Dismissal Bill Falters in Assembly

A bill that would make it easier to fire teachers and administrators failed to pass the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday. Sen. Alex Padilla’s controversial SB 1530 will be dead for the session unless he can persuade one more Democrat to reverse positions.
 
The bill had bipartisan support in the Senate, where it passed 33-4, but, in a test of strength by the California Teachers Association, only one Democrat, Education Committee Chairwoman Julia Brownley, and all four Republicans backed it in the crucial committee vote. The other six Democrats either voted against it (Tom Ammiano, San Francisco; Joan Buchanan, San Ramon) or didn’t vote (Betsy Butler, El Segundo; Wilmer Carter, Rialto; Mike Eng, Alhambra; and Das Williams, Santa Barbara).

The bill follows 2 incidents of sexual abuse in Los Angeles Unified and elsewhere, the worst of which involved Mark Berndt, 61, who’s been accused of 23 lewd acts against children at Miramonte Elementary in LAUSD. Padilla, a Democrat from Van Nuys, said SB 1530 responded to complaints from superintendents and school board members that it takes too long and is too expensive to fire teachers facing even the worst of charges. Rather than go through hearings and potential appeals, LAUSD paid off Berndt with $40,000, including legal fees, to drop the appeal of his firing. PUBLIC RELATIONS BABY!

Under current law, dismissal cases against teachers and administrators go before a three-person Commission on Professional Competence, which includes two teachers and an administrative law judge. Its decision can be appealed in Superior Court. (Lets not be having any radical notions of educators being innocent until proven guilty by a jury of your peers. OAH IS A TRIBUNAL OF STATE PAID INCOMPETENCE WITH THEIR OWN SET OF DUBIOUS RULES.)


SB 1530 would have carved out a narrow band of exceptions applying to “egregious or serious” offenses by teachers and administrators involving drugs, sex, and violence against children. In those cases, the competence commission would be replaced by a hearing before an administrative law judge whose (SUPPOSED) advisory (AND BULLSHIT SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT ) recommendation WHICH WILL BE TREATED THE SAME AS A CONVICTION IN CRIMINAL COURT WHERE THEY HAVE RULES BASED ON THE CONSTITUTION,) would go to the local school board for a laughable final decision. That decision was made when the teacher was first suspended, with or without merit. That OAH circus decision is sometimes appealable in court.

The bill also would have made admissible evidence of misconduct older than four years. Berndt had prior reports of abuse that had been removed from his file,  because a statute of limitations in the teachers contract in LAUSD prohibited their use. (Couldn't these self-serving fools find another example?)

School boards already have final say over dismissal of school employees other than teachers and administrators, so the bill would extend that to efforts to remove “a very creepy teacher” from the classroom,” as Oakley Union Elementary School District Superintendent Richard Rogers put it. “What is more fundamental than locally elected officials responsible for hiring and dismissal?” he asked.

The bill had the support of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and the LAUSD president, Monica Garcia, who described her fellow board members as “seven union-friendly Democrats” who want to “get rid of people who will hurt our children.” Monica must receive campaign support from the bills backers.

But Warren Fletcher, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, countered that “SB 1530 solves nothing, places teachers at unfair risk, and diverts attention from the real accountability issues at LAUSD.” Turning the tables, Fletcher, CTA President Dean Vogel, and others have filed statements with the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing to investigate Superintendent John Deasy’s handling of misconduct allegations in the district.

The argument that current law works resonated with Buchanan, who served two decades on the San Ramon Valley School Board. Calling the bill “intellectually dishonest” because nothing can prevent another Miramonte from happening, she said, “We never had problems dismissing employees.” She acknowledged that the “long, expensive dismissal process” needs to be streamlined, but the bill doesn’t get it right. A teacher at a school in her legislative district was accused of sexual misconduct by a student who got a bad grade. That teacher “deserves due process.”

The two teachers on the Commission on Professional Competence provide professional judgment that’s needed to protect the rights of employees, said Patricia Rucker, a CTA lobbyist who’s also a State Board of Education member. “We do value the right to participate and adjudicate standards for holding teachers accountable,” she said.

Fletcher said that school boards would be subject to parental pressure in emotionally charged cases, and, as a policy body, should not be given judicial power. Assemblyman Ammiano, a former teacher, agreed. “A school board is not the one to make the decision,” he said.

Wrong! They make the decision in closed session. The OAH is just a formality. So as to look good on paper.

