I’ve been teaching nearly 10 years, the last 2 at a phenomenal high school with an A+ administration.  My principal has supported me throughout this ordeal, but her hands were tied as the ‘bully’ word is the buzz word that spins up our district.  I was not a union member because I was a great teacher: tough, strict, and fair.  I felt if I ever did something worthy of district intervention, then I didn’t need the union, I needed to leave the classroom.  I never expected someone would make something up.  I was naïve.

A student from our high school dance team I sponsored after school, for free, on my own time decided to quit the team and join another dance team from the town.  At the time, I was relieved since her jazz dance technique wasn’t blending well with the team’s hip hop genre.  I felt she would be happier if she could shine somewhere else.  I spent a great amount of energy trying to blend her ideas with the team’s strengths as well as help develop her leadership among her peers, since that’s what good teachers do, but all to no avail.  She left for the other team with my blessing and best wishes.  She even became a dance instructor and now had a part time job.  A win-win for all!

I founded the team with the hope that I could reach students like her, which needed a purpose, love, and attention.  Her home life was traumatic at best.  Dance was my escape as a teen so I knew I could provide the same opportunities for my students.  Our year was going very well.  Our first performance was a crowd favorite.

The week after that performance, I was informed of the accusation.  For a month, I waited to see what if anything the district was going to do about it.  I wrote a witness statement but that was it.  I never spoke to the student, the parent, my team, no one except my assistant principal who was informing me of the process.

At the district meeting, without representation since I had done nothing wrong, I was able to hear all of the accusations against me and the flat out lies that this dancer and another dancer were able to state without any repercussion.  Although hurt, I was still thinking of how to make this a teachable moment for the dancer since she was so freely falsifying information.  Her testimony could be refuted by another adult that was present, video evidence, text messages, etc. all proved the insanity of this accusation.  This child needed help.  I wanted a consequence and counsel for her so she could grow through this process rather than graduate as a dysfunctional young woman.  Isn’t that why we teach?  Aren’t we called to guide and correct behavior as well as teach content?

Although I was fully ‘acquitted’, I was no longer effective in the classroom.  I was BULLIED by a teenager and nothing could be done about it.  I was told by the district to ‘let it go’.  This student went on the next week to make accusations about another teacher.

I understand and applaud the efforts schools put it place to protect children.  It is necessary!  Our system however is broken because teachers are often victimized and we’re forced to suppress it.  We know the job we signed up for, but no one deserves to be mistreated.   Teachers are people too!

Teach For America : White Chalk Crime or What?

A new fantasy film is on the horizon pushing “legitimate” education reform: Won’t Back Down. Activist Leonie Haimson recently published a helpful list of FAQs on this film to get the reader started. But I’m going to take a closer look at the troubling connections between the film and the much-admired organization Teach for America (TFA).

TFA is ubiquitous. Everyone and their brother falls over each other to hand them money. In fact, The Walton Foundation (aka Wal-Mart) provided TFA with a hefty grant of $16.6 million in just 2010 alone. Of all the large philanthro-capital organizations investing in education, Walton is perhaps the most conservative in its agenda. You can track its influence in all of the major market-driven reform canards: choice, high-stakes testing, vouchers, union busting, and the aforementioned parent trigger.

A recent benefit concert called “Teachers Rock” was co-sponsored by Wal-Mart, in addition to Walden Media, the group that brought us Waiting for Superman and now Won’t Back Down. A major beneficiary of this event was TFA. Along with grant awards, TFA is apparently taking proceeds from Wal-Mart-sponsored events.

So, what’s the connection here: parent triggers, TFA, Wal-Mart, and the rest? TFA began as a modest organization providing precocious and lightly trained college graduates for short-term employment in challenging schools. It’s probably true that schools in urban and isolated rural areas are difficult to staff, even if I base this on my own experiences working with student teachers. I’m sure at one point TFA filled an important role.

