General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI'm emailing this to both Obama and Duncan and demanding an investigation.
Another courageous NYC teacher *destroyed* by Bloomberg's "school reform" bureaucracy. For insisting that the bureaucracy follow federal law.
BTW... isn't that what Obama and Duncan are supposed to be doing? Are either of them even aware that they're supposed to be doing that?
I know they are both educational lightweights.... but Jeeeeesuusss...........
OK. I'll stop. For now.
>>>>But in September 2011, school administrators placed uncertified teachers and a conga line of unemployed teachers who came for one-week stints in classrooms filled with special education students, which is to say those children most in need of expert help.
This violated federal regulations.
Mr. Lirtzman, 56, decided to speak up. As he was not yet tenured, he stepped gingerly.
I am NOT trying to cause problems, he wrote in an e-mail to his assistant principal, but, he added, were violating court-mandated educational plans for students.
Mr. Lirtzman, unwittingly, became sand in the schools gears.
He had received nothing but satisfactory evaluations. But in December, he said, the principal, Grismaldy Laboy-Wilson, said that she would not recommend him for tenure. The next day, she told him to leave immediately.
Mr. Lirtzman took his allegations to the Office of Special Investigations, an in-house unit at the Department of Education. An investigator asked for proof.
Mr. Lirtzman handed over 20 student programs, all of which showed that administrators placed students in classrooms with uncertified teachers. The investigator informed Mr. Lirtzman that these were confidential documents.
Now I am opening an investigation of you, she told him. It would be enough to bring a smile to the lips of Kafka.>>>>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/nyregion/punished-for-helping-special-education-students.html?_r=1
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)malthaussen
(17,217 posts)But his warning was treated as a threat. By dealing with the perceived "threat," the administrators fulfilled their own prophecy.
-- Mal
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)Most of it has. NY Times being the notable exception. Not such a great bet.
They also bet that Obama-Duncan would ignore it. ( i.e. multiple violations of federal law that they are obligated to enforce.)
That bet's still looking pretty good.
malthaussen
(17,217 posts)I have to say that the DOJ is somewhat... arbitrary in what it chooses to enforce. With, of course, the fully-sufficient reason that they haven't the money or manpower to enforce everything.
-- Mal