Full-scale assault on the educator dismissal laws - David Welch wants to make it even easier to be FIRED FOR PERSONALITY AND NON-EDUCATION BASED REASONING

Full-scale assault on dismissal laws

Nonprofit with big name attorneys files suit

Posted on 5/17/12 • Categorized as

By  John Fensterwald

EDUCATED GUESS
 

 A nonprofit founded by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur has filed a sweeping, high-stakes lawsuit challenging state teacher protection laws. A victory would overturn a tenure, dismissal, and layoff system that critics blame for the hiring and retention of ineffective teachers. A loss in court could produce bad case law, impeding more targeted efforts to achieve some of the same goals.
Students Matter is the creation of David Welch, co-founder of Infinera, a manufacturer of optical telecommunications systems in Sunnyvale. The new nonprofit filed its lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday on behalf of eight students who attend four school districts. A spokesperson for the organization told the Los Angeles Times that Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad and a few other individuals are underwriting the lawsuit. They have hired two top-gun attorneys to lead the case: Ted Boutrous, a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of  Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Ted Olsen, former solicitor general for President George W. Bush.
The lawsuit asserts that five “outdated statutes” prevent administrators from making employment decisions in students’ interest. The tenure statute forces districts to decide after teachers are on the job only 18 months whether to grant them permanent job status. Once granted tenure, they gain due-process rights that make it expensive and difficult to fire them even if they’re “grossly ineffective.” And then, when an economic downturn comes – witness the last four years – a Last In/First Out (LIFO) requirement leads to layoffs based strictly on seniority, not competency.
The protection of ineffective teachers “creates arbitrary and unjustifiable inequality among students,” especially low-income children in low-performing schools, where less experienced teachers are hired and inept veteran teachers are shunted off, under a familiar “dance of the lemons” since they cant be fired. Because education is a “fundamental interest” under the state Constitution, the five statutes that “dictate this unequal, arbitrary result violate the equal protection provisions of the California Constitution” and should be overturned.  The lawsuit doesn’t prescribe a solution.

Incremental versus global approach

Students Matter’s wholesale assault on the laws contrasts with fact-specific, narrowly tailored lawsuits brought by attorneys for the ACLU of Southern California and Public Counsel Law Center. Two years ago, they won a landmark victory in Reed v. the State of California when Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William Highberger found that the heavy churn of teachers due to LIFO at three Los Angeles Unified middle schools violated students’ right to an equal educational opportunity. That decision led to a settlement between the district, the mayor’s office, and the attorneys that has protected the staffs of 45 low-performing schools from layoffs for the past three years. The strength of that case lay in its ability to tie specific harm to students to the layoff law, which explicitly permits exceptions to seniority layoffs to protect students’ fundamental constitutional rights. LAUSD had not exercised that exception. (United Teachers Los Angeles has appealed; arguments will be heard June 28.)
Earlier this year, the Sacramento-based nonprofit EdVoice brought suit against Los Angeles Unified over the pro forma way it conducts teacher evaluations. But here, the suit isn’t seeking to overturn the Stull Act, which defines how evaluations are done; it says that the district (along with nearly every other one) has chosen to ignore the law’s requirement that student performance be included in teacher evaluations.
 


There’s no shortage of critics of the tenure, dismissal, and layoff laws, which teachers unions have lobbied hard to preserve. California is one of few states that have not lengthened the probationary period for teachers. More than two dozen states have strengthened their evaluation systems in the past several years. California’s dismissal law, with its 10-step process laden with due process, can cost districts hundreds of thousands of dollars to fire a teacher on the grounds of unsatisfactory performance, which is why districts often work around it by paying teachers to retire or pushing them from one school to another.

Persuading a judge that the practical problems and the effects of the laws rise to the level of a constitutional violation is another matter. (In an analogous case, California is among the nation’s bottom spenders on K-12 education; it has tough standards and a challenging student population. But attorneys last year failed to convince a Superior Court judge in Robles-Wong v. California and Campaign for Quality Education v. California that adequate education funding is a constitutional right.)

Tough burden of proof

The tenure law may be particularly challenging. As the suit points out, something like 98 percent of probationary teachers have gotten tenure. The two-year probationary period (actually 18 months, since teachers must be notified by March of their second year) is not long enough. Too often evaluations have been slapdash. But the law itself doesn’t require a district even to cite a cause in denying tenure; the power of dismissal lies with the employer.

Students named in the lawsuit are from Los Angles Unified, Pasadena Unified, Sequoia Union High School District, and Alum Rock Union Elementary District, although only Los Angeles Unified and Alum Rock, which serves 11,000 students in San Jose, are specifically cited as defendants, along with  Gov. Brown, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, the State Board of Education, the state, and the State Department of Education.

