Incipit Lamentatio Jeremiae
Aleph
The purpose of this blog is to record and disseminate the abuse visited upon teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School district by both the district and United Teachers Los Angeles. The times we live in are very troubling and are a direct reflection of Santayana's dictum; “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Put simply, the pre-labor movement days are back and the robber barons and their lackeys are moving on the public commons, especially public education. Racism, sexism, ageism, bigotry about disability and sexual orientation, etc. are also factors but it seems to me that evil, rotten, mean and nasty are equal opportunity character flaws that are too pervasively found among those in power no matter their own race, ethnicity, gender etc. Nasty is as nasty does. So, my purpose here is to illuminate wrong-doings of administrators and UTLA "leaders" so that abused teachers don't think that they are alone and so they don't begin to doubt themselves when they are abandoned by what they thought was their union. I will actively seek stories of other teachers who find themselves attacked by LAUSD and abandoned by UTLA.My motivation is the current state of affairs in public education where wealthy people who have enough money to actually buy the U.S. and evict all of us, toy with
the most important part of our common good; the idea that education must be of high quality, free and available to all. No one who loves democracy believes that an ignorant populace is a good thing and the converse is true; if you can control and limit official messages and education, you can control a people and do with it as you will. This is true of all fascist regimes and recent history is replete with examples; Nazism, fascism, North Korea, Japanese-American internment, White Supremacy, most historical Hollywood movies etc. We now stand at a point of great danger in our country where wealthy education privateers and their minions shape public opinion about the public commons in general and teachers in particular as being evil and dangerous to children. Such dehumanization is used by the privateers to shape public opinion against teachers and take over the "revenue stream," of public education. They can now apply "business practices," to spending public money. This hasn't worked out well for the common good over the last few decades and the application of practices that maximize the flow of money to those with money and away from those who work for a living, is a recipe for disaster especially in education. To run schools using business models means privileging profit over children's development, well-being and learning. This is inhuman.
Like a person with multiple personality disorder, the personnel of the LAUSD has always been divided into groups that are at odds with each other. Those hired as teachers end up in different camps: many find out how hard the job of actually teaching really is and how it requires a certain talent that not everyone possesses and they leave, others find satisfaction in the process of guiding children in learning and they stay. The problematic portion of teachers are those who don't like children and see other people only as objects to serve them and their desires and they become administrators. Thus teachers and administrators are at cross purposes. The LAUSD encourages and promotes such administrators by requiring only that they teach for three years. So the ambitious who love the money that they can make by playing the game go into educational administration as soon as they can. I acknowledge that there are administrators that actually love learning and creating communities of common purpose but sadly these few are sometimes attacked and demoted or just hide hoping they won't get in trouble for being humane. I invite information on such people and I welcome stories of how they create situations of real growth and learning but at the same time it must be said that the culture of the LAUSD does not attract and support such people in administration.
Now for the juicy part. Send me your stories of venality in LAUSD administration and betrayal by UTLA. All such stories will be confidential and I will edit for content and publish them here. As a 27 year veteran I have had experience dealing with evil, mean, rotten, nasty principals and have known a few good ones too. I will edit everything in order to keep teachers safe. No names will be used but we will use
the John Deasy- Barbara Jones- Goebbels format for character
assassination. Here is an example from B. Jones's propaganda piece
of 5-10-13:
A male teacher at a South ESC
elementary school was accused of pulling a girl out her out of her
seat by her braids and yanking a boy's arm in an altercation. The
teacher's file revealed multiple prior complaints. The teacher, born
in 1953, was fired in November.
Therefore, for our posts include
the area - South, North, East, West- the level, Elementary, Middle,
or High School - but instead of exaggerating the abuse, state exactly
how the abuse of a teacher goes against contract or state law. Instead of
innuendo state what you know about this pattern of abuse. Here's the same story but with the truth plainly stated.
The single accuser was not present
at the time but swore to law enforcement that he was (perjury). Law
enforcement investigated and stated, "Nothing happened here,"
and declined to file charges even though the (false) accusation amounts to assault and battery. The child's parents did not think the
story true and did not even discuss it with the teacher. The teacher
was not told about the accusation and was removed from school and placed in teacher jail a year and five months after the incident was supposed to have occurred. He was suspended by the Board of Education based upon only these false allegations in October 2013. The UTLA
representative before hearing from the teacher told him, "you'll
never teach again, and I'll try to work out a settlement for you, may
be you'll get to keep your pension." Trygstad, Schwab and Trygstad said the same thing and immediately suggested settlement. The rep was not interested in defending
the teacher even though this is the union's stated duty, therefore a
contract. TST has the same answer for virtually all jailed teachers therefore they fail in their duty to provide their clients with vigorous defence.
Links to other sites with pertinent information in the
ongoing struggle for teacher rights will be included. Teacher rights are student rights.
I am currently suspended without pay based upon false accusations and I will publish what I know about the LAUSD's active pogrom against senior teachers.