But TFA as an organization now finds itself smack-dab in the middle of nearly every single “reform” initiative funded by billionaires. You’ll probably find a TFA-alum somehow leading it, as a chancellor, policy-maker, or superintendent, for example. They are a crucial link in the chain of the privatization of public schools; that is, if current trends continue.

Let’s break this whole thing down. Schooling’s expensive. Governments allot funds to schools that certain investors now want. Run the system “at cost,” squeeze out any “inefficiencies,” and pocket the rest. One way to do this is aggressively push a “failure” narrative in the media and partisan policy documents. Blame it squarely on the teachers, whose benefits packages and pensions are apparently bankrupting the wealthiest nation on the planet. This narrative will undermine their security and professionalism, making it perfectly acceptable to replace them with “temps.” Take a fresh, energetic crop of new college graduates, put them in difficult situations for which they are barely prepared, burn them out in two years, rinse, and repeat. It’s pretty simple and labor costs are much less, but it doesn’t stop there.

Someone has to rewrite the rules and continue the crisis narrative. Who better than a TFA alum who, with a little bit of “street cred” in an “urban” (read: African-American) classroom, can be easily catapulted into positions of power due to convenient, albeit expensive, connections to the financial and political elite? The “parent trigger” is one of the many new weapons in the arsenal against public services like education. Carefully clothed in the euphemism “choice,” parental emotions are exploited so that public schools are “restructured” to accommodate cheaper and largely interchangeable temporary workers from TFA. In time, temps don’t simply fill unexpected vacancies. Slots are specifically created and reserved for TFA temps, circumventing traditional hiring processes.

It seems rather odd. Do TFA and other well-funded, “legitimate” reform groups enjoy their money and power? In cases of the Walton Foundation and their political tools at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), interests seem purely economic in nature. Workers are expensive, especially those that unionize. In their view, teachers in particular are too expensive because many are unionized. Well, bust their unions too. TFA will provide the cheap labor with help from a few billionaires. “Parent triggers” are just one of the many ways to pry open the vault, so to speak.

So, is TFA’s mission still about education? If it is, then why take money from these huge foundations and corporations whose missions are clearly not about education? Why take proceeds from a corporate-sponsored “rock” concert, as if you’re engaged in some kind of charitable enterprise? Perhaps that money should actually go right into the institutions themselves.

But see, what’s going on here is not about education at all. It’s about money and power. Money is being diverted, not to the neediest of hands, but to the “right” hands. Power — political, financial, cultural, and social — provides the plumbing. Control over the education of the masses keeps this structure peacefully in place.

Follow Shaun Johnson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thechalkface

Hubbard, 54, was convicted of approving $20,000 in stipends and a $500 car allowance raise for former BHUSD facilities director Karen Christiansen without approval from the school board. He was acquitted for allegedly authorizing a pay increase for former district employee Nora Roque without school board consent.

The ex-BHUSD chief faces a maximum of five years in prison at his Feb. 23 sentencing.

Hubbard served as the BHUSD superintendent from 2004 until mid-2006. He left the district to take the superintendent position at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Monday’s conviction means that Hubbard will lose his teaching and administrative credentials—and most likely his job at NMUSD.

After the verdict, NMUSD school board President Dave Brooks called for an immediate closed-session meeting to “review the board’s legal options regarding the superintendent’s employment contract and next steps in light of the outcome in the case.”

The Hubbard conviction follows the November conviction of Christiansen, who was sentenced this month to four years and four months in prison. She was found guilty in November of four felony conflict of interest charges for secretly negotiating to be an independent BHUSD contractor while performing her duties for the district. Christiansen was hired by the district in 2004 and reportedly received a total of $5.2 million from BHUSD between 2006 and 2009.

Prosecutors had alleged that Hubbard and Christiansen had a “special relationship” because the two exchanged intimate emails with one another.