The only specific reference to Alum Rock was in the identification of plaintiff Daniella Martinez, 10, whom the lawsuit says chose to transfer to a public charter school because “of the substantial risk that she would be assigned to a grossly ineffective teacher who impedes her equal access to the opportunity to receive a meaningful education.” The initial filing doesn’t cite evidence of  specific teachers who negatively affected Daniella or the other seven defendants. It refers to studies by such groups as the National Council On Teacher Quality, which issued a blunt assessment of the tenure and dismissal practices of Los Angeles Unified, and on research by Hoover Institution author Eric Hanushek, who concludes that just by dismissing 6 to 10 percent of weakest teachers, students’ academic achievement and long-term earnings as adults would increase significantly.
Los Angeles, as the state’s largest district, may have been named as a defendant because its superintendent, John Deasy, has been outspoken about the need to change labor laws. United Teachers Los Angeles has also  sued over a comprehensive teacher evaluation system that Deasy has put in place.

Deasy would appear to be a friendly witness for the plaintiffs. In a statement, he said he supports lengthening the probationary period, quickening the dismissal process, and reforming the state’s layoff law. “To my dismay, we have lost thousands of our best and hardest-working classroom instructors through the last hired, first fired rule. When forced to reduce our teaching staff through budget cuts, we are compelled through state law and union rules to base these difficult decisions primarily on seniority,” Deasy said.

But when questioned, Deasy will be pressed to acknowledge that it may not be the laws but the implementation that counts. Since joining the district, first as deputy superintendent, then superintendent, Deasy has pushed administrators to apply more scrutiny in granting tenure and more perseverance in dismissing bad teachers. Last year the district terminated 853 teachers. Furthermore, the number of probationary teachers denied tenure rose significantly last year: from 89 in 2009-10 (10 percent of those eligible) to 120 teachers in their first year and 30 in their second year. Other superintendents would agree that well-trained, persistent principals can document the case for teacher dismissa ls, notwithstanding cumbersome, excessively burdensome requirements.

CTA REFUSES TO USE BUT A FRACTION OF IT'S ONE-THIRD BILLION DOLLAR annual INCOME TO onerously and relectantly PROTECT AND DEFEND (some not all of) IT'S MEMBERS IN NEED.

Our's is the first era where Teachers in California Have NO Enforced Rights though dozens of laws, statutes, and codes exist to protect our them. This has come to pass due mostly to the ineptitude and corporate style greed of The California Teachers Association, Our "Union." Sometimes calling itself a "Professional Organzation," not a Union. 

CTA REFUSES TO USE BUT A FRACTION OF IT'S ONE-THIRD BILLION DOLLAR annual INCOME TO onerously and relectantly PROTECT AND DEFEND (some not all of) IT'S MEMBERS IN NEED. It seems fitting you should know the salaries of the people who take an average of $75 per month from each educator (CTA states 325,000, down from over 345,000 members.) 75X325,000.00 = $ 24,375,000 PER MONTH, 12mo.X $24,375,000.00 = $292,500,000.00 per year. CTA is the richest state union in the country and the richest of its type in the world. The same CTA that gave itself through your local representatives, no membership votes were cast, an income increase every year that there have been teacher layoffs - the last six years.

I personally couldn't get a qualified CTA attorney to represent me at all. Inspite the local's CTA representative promising me that "it would be no problem." CTA legal refused to allow me an attorney in an administrative hearing regarding my pending dismissal on a set of out and out LIES by Moreno Valley Unified School District's, HR Drag Queen - Henry H. Voro's. CTA legal also refused an explanation or to provide the total each member is allotted for legal defense.
What are they hiding now?

Rick Sayre and Mike Rios Can't Figure Out What 45 Other Area School Board Trustees Have

Moreno Valley USD Desperately Needs Bond Funds but the Sayre and Rios "Brain Trust"  Don't Understand Why!

Nine school districts in Riverside and San Bernardino counties have placed bond measures on the Nov. 6 presidential election ballot, hoping that voters will agree to tax themselves to help schools catch up with technology and repair or replace outdated buildings.

Without much hope that the state will pay for such improvements anytime soon, districts are turning to voters during an election expected to draw a higher-than-usual turnout.

“It’s just a large turnout,” said Bob Brown, president of the Temecula Valley Unified School District board, which will be asking voters to approve a $165 million bond measure.

“The more people you get, the more people are interested, the better chance you have,” Brown said.

School districts’ needs are many, and the list grows every year: leaking roofs in San Bernardino, an old air-conditioning system in Hemet, a lack of technical education labs in Temecula, the demand for a high school in Menifee, to name just a few.

Still, many district leaders are concerned that survey results may not reflect voters’ true sentiments and that, when faced with the anonymity of their ballot, they will say no to adding possibly $100 or more to their annual tax bills. That is why some districts, such as Corona-Norco Unified, decided against bond measures.

