Unions Teachers How Do They Get Away With This?

When I was writing my last blog on teachers, I spoke again to the President of the School Board in my former home town. The first thing I asked him was about a part in “Stupid in America,” that mentions how hard it is to fire a teacher, even if they did something as bad as sexually abusing a student. To my disbelief, I was given a similar answer to the one presented in the film that explained a specific case in New York City where a teacher had sent a very sexual email to a 16 year old student and the school was unable to fire him for 6 years, even though he admitted sending it. To make matters worse, while the school was trying to fire the sex offender , he was still getting paid and allowed to stay in what the school calls a “rubber room.” Personally, I had never heard of this term, but it basically is a place where teachers who are under investigation go and hang out, that is away from the students. The film said that last year New York City spent $20 million dollars on “rubber rooms.” Why the hell are schools responsible for babysitting bad teachers, while they are on trial? I’ll let that question resonate in your minds and point out that the school district is also responsible for all the legal fees of the normally lengthy process of firing a teacher. I can only imagine how much a 6 year long trial cost the school, not to mention the amount of press they probably had to deal with.
So why does is a school, that is supposed to educate our children in a safe environment, not able to fire a potentially dangerous teacher? Once again it’s the good old union behind this and a book of rules and regulations that a school must follow when firing an incompetent, or dangerous teacher. Yes, I said a book because that is literally how complicated it is to fire someone, no matter what, even if they are clearly guilty. Even more disturbing is the fact that no matter how terrible the offense is, the union still stands behind the teacher and provides a lawyer and anything else they may need to win the case.
You may be wondering if this is a very rare event, as you’ve probably only heard of a handful of cases like this. Well it’s not and the only part that is actually unusual, is going to trial. Most cases of this nature are covered up by the school, which frequently offers money and other incentives, in order to have the teacher leave quietly. This also means that nothing goes on the teachers record and he, or she can easily go to another district and start working without anyone knowing what happened. When I was discussing this with the President of the School Board, I could hear a sadness in his voice, as he stumbled over his explanation, repeating how costly and hard it is to handle these situations. It was pretty obvious to me, that he had seen this first hand and was not happy about the outcome. After a few seconds, he also informed me that a proposed new law is under review in Oregon that will force schools to put everything in a teachers record and report any past offenses to future employers. At first I was happy to hear this and then I realized it’s actually legal for a school to let a teacher go quietly? I just assumed the schools were breaking the law, but I guess they’re not yet. It’s really depressing and scary when you think about it, considering a proven sex offender could be teaching your 8 year old child, legally.
I’m not even sure I can continue writing right now because I’m so appalled by the school system and more importantly, the union. I thought that unions were created to improve working conditions, not hurt them. How can a union member preach about improving schools and the importance of a good education, when they are draining millions of dollars out of the budget, defending unarguably guilty teachers, and allowing dangerous individuals to teach our children? Not to mention, the millions of dollars being taken away from schools normally leads to good teachers being fired, which is a pretty big contradiction when you think about it. I’m still having a hard time fully taking in just how horrendous this situation is and how the American people can allow this to happen.