The dual convictions represent a victory for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which aggressively pursued both cases. It also validates efforts by the Beverly Hills Board of Education, which spent more than $2 million in legal fees on the two cases. Christiansen may have to pay the district $2 million in restitution fees pending the result of a Feb. 23 hearing, the same day that Hubbard’s sentencing is scheduled.

“The jury’s decision will ensure that Superintendent Hubbard will not be able to harm or take advantage any other district in the future,” said BHUSD school board President Brian Goldberg, who was elected after Hubbard had left the district. “This is a lesson for those who care about public education of what can happen when those elected to provide oversight turn a blind eye to the corruption that takes place.”

This story was compiled with information from City News Service.

Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook.

About this column: The scoop on the Beverly Hills Unified School District.

To everything is a season
And a time to every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal,
A time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to mourn and a time to dance,
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
A time to search and a time to give up,
A time to keep and a time to throw away,
A time to tear and a time to mend,
A time to be silent and a time to speak,
A time to love and a time to hate,
A time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I found this passage in a book called Stand Tall. It is written by Joan Bauer. It is about a twelve year old boy, in middle school, who is tall and clumsy, and dealing with his parents divorce. He is assisting his grandfather in coming to terms with his disability, rehab, and memories of Vietnam War. Tree’s grandfather is helping him with his self-confidence. Moreover, Tree stands with Sophia who is combating her tormentors (bullies) in school; he realizes he is not alone in his struggle to accept himself and his differences. Sophia tells him to stand tall. He learns to deal with conflict with courage and determination.

We all can interpret this passage in many ways.The passage “A time to search and a time to give up” really defines where I’m at right now. There are times we spend parts of our lives looking for something that is lost. There comes a time we have to face reality what we had is lost forever. For me, my teaching career is over. I fought many years to keep it going, but there comes a time when we all must move on. The sacrifices my family made, the hard work and money spent on becoming a teacher is at an end; all because I did the right thing.

I’ve thrown many stones at the people who did this to me. Maybe, its time to make something out of those stones. I need to find the time to laugh and dance after mourning and weeping many of days, months, and years. I’ve been too silent too long and will continue and find a way to speak out on the injustice in the education system. Lastly, as a teacher, I must love my work and the students I have taught. Moreover, we must hate the injustice and hypocrisy whenever we see it. This is what I see the last line is telling me “A time for war and a time for peace.” 

Please take the time to reflect on the passage to where you been, where you are now, and where you want to be tomorrow. Lets have a conversation and speak with one voice.

Norbert

What you must understand, in most cases, your situation will not be resolved in a timely matter. Most are complicated, entrenched in a system of protectionism, and abuse of power and position. If you aren’t physically and mentally prepare for a long battle, you will lose much more than your case. School districts leadership play that mental warfare card, while sipping on a cup of power, they will sit and watch you fall apart. They have lawyers hired by the district, paid for by taxpayers, to protect their bad deviate behavior. This is all about the leadership survival; not yours.

Counseling will give you the tools for survival and dealing with the mental aspect of our situation. It is about empowering yourself and looking your abusers in the eyes. In a lot of school district contracts, there is provision for counseling talk to your union. No matter what, find some type of counseling; it is about you. If not, then you might open that Pandora’s Box.

When this started for me, I went home and got rid of fifty percent of my teaching material, books, lessons, etc. Within a month, I slept very little, saw no hope, and felt there was one option left. I open Pandora’s Box. What is in that box will be different for each person. My option was to go out and buy a gun and blow my brains in front of the school district to bring attention to my situation. I found myself trying to convince myself it was the last and only option left for me. This conversation with myself scared me.

Would I of done it? No. What I learned about myself in counseling that I have very strong believes and an inner strength that would have kept me from doing it. It was my firewall from the Box. It took several attempts at counseling before I responded and gain control of my mind, heart, and soul. Please get help, if needed. Keep trying to get help if counseling doesn’t help the first time around. It is all about you; not the bully or abuser.