Voters also will have to decide whether they want to support their local district’s school construction bonds as well as Prop. 30, which seeks to raise taxes temporarily, with a major portion going to education. Many districts will have to cut their budgets midyear if Prop. 30 fails.

Districts are not allowed to spend taxpayer money on bond campaigns. They can ask volunteers to form committees, which can solicit contributions to pay for advertising or other campaign materials.

DEFERRED MAINTENANCE

Since 2009, school districts have been allowed the flexibility to spend many previously restricted funds to save teaching jobs, preserve class sizes and keep student services such as busing, music and counseling.

One of those previously restricted funds was for deferred maintenance and went to pay for periodic work like new paint, fresh asphalt and roofing.

Christakos said Hemet decided it was important to maintain facilities and keep up with that deferred maintenance schedule.

But the deferred maintenance fund normally isn’t enough to pay for a whole new roof intended to last 30 to 50 years, he said. Likewise, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems are supposed to last 30 years, Christakos said.

“That’s the kind of stuff you want to invest your bond money in,” he said.

Alvord Unified, Hemet Unified and Nuview Union school districts in Riverside County are among a dozen statewide asking voters to reauthorize some of the bonds they approved in 2006 and 2007.

When property values dropped, the districts never issued some bonds because the tax rates needed to pay off the bonds would have been too high. Now they want to decertify the unissued amounts and reauthorize them, without increasing authorized total debt.

TECHNOLOGY NEEDS

When many Inland districts approved bonds during the construction boom several years ago, educators didn’t foresee the huge demand for computers.

Since then, California and most states have adopted Common Core Standards. With the new curriculum, the state plans to replace its paper standardized tests in 2014-15 with tests students take online.

Most schools have a computer lab, often an aging one, that typically will accommodate one class at a time. Standardized tests now are taken by the whole school at the same time. Educators are worried about logistical challenges to get all students to take online tests in the short period allowed by the state.

Hemet Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Vincent Christakos is also vice president of the California Association of School Business Officials. He said wiring and servers for more Internet access are needed by many districts.

“Everybody expects we’re in the modern age,” Christakos said.

Schools also need computer access for programs to help struggling students, he said. Those computer programs automatically adjust to match a student’s current skill levels, rather than wasting time drilling them on what they already know or overwhelming them with questions way beyond their current ability.

BANKING ON ‘YES’

Many districts said the projects that would be covered by the bonds can’t be postponed forever.

In their bond documents, districts say it is important to get that work done now, before it becomes more pressing and costly. Construction costs and interest rates are historically low, so the money will go further, they say.

Passing a bond measure requires a “yes” from at least 55 percent of voters. The districts must appoint citizen oversight committees to make sure the bonds are spent as intended.

Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified is another district with a bond. It placed a $98 million bond measure on the Nov. 6 ballot to help upgrade its aging facilities and classroom technology.

The school district would sell the bonds in three or four series over a span of 10 to 15 years.

In January, when the Yucaipa-Calimesa school board was researching whether to float a bond measure, consultant Ann Feng-Gagne acknowledged at a board meeting that November's ballot is going to be crowded.

The board decided to proceed because Assistant Superintendent George Velarde said the district’s needs have become astronomical.

Calimesa resident Linda Molina supports the bond measure.

"These are desperate times,” she told the school board. “I see this as a way for our community to support our district in ways we haven't been able to."

Also contributing: Staff writer Erin Waldner, ewaldner@pe.com

SCHOOL BONDS

Nine school districts in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are putting bond measures on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Temecula Valley Unified, $165 million, cost to property owners $10 per $100,000 assessed valuation annually. Needs: facilities, equipment for vocational education in health, science, technology and the trades; upgraded computers and classrooms science labs.

Perris Union High School District, $153.4 million, cost to property owners $30 per $100,000 assessed valuation annually. Needs: improved classrooms, science labs, vocational education and instructional technology; hazardous materials removal; fire safety improvements; other upgrades.

Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified, $98 million, cost to property owners up to $44.25 per $100,000 of assessed valuation annually. Needs: computer and instructional technology upgrades; new or improved vocational classrooms and labs; repairs, replacement of leaky roofs, aging classrooms, old restrooms and other facilities.

Alvord Unified, in parts of Riverside and Corona, $79 million reauthorization of 2007 bonds, cost to property owners $51 per $100,000 in assessed valuation annually. Needs: new or refurbished classrooms and schools, including vocational education facilities, heating and air-conditioning systems, science labs and computer technology access.

Hemet Unified, $49 million, cost to property owners $27.50 per $100,000 assessed valuation annually. Needs: upgrade or replace heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems; reduce borrowing costs on 2006 bonds.

