Go straight to the rubber room. Apparently that's the first stop for teachers who report their principals. So think twice before you report those sixth period orgies, or particularly if you think an educational assistant is doing the work of a certified teacher.
That didn't work out well for Hipolito Colon, who's been sitting in the rubber room. While you sit there, you can't do much till you're formally notified of your charges, and apparently that can take a long time. Read his full story.
And note this as well:
A teacher who reports wrongdoing by the school Principal is almost always the person investigated. Once a teacher speaks out, if there are no uncles, fathers or relatives who work for the BOE to make “a call”, he or she is immediately harassed, given a U-rating, or forced to resign. SCI and the Office of Special Investigations are two organizations that laugh at innocence. The “detectives” are, for the most part, retired cops who have been able to obtain positions through personal contacts with those who do the hiring, or by connection to an important relative in the Education ‘Family’.
Once a teacher whisleblows anything, the BOE immediately takes action. Interestingly, the teacher's Union, UFT, almost always does nothing substantive to assist the teacher remain in the job or to stop the harassment, once a teacher is targetted. (We have met some excellent UFT chapter leaders, however, who we will highlight in a later article - Editor). An example of this is the case of Ronald, a teacher thrown out of his school on false charges of corporal punishment that did not happen, then coerced into signing a stipulation that he would be 'punished' for his 'crime' by losing two months of his salary. He was taken to Arbitration by the BOE, and his UFT representative Neil Dudich and Claude Hersh took him into a separate room to force him to sign away his rights. They told him, "Losing two months of your salary is GOOD, and you should take it." Ron contacted Randi Weingarten, UFT President, in March and in August, 2006. He has not been told that she has done anything to help him.
Perhaps she was preoccupied negotiating the contract. I'm actually surprised by this, as I'd previously thought the UFT was good, at least, for situations like this. Apparently I was mistaken.
Thanks to Patrick
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