Once you open that Pandora’s Box and choose to do harm to yourself; they win. That is their plan to sit and wait until you walk away or you are six feet under. They don’t care about you or your family only protecting their reputations and jobs. In few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years you will be forgotten. The school district bullies continue their rein of terror and deviate behavior.

You and many others are the only ones standing in their way. Let us have a conversation and speak with one powerful voice.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-teacher-suicide-20120101,0,1207321.story

chicagotribune.com

Teacher’s suicide stuns school, spurs colleagues to speak out

School board surprised by allegations of workplace bullying and fear

By Becky Schlikerman, Chicago Tribune reporter

January 1, 2012

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On Thanksgiving, a grade-school gym teacher parked on the shoulder of Interstate 80/94 in northwest Indiana, got out of her Mercury SUV and walked in front of a moving semi truck.

The 32-year-old’s suicide shocked the tiny Ford Heights school district where she worked. In the days afterward, tension grew amid conversations by co-workers about what had happened and questions from the Army veteran’s parents. The turmoil peaked during a crowded meeting in December, when some teachers and school board members clashed.

The suicide note that Mary Thorson left centered on frustrations at the school, and her death spurred some of her co-workers to speak out at the public meeting.

Teachers described an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the two-school district, where little things snowballed over time.

“We don’t feel like we can speak out because we have been intimidated,” teacher Rose Jimerson said at the meeting. “We have signs all over the building about anti-bullying. … Our staff gets bullied.”

Co-workers and friends said in interviews that Thorson was deeply upset by her job and was worried she was on the verge of being fired. She had been suspended in April after allegedly striking a student and again a week before her death, records show. The second suspension was for allegedly cursing at a student, a co-worker said.

Even some of those close to Thorson acknowledged that it’s difficult to pinpoint why anyone commits suicide, but her death opened wounds in the district. School district officials have vowed to work on healing with new channels of communication.

School board members and the administration expressed sorrow over Thorson’s death but also surprise at the way some teachers described the work atmosphere.

At the meeting, board members denied the allegations and asked why no one had come forward with such concerns.

“If you guys would have come and brought allegations and we didn’t address it, then you would have every right to say what you need to say,” Board President Joe Sherman said.

Thorson, known as Coach T, left behind a handwritten, six-page note in her SUV. Other than one paragraph in which she apologized to her parents for the hurt her death would cause, the rest of the note was exclusively about Ford Heights School District 169.

Thorson’s parents agreed to share the note with the Tribune. In it, Thorson wrote, sometimes rambling, about the plight of children in the poor school district and the lack of resources and discipline. She also wrote about the school’s leadership and said teachers were not taken seriously.

“We must speak up about what’s going on!” The note concludes: “This life has been unbelievable.”

Thorson had started her teaching career after an eight-year stint in the Army Reserve, where she attained the rank of specialist and served honorably, said Army spokesman Mark Edwards. She joined in 1998, just out of high school, to help pay for college, said her father, John Thorson.

Thorson was the first in her family to graduate from college, getting a diploma from Western Illinois University in 2005. She worked at schools in Chicago and Bellwood before taking a job in Ford Heights at Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center in 2008.

The students “loved her,” said Walter Cunningham, who taught physical education with Thorson. “She treated them like a daughter or son. They all gravitated toward her.”

Like many of the teachers there, Thorson used her own money to buy students school supplies or warm clothes if she saw a need, Cunningham said. More than 98 percent of the 520 students in the district are considered low-income, according to state records.

In April, Thorson was suspended for two days after allegedly hitting a child, though Thorson said it was a playful tap, according to personnel records provided by her family.

Thorson had complained about feeling targeted by school administrators, said her father. “She was worried about keeping her job there,” he said.

Her parents said they urged her to find a job closer to her hometown of Moline, Ill., or to go to graduate school, but she was attached to the children of Ford Heights. In the note, she spoke of her love for the children and her pain at their daily trials.