Nuview Union School District, east of Perris, $4 million reauthorization of 2006 bonds, cost to property owners $27 (capped at $30) per $100,000 assessed valuation annually. Needs: better student access to computers and technology; building or renovations; new equipment; lower borrowing costs.

San Bernardino City Unified, $250 million, cost to property owners up to $34 per $100,000 assessed valuation annually. Needs: repair or replace leaky roofs, deteriorating classrooms, fire alarms, security and electrical systems; remove asbestos; update classroom technology, labs and other upgrades.

Coachella Valley Unified, $41 million, cost to property owners not available. Needs: upgrades to electrical and computer systems; new mobile learning devices; and school facility upgrades.

Chaffey Joint Union High School District, in Ontario, $848 million, cost to property owners up to $19.94 per $100,000 assessed valuation. Needs: repair restrooms, leaky roofs, heating, air-conditioning and fire safety systems; remove asbestos; upgrade handicapped accessibility; science and computer labs; other upgrades.

FOR EACH TIME A MAN OR WOMAN STANDS UP...

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and during those ripples builds a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice." 
 given

Robert F. Kennedy"
narative of a speech given in South Africa

From - Narrative of the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty—to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. ... Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read." Frederick Douglass, aged about 10, after hearing his master say teaching him to read "would forever unfit him to be a slave."

What was the administrator's power to enslave the teacher? We think it was using terror to figuratively lobotomize our teachers so they would stop thinking. We propose that the solution that worked for the slaves, will work for teachers - READ. It will unfit you to be an abused slave and bring you back to your calling that made you want to be a teacher in the first place. We suggest you start with BREAKING THE SILENCE, the revolutionary book by Joseph and Jo Blase. It will not only help you see how this system insidiously controls your mind, but it will help you see what we are doing to children by not being the adults and taking a stand against abuse. Together we can sweep down this wall of oppression and injustice.

READ. READ. READ... Read our web site(s). Read the teacher stories. Learn the politics by going through the POLITICS section. Come back as many times as it takes to get through it and read new information each time. Our REFERENCES page will have a continually growing list of books and links that will help give you insight and support to stay in your power and not let fear drive your decision making. A critical mind is the only protection againt propaganda, a speciality of this system. Learn about your situation and about yourself and draw strength from this knowledge. Books and our web site will empower you. Visits other sites that offer support and knowledge to stay strong.

Learn who your enemies are. Yes they are real. As you read about the union and think beyond the hype, you will see that they empower our administrators to abuse us. There is a lot of information on this site explaining their priorities that do not add up to caring about teacher abuse, and instead prove that they have a vested interest in its existence. This information includes teacher testimonial about how they have let them down or even sabotaged their cases. Become wise and you will regain the reins for your own life.

Contact teacher friends who have stories to tell, and encourage them to send them in to us. The more we have, the more we have to be believed. Once believed, the system will be forced to change. This is all too outrageous and it only can exist in the darkness. Shine a light on it any way you can.

The courage you need is in you, buried under the scars of abuse that our school systems have so successfully created in you to keep you under their tyrannical control. If your district objects to the t-shirt, ask them why. If they have rules about all t-shirts, then wear them only to events where t-shirts are acceptable. If they object due to the message, ask them why? If they do not abuse teachers, why would they object to you being part of a group that wants to eradicate teacher abuse? Their objection to your wearing it speaks for itself. Let us know the name of the district that prohibits them. Don't be afraid to speak up about it.

Get your friends to wear t-shirts with the message. Get the message out as well as start breaking the silence. You will find many people who support ending teacher abuse once the topic is public. You can help make it public, and help yourself at the same time.

 Emotional support is very important and we find that family members can only hear so much about this topic before they stop listening. But other abused teachers welcome conversation about teacher abuse as it helps them heal too. Contact us and we will provide you with support buddies as well as give you support from our staff.

Tell everyone about our web site(s), and encourge people interested in donating to a worthy cause, to donate money to us. This might include businesses you frequent as well as family members. Everyone has an interest in the future of our country. This is important to everyone.

Contact your former university or college and make sure at least their teacher education department knows about teacher abuse, NAPTA, and our web site. Spread the word.

Students and Parents will benefit from all of the above. In addition, contact us for consultation regarding specific problems with your children dealing with our schools. From us you will get advice that is based on our professional knowledge, as well as our willingness to speak truthfully about what you need to help your child, or reality. You will not get appropriate advice from anyone oppressed by the terror, or lining their pockets with the failure of our schools. We are the authentic teachers that care about and know how to help children. If you have any doubt about the political climate of your school, contact us and we will help your through the intentional obstacles in place with our candid, practical advice. We will also match you up with a teacher informed in the particular area and grade level of concern for a phone consultation.

