To Bad These Teachers Don't Run The Union

Dinner tonight was with a good friend at Ann and Tony's on Arthur Ave. The food was yummy, the service was great and the gossip was unbelievable.

DeeDee teaches at a prestigious high school, name and borough being withheld to protect the innocent. DeeDee's chairperson gives new meaning to the word bitch. The Principal is just as bad. The person is harassing old teachers and new teachers alike. Careers are being ruined every day of the week. Once this school was the school everyone dreamt about teaching in, now it is the school that everyone is warned against. JayJay was called down to the principal's office last week and sternly reprimanded for not typing her midterm exam. JayJay left in tears and is retiring in June. She can't take it anymore. MeeMee offered to pay someone to type his exam but the chairperson would not allow it. This individual insisted MeeMee do the typing himself.

The chairperson sends out e-mails weekend evenings and expects answers and results early Monday, even if the person responsible for the results is on a late session. She expects school e-mail accounts to be checked many times over the weekend. No excuses are tolerated. When the chairperson is in the office, the door is opened wide to hear all the conversations going on in the next room.

The teachers in this school are strong. They have bonded together to fight this person. They spent an entire day testifying at DOE headquarters only to have their testimony ignored and leaked back to the chairperson. Now the teachers that testified are being targeted as well. The teachers are not backing down. They are grieving the fact that their grievance has been ignored. Contractually, it should have been acted on in 72 hours.

And, with all this going on, where is our union? If you answered, out to lunch, you might be correct. If you answered, in the Bahamas, you might also be correct. If you answered running for the senate, you have a shot of being correct. If you answered helping out, you are WRONG!!!

The newbies in this school are fortunate to be working with a group of veteran teachers who believe in them and believe in the future of education. They are fortunate to work with people who are not afraid to stand up and be counted. Teachers like these are few and far between. I work with a bunch of wimps that refused to say a disparaging word about the loud music or obnoxious brain teasers. They went along with anything the administration wanted because they were afraid not to. Even years ago, before this terrible contract, an English chairman was so feared she reduced experienced tenured teachers to tears. If I did not see it myself, I would not have believed it.

Hats off to these outstanding veteran teachers.