“They were her life,” said her mother, Shari Thorson. “She did not want to leave.”

A week before her death, Mary Thorson suffered what she thought was a crushing blow to her career, Cunningham said. On Nov. 17, she was suspended with pay, records show. The suspension was for allegedly cursing at a student, Cunningham said. She was to have a meeting Nov. 22 to discuss the incident, according to records, but colleagues and family said Thorson skipped it.

“She was so distraught,” Cunningham said. “She was convinced they were going to fire her.”

Sherman said the board had no intention of firing Thorson.

Thorson was expected home the night of Thanksgiving, Nov. 24, and the family planned to celebrate the holiday the next day. When the police showed up, Thorson’s mother didn’t believe they had the right person.

“She always let people use her car,” Shari Thorson explained in the living room of her Moline home, about 160 miles west of Chicago.

Her parents found Thorson’s personnel records neatly laid out on the bed in her apartment, her father said.

Family and friends said Thorson had no ongoing problems in her personal life. Thorson never had been treated for mental health issues, and there were no drugs found in her Griffith, Ind., apartment, her family said. During her time in the Army, she did not serve in Iraq or Afghanistan or any conflicts that might have affected her mental health, her parents said.

The Lake County, Ind., coroner ruled Thorson’s death a suicide. There was no toxicology report, authorities said.

At the first school board meeting after Thorson’s suicide, a standing-room-only crowd of teachers, parents and observers packed a classroom at Medgar Evers Primary Academic Center.

Jimerson was the first to speak during the public comment portion of the Dec. 6 meeting. She said Thorson’s death saddened the teachers in the district and spurred her to come before the board.

“People are afraid,” Lena Watts-Drake, president of the District 169 teachers union, told the board.

Other teachers in the crowd murmured “uh-huh” and nodded in agreement.

Jimerson said at the meeting that teachers get chastised for taking sick days and are worried they will lose their jobs if they speak up. In an interview later, Jimerson said some teachers are cornered and criticized by district administrators in hallways. Two current teachers and one former teacher, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, made similar statements and agreed with Jimerson’s description of the atmosphere.

At the meeting, school board members denied knowledge of such conditions. “You’re not going to lose your job because you express how you feel,” Sherman said.

In an interview later, Supt. Gregory Jackson said he felt ambushed at the meeting, adding that it was difficult to respond because teachers didn’t offer enough specifics.

“Saying it doesn’t make it so,” he said. “To say they’re afraid and not offer any examples or any one person specifically, so we can consider the matter … it’s unfair to react to non-specifics.”

He spoke little at the meeting except to address Jimerson, who said there was a feeling of hopelessness among the teachers.

“If you are implying that I had something to do with Coach T taking her life …” Jackson began.

“I did not say that,” Jimerson interrupted.

“That’s what I interpreted from your comments, but if you’re saying that’s not what you’re saying, I accept that,” Jackson said.

In later interviews, Sherman pledged to have discussions about the allegations of intimidation and bullying, and Jackson welcomed teachers to discuss issues with him or the union.

Sherman defended the superintendent as someone who likes structure and follows guidelines by the book. He also pointed to the leaps the district has made on state test results. When Jackson arrived in 2006, 45.5 percent of students in the district were meeting or exceeding state standards. In 2011, that number was 70.4 percent. The school district still does not meet federal standards in reading, though it does in math, records show.

Thorson’s parents did not attend the meeting, but their feelings about their daughter’s death are clear.

“She didn’t kill herself out of spite. She did it to try to save that school,” Shari Thorson said.

“Is the school responsible? Yes, the school is responsible,” John Thorson added.

Ford Heights School District 169 attorney Raymond Hauser said it was unfair to blame the school district for the suicide.

bschlikerman@tribune.com

Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune

Who Are You?

You are brave…when you overcome your fear and help others to do the same.

You are happy…when you see a flower and are thankful for the blessing.