Turn to your religion and/or to spirituality to stay in the eye of the hurricane throughout this abuse. Some things that happen in this life cannot be explained. Teacher abuse seems impossible. Why would the people who care so much about others be treated so badly? The main reason it is happening is because it can. People have choices between good and evil and there is more opportunity in education for all the reasons we explain on the site. Wherever there is opportunity, there will be greed. There are just some things that can only be understood through spiritual avenues and if you haven't developed it before, you need to now. We will have many book suggestions for spirituality. Your religious leader can suggest books also.

AS WORKPLACE ABUSE ESCALATES

WHY DON'T WE WORKING PEOPLE CONFRONT IT COLLECTIVELY?

by Judith L. Wyatt.

We are all in psychotic denial when due to speed up on the treadmill of daily life we don't confront the assaults on our freedoms, and we don't admit how bad work abuse is getting. Presently, as things get worse, we hang on tighter to whatever we've been doing -- we do it harder, even though it isn't working, rather than to stop, look at the situation and take action to prevent what's inevitable.

1 in 10 New Yorkers Has PTSD

Trauma of Sept. 11 Lingers in Wide NYC Area

-- More than one in 10 New York-area residents suffer lingering stress and depression in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, new research shows.

After correcting for background levels, the study suggests that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks resulted in an extra 532,240 cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the New York City metropolitan area. The study -- conducted two months after the disaster -- appears in the Aug. 7 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Many psychologists predicted that the trauma of watching the Sept. 11 events on television would cause a wave of PTSD to sweep the nation. The study shows no evidence of this, even though television watching was associated with a high degree of distress.

"That is a piece of good news for the country as a whole, but we find an important public-health problem for New York City," researcher William E. Schlenger, PhD, tells WebMD. "There is a substantial PTSD problem well beyond the downtown area. PTSD is quite high in all five boroughs of the city as well as in the suburbs of New Jersey and Connecticut."

When you are directly in it, it can effect you. Have compassion for others too.

You may be directly in a situation that causes PTSD - teacher abuse. Do not minimize its effects. Stay on top of your mental health by saying no to teacher abuse. You may think you can live in an abusive situation without consequences, but it has a way of seeping into your psyche unless you are proactive. That is why you have to learn about it, address it, and protect yourself by refusing to be a victim. Remember, even if you are not being abused, watching colleagues while doing nothing is an affront to you too. Also, the things you do to play it safe, and the compromises you make to stay on the good side of the abusers, slowly strangle your sense of power, making you a victim too. BE A SURVIVOR. 

Author Rene Dietrich describes Herself as: ART SOLDIER! Artist, Writer, Poet, Teacher, Scholar, Editor, Advocate for Students/Teachers, Education Activist, Emberrorist, Proletariate, Bad Speller with Joan of Arc Complex. Single mom with one very fine young son and usually a few strays in tow. I like books, readings, MAC (mad art APPs No Bill Gates), independent films (Baxter, Vagabond, wings of Desire, Dark City, City of God, Brazil) experimental theater, exceptional music: Cohen, Morrisons, Cave, Cale, Coletrain, Winehouse, VU, QT soundtracks, Miles, and Iggy.

Our Union Leaders Are Betraying Us. Lieing to us. Stealing From Us...

First published Monday, June 04, 2012

in Schools Matter.

Attention All Teachers (Educators): Your Union Leaders Are Betraying You

Though this article is about Massachusetts it perfectly true for California as well. Last year Paul Toner, the ostensible leader of the MA Teachers Association, surrendered his membership by capitulating without a whimper to the first step in the corporate blueprint to replace tenured and experienced teachers with a new generation of untrained neophytes who will cycle through the system after a two to three year stint.  That first step in that process was to establish a teacher evaluation scheme based on student test scores, and to link job security pay to those test scores.  Toner accomplished this feat without a vote by the rank and file--not even an opinion survey. 

This kind of open contempt for the teachers he was elected to represent in 2010 signified a transparent betrayal of teachers and children for the self-aggrandizing goal of cozying up to the corporate foundations and education terrorist organizations like Stand for Children (see Jonah Edelman spill the beans on the real goals of Stand on Children).

Now we find that President Toner has surrendered Massachusetts teachers once more in Step 2 of the corporate education deformers' plan to destroy teacher tenure, job security, and due process .  From Barbara Gordon posted Saturday on Facebook:

This week the Massachusetts Teachers Association's Board of Directors voted to put forward legislation that will end the use of tenure and seniority as the primary factors to use in layoff situations. Instead, the primary criteria will be performance evaluations and "the best interests of the students" with seniority being used only for "tie-breakers."  

