the tension on the Black appointment. Let it be said again, there is a double-standard in mayor Michael Bloomberg's appointment of Hearst media executive Black to be New York city schools chancellor. She only has a bacehlor's degree. Meanwhile, hundreds of teachers of color were pushed out of their positions in the city Department of Education because they lacked master's degrees. The glaring double-standard is an utter outrage.

The New York Times has shifted from keeping the lid on organized protest against Bloomberg's education follies. (The shift started with the publication of New York State test scores plunge in the city schools this summer.)
Now, it has published the news on Park Slope, Brooklyn, parent Eric J. Snyder's lawsuit against the appointment: "Parent Sues to Block Schools Chief", by Sharon Otterman, December 3, 2010.
Snyder decided to pursue his suit "because he was concerned that a school system run by Ms. Black would continue to emphasize standardized testing to the exclusion of a broader, more creative curriculum" for his children.

The suit is known as an Article 78 proceeding, an action intended to seek a speedy review of governmental actions. On Friday, Justice Joseph C. Teresi of State Supreme Court in Albany ordered state education officials to appear on Dec. 23 to argue why Ms. Black’s waiver should not be annulled.

Click here for the NY1 video on the father's lawsuit against the Black appointment.

Teacher Rhee taped children's mouths; bleeding resulted / Statistics that puncture the myth Rhee created about her own teaching record in Baltimore

Seems Michelle Rhee, the high priestess of proper teaching in her stint as Washington, D.C. schools chancellor had failures of her own during her first year of teaching in Baltimore, Maryland.

Her second grade students were verbally unruly on their way to lunch one day. How did Ms. Rhee handle the situation? She taped the children's mouths shut. How horrible! This is something that teachers might joke about, but in reality they would never do this. The way this story developed is disturbing news and a warning to those that might do this.
At the end of Rhee's lesson on behavior she took the tape from the kids' mouths. Their lips were bleeding, in Rhee's own words, in an interview excerpted in "The Washington Post" this summer.
Need more proof? Here's an audio clip of Rhee glibly recalling the story as a funny party anecdote.

In New York City this would be cited as 420-A corporal punishment. No rubber room for Ms. Rhee. She squeaked past this one and became head of the school system in the big city to Baltimore's southwest.

                          *  *  *
POSTSCRIPT:
Any career repercussions for Rhee? Hardly. The corporate media still love her and this episode never arises in their bios of her. Neither is there careful attention to the mythic self-representation she has created about her own teaching record in Baltimore (with the exception of the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun or PBS). Less recognized is how her actual performance in Baltimore fails to hold up on closer examination.

Read at the GFBrandenburg blog by a retired Washington, D.C. math teacher: "The Rhee Miracle Examined Again – By Cohort." He took her test score data for her three years of teaching, 1992-1995, in Baltimore under her Teach for America contract, and showed that she has exaggerated her performance in two years of teaching.

As he noted, had the IMPACT program she instituted in Washington, D.C. had been used in her own school, she would have been fired in the first year.

Here I will attempt to follow four different cohorts of students through Harlem Park Elementary, one of the Baltimore City public schools that was taken over by Tesseract/Edison company for several years in the early-to-mid-1990s and failed. Using publicly available data, I graphed the average percentile ranks of groups of students as they went through Harlem Park in first grade, then second grade, then third grade, and so on. If there’s a blank in my graphs, it’s because the data isn’t there.

I highlighted the classes where Michelle Rhee was teaching. In her last year, the scores did rise some, but nowhere near what she claimed. In her first year, they dropped almost as low as they can go. If Tesseract/Edison had been using the IMPACT evaluation system she foisted on DCPS teachers, she would have probably been fired after the first year!

As the Baltimore Sun reported, her claim, "Over a two-year period, moved students scoring on average at the 13th percentile on national standardized tests to 90 percent of students scoring at the 90th percentile or higher," was actually dubious. And Rhee, after being challenged on this, said that she would use the phrase "significant gains" instead of the 90th percentile term. Brandenburg noted, the study (researchers with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Towson University, is stored in an online federal archive) presents "clear evidence of actual, knowing falsehood" by Rhee.

See also the June 30, 2007 Washington Post article, "Council to Challenge Rhee's Résumé." When someone did uncover her files, they indicated that her students' scores increase during the 2nd and 3rd years, but the gains were less than half what Rhee had claimed. (See February 8, 2011 Washington Post article, "Michelle Rhee's early test scores challenged.")

So much for honesty and empathy on Rhee's part.