You are loving…when your own pain does not blind you to pain of others.

You are wise…when you know the limits of your wisdom.

You are true…when you admit there are times you fool yourself.

You are alive…when tomorrows’ hope more to you than yesterday’s mistake.

You are growing…when you know what you are but not what you will become.

You are free…when you are in control of yourself and do not wish to control others.

You are honorable…when you find your honor is to honor others.

You are generous…when you take as sweetly as you can give.

You are humble…when you do not know humble you are.

You are merciful…when you forgive in others that faults you condemn in yourself.

You are beautiful…when you don’t need a mirror to tell you.

You are rich…when never need more than what you have.

You are you…when you are at peace with who you are and are not.

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath end tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am master of my fate;
I am captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

The crippling tubercular arthritis from a young age, Henley lived an active, vigorous life despite his affliction. Nelson Mandela read this poem in prison, thus becoming his inspiration and not allowing the prison to become the master of his fate and captain of his soul. Each of our stories are the same but so different. Yet, we struggle with our fate and soul and who controls them. Allow this poem to help you be that master of your fate and captain of your soul. Allowing you to see the light and path you need to take in your dark times. Out of this you will learn to be unafraid and have courage to look the bully or abuser in the eyes. When you look them in the eyes you will see they are not the masters of their fate or captain of their soul. You will see an empty vessel of darkness while you shine with light from your soul and fate. I saw this when I ran for the school board and had to look the superintendent in the eyes. I saw fear in her eyes and a glimmer of hope for me one day.

Understand there will be different levels of communication lines with friends and family. When this all started with me I didn’t speak to my wife for two weeks. In fact, I hardly said a word to my wife and sons that summer. I was wrong, as I look back; it made things worse for me. Talking about what you feel with people you love and trust is like a relief value. It releases the pressure and allows you to take a refreshing deep breathe.

 Find friends who can keep you grounded and will let you bend their ears. However, beware that this can be a double edge sword. Almost everyone told me to quit the teaching profession. There was a bit of truth in what they said, but I wasn’t ready to hear it or except the idea my teaching career was over. Talk to your friends and even family and how they can help you. When the say something, you aren’t ready to hear, let them know how you feel. I shut down and pulled away from my friends and family. It just made me more depress, angry, and felt I was alone. How I reacted was wrong; it kept me in a dark, lonely place for awhile.

 My next blog is your next step, if needed, in surviving teacher abuse. I would like to hear your comments, ideas, and what you did to survive teacher abuse. If you know someone going through teacher abuse or different situation in a school district tell them to join endteacherabuse.org and read whitechalkcrime blog. Also, on the endteacherabuse web site are more suggestions for survival tips. Click on Advantages then on Survival Tips. Let’s get a conversation going and help each other through these difficult times.

Remember these situations will not be resolved in a day. You need to keep yourself active, work on keeping your mind clear of emotional garbage, eat right and get enough sleep and circle the wagons around you. First, get out and be active/exercise. You need to keep your body and mind healthy. Exercise is good form of stress relief and keeping your mind fresh.

Secondly, meditate or find a time to quite your mind. This is the time to clear your mind and senses to help you keep your focus on what is important. Moreover, it will help you keep your focus on what you need to do and help reduce the emotional outrage within you. If not, your emotional outrage will control you.

Thirdly, eat right and get enough sleep. You need to make sure you are eating right and not eating on emotional binge. Once in a while is good just to get it out of your system. More important is getting enough sleep. When this all started, sleep wasn’t an option and created many problems for me. Like a magnify glass, lack of sleep will make things seem worse and maybe create new problems for you.

Lastly, circle the wagons around you. Keep communication line open with family and friends you trust, thus, creating a support system for you. Make sure its people who will help you keep grounded and focus on what is important. Beware this can have a two edge sword. I will talk about this in my next blog.

 Please comment and pass this on to someone you know. Let’s get a conversation going and help each other through these difficult times.