This was a "legislative compromise" the MTA leadership worked out with educational terrorists Stand for Children, who had a ballot question that did the same thing and more, ready for the November election. The MTA leadership negotiated this compromise without input or approval from rank and file MTA members. Their position is that there is no way we could have beaten Stand on the ballot question so it was better to compromise and lose seniority rights and involuntary transfer rights than to fight and possibly lose those things and more.  

People are shocked and furious. Does anyone have any ideas for anything we can do about this? They are pushing to get this into the legislature and passed by July 3, the deadline when Stand for Children has to submit the final paperwork for the ballot question. 

We know we might lose the ballot question, but we wanted a chance to fight. If the MTA leadership will not fight for us, where are we? What are we paying our dues for?

And this from Tim Scott:

MTA & STAND FOR CHILDREN: As we know, collective bargaining entails negotiating with our employer over our compensation, hours of work and working conditions (broadly). Under these rules, we often need to organize ourselves to take action to ensure that we strengthen our contracts, while not giving away past gains. 

The current MTA leadership has now decided to take us in a new and very different direction and bargain (secretly in the beginning) with Stand for Children - a private anti-union, corporate front group - not only over contractual issues, but fundamental union rights. Instead of organizing members and allies to fight this aggressive assault by a group notoriously hostile to teachers unions, Toner and company chose to take a pathetic and defeatist stance to enter into "negotiations" with Stand, knowing that teachers rights and the the union's integrity will be significantly damaged.

There is one solution to this problem, and it is the same solution to the problem RIDDLED OFTEN CORRUPT NEA and CTA:  replace the duplicitous cowardly union leaders who have sold millions of dues paying union members down the river in mass, espousing the same at the local level and refusing to allow descent.  But even these measures will not be enough, for the new leaders must be chosen (which would imply the right for members to vote) from those few young men and women with courage and a willingness to lead the FIGHT. Who will restore the social justice mission that unionism was once based upon, a mission that advocates for children's rights to read and learn and grow, parents rights to have a say in school matters (COURAGE ENOUGH TO SAY THE SCHOOL BOARD SYSTEM FAILED AT THAT TASK), and workers' rights to the respect and dignity that is afforded teachers and school staff in other countries as a matter of course.

 There is no future for educating all children, or parents emmeshed in their children's learning while having Gates and Broad control the voices of Educators by buying off phony leaders like Paul Toner, and ramrodding poorly thought out ideals (extrapolated from reading a lot of books, we're told) but having no significant idea what occurs in the classroom. That's right Neither ever taught. 

 Let's not forget GATES built Microsoft on stolen tech that it's self was stolen by JOBS from Bell Laboratorys, and grew the behemoth MS without any real competition. He doesn't qualify as a sociology or education genius in my book. He just has a lot of money. So does the prince of Saudi Arabia. Are the Saudi Royals then education experts as well?

If the teaching profession is to be saved for now and the future, teachers must take back their unions (F... that, union leaders need to reach out to members in meaningful ways, open their accounting books, embrace descent) prepare for the impending fight to come (yes, be prepared to strike!) and reclaim the mission that made them a movement of solidarity among teachers, parents, and students.  There is no other choice, and there is no greater calling.
I Praetorian

Does it Matter if Mitt Romney was a "Vicious" Bully in the Exclusive Private High School He Attended?

Originally Published in the  Washington Post
Thursday, Mar. 10, 2012

See other posts on bullying.

The important question is whether Mitt Romney's character has changed since his high school bullying days. Obviously, he has learned to restrain from vocalizing about or physical aggression in public (If they ever existed). But if so, does he still have the urge to force others to think like him? To make them suffer for being different? Is he telling the truth when he says he does not remember the incident(s), to which other participants have confessed? (See second story below.)


Does it matter if Mitt Romney was a bully in high school? 
When Mitt Romney was a senior at his exclusive suburban Detroit’s Cranbrook High School. Romney led his own 'posse' that among other things, forcibly pinned to the ground and cut the long blond hair of a non-conformist junior, according to a Washington Post report.


Christian Science Monitor 
By Peter Grier
May 10, 2012

Does it matter if Mitt Romney misbehaved in high school? That question arises due to a report in Thursday’s Washington Post that when he was a senior at suburban Detroit’s Cranbrook school, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee led a “posse” that held down and forcibly cut the long blond hair of a nonconformist junior.

In this video, Romney apologizes for any pranks he may have pulled in high school that hurt or offended his fellows. However, according to fellow student Matthew Friedemann, quoted in the Post, “He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Mitt proclaimed at the time of one of his alleged victims.

Mr. Romney himself said Thursday that he cannot remember the incident. The longhaired student in question, John Lauber, is now deceased. But Romney gave some legs to the story by apologizing repeatedly for any pranks he may have pulled in high school that hurt or offended his fellows.

“As to pranks that were played back then, I don’t remember them all. But again, high school days – if I did stupid things, I’m afraid I've got to say sorry for it,” said Romney in an interview on Fox News Radio. Why would he be "afraid" to do so? Wouldn't a leader - the caliber of a US President - step forward to except responsibility? Complete responsibility?

Romney’s opponents say they are torn by the relevance of an alleged incident that would have occurred some 50 years ago. But they forge ahead nonetheless, saying that if true, the forcible haircut could provide some insight into the character of a man who wants to sit in the Oval Office.

“Romney was 18 – old enough to vote, old enough to serve in the military, and old enough to know not to attack a vulnerable teenager unprovoked... "



Here's a quote from the Washington Post story:

"The 'John Lauber' incident was recalled similarly by five fellow students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be identified... “It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber...“It was a hack job,” recalled Maxwell, a childhood friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred. “It was vicious. He was just easy pickin’s,” said Friedemann, then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall, expressing remorse about his failure to stop it. Friedemann, guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the famously strict institution. Nothing happened."

Mitt Romney forced to apologize after he 'mocked and assaulted high school classmate who was 'presumed gay' 

The Daily Mail
By DANIEL BATES
10 May 2012

Mitt Romney has been forced to apologize for forcibly shaving the head of a high school classmate who was regularly taunted for being gay.

The Republican presidential candidate grabbed tearful John Lauber and hacked away with a pair of scissors because he thought his bleached blond hair was "wrong".

Mr Romney also supposedly mocked another student who was a closeted gay by shouting "Atta girl!" when he tried to speak in class.

The damaging claims come a day after Barack Obama said he was in favour of gay marriage.

Mr Romney has made it clear he opposes it but issued an apology for fear of being seen as homophobic.

He said: "Back in high school, you know, I did some dumb things. If anyone was hurt by that or offended by that, obviously I apologize."

"But after all, high school years were a long time ago".

Interviews with Mr Romney’s former classmates at the $54,000 a year Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, reveal he was fond of jokes that were mostly good natured by sometimes had a hard edge.

After the shaving incident Mr Lauber ‘seemed to disappear’ from life in school and was later expelled for smoking and died in 2004 of liver cancer.

Torment: The republican presidential hopeful was said to have taunted students who were known to be gay and those from poor backgrounds at the exclusive Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Decades after it happened Romney ran into one of his friends who helped hold Lauber down and told him: 'It was horrible.'

"It’s something I have thought about a lot since then'" said Romney.

The incident supposedly happened in the Summer term in 1965 when Mr Lauber, who was a year younger than Mr Romney, came back from Spring Break with his hair dyed blond and styled so it was draped over one eye.

According to the Washington Post Mitt Romney would not let it go and told his friend Matthew Friedemann: "He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!"

A few days later Mitt Romney assembled a four man posse which found Lauber, tackled him to the floor, held him down while the future governor of Massachusetts clipped away.

When it was completed the crowd cheered Romney as he walked out of the room.

The incident was recalled by five former Cranbrook pupils including Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor, who helped hold Mr Lauber down.

"It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me. What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do."

Phillip Maxwell, who is now a lawyer, added: "It was a hack job. It was vicious."

Mr Friedemann, who is now a dentist, also felt bad for not stopping it happening and admitted Lauber was "easy pickins" meaning he was unlikely to put up much of a fight.

Mr Romney’s time at Cranbrook is credited with shaping Romney into the hard-working, driven man he is today. It was also the time in his life when sports and socializing governed his life more than at any other time. Friends recalled how he and his friends would be up all night f....ing around, the sound of his laughter filling the corridors at 2am.

In English class Romney showed a less easy going side - Mitt Romney had a ritual of interrupting fellow pupil Gary Hummel, a closet gay, by shouting "Atta girl!"

According to the Washington Post he also behaved in very unfriendly manner towards scholarship student Lou Vierling when Romney found Vierling came from a poor area of Detroit.

Mr Romney’s wife Ann has claimed that contrary to his public image as a "tin man", as one friend has claimed, he is actually a "wild and crazy man."

And details about his pranks have come to light before, notably in the biography, ‘The Real Romney’, by Boston Globe investigative reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman

The problem with the latest revelations however is that they suggest a cruelty which voters might find hard to stomach.

Romney’s most famous such incident is also his most controversial - when he strapped his dog to the top of his car during a 12-hour drive from Massachusetts to Canada in 1983...