A Talk with One of the Secretary of Education's Assistants in Response to My Charming Letter

Dear Ms. De Cesare:

Thank you for your e-mail of April 2, 3009. Commissioner of Education, Dr. Eric J. Smith has asked me to respond to you regarding your concerns.


The Office of Professional Practices is responsible for the investigation of alleged violations of Florida Statutes and Professional Ethics as published in Administrative Rule. To better assist you, please contact our office so that I may discuss your concerns in detail.

Thank you for contacting the Department of Education.


Sincerely,

Jerry W. Whitmore

Department of Education

Office of Professional Practices Services





5/4/200

A conversation today with the Secretary of Education's office's guy who answers questions about Professional Practices in the state school systems yielded these data:

The local administration and board have Louis XIV powers over hiring. If you think you are being shafted in your job, ask to grieve the matter. Grieve anything you don't think is fair. I think I have this right: you don't have to be actually mugged to grieve a matter. I have sent to Linda Cobbe of the Community Services office to give me a copy of the grievance procedure. I asked also if past grievance-procedure stenographic notes were available to the public. I think they are. I will have to check my Florida sunshine book.

The thing about grievances is that you have to have the get-up-and-go to file one and stick with it. And there is a time restraint. Bart Birdsall got around to thinking about grieving his case of the charge Elia and Kipley made up against him, but Elia was able to triumphantly tell him that his grievance window was closed.

I don't know who sits on the grievance committee. If it is stacked with administrators, they will send you to the Ninth Circle of Hell to keep their jobs. Hence, if it's all administrators, I would squawk to the board, to the governor, the local MacDonald's manager and all the customers. who buy burgers and fries that day.

Teachers will never get any traction over their job situations unless they are willing to use the few tools available to them for combating bad treatment. They should keep in mind that retaining your job is more important than being popular. The administration hates you if you oppose their Louis XIV power perquisites, but your attitude should be "C'est la vie" and push back. They will like you if you let them make you roll over and die, but you will still be out of work. If you get fired, however, then you can get a state administrative review. I have just met a former teacher who won that review and will probably have a court case somewhere down the line against the board. It's people like that who determine how far the administration thinks it can go in the abuse of teachers.

Another thing I learned is that if a teacher is kept on the payroll like Goader is, he or she cannot claim he has been mistreated vis a vis his employment. The administration with board back up has absolute power over job assignments. I suppose if they wanted Goader to work as a janitor next year, the fiends could give him an annual contract for that job, and he would have no recourse. As a matter of fact, that dilemma is essentially what happened to one Mr. Wiesner who won his case in court, but when he came back to resume his job, Dr. Lennard assigned him to the jails to teach prisoners. That poor man finally left. I tried to locate him but couldn't. His nerves and health had gone to hell under the ordeal. That's what the administration depends on: the friability of the human body and spirit if the exert enough pressure and degradation.

So cheer up if you get fired: you can get a state administrative review.

I am in contact with a teacher who went that route and won. This case will probably result in a jury trial by the individual against the school board. She will win, and the taxpayers will pony up for another episode of administrative sadism.

It takes guts to file a court case. But my conviction is that if you can get the hijinks of the administration and board before a jury, you win. People like teachers. They don't like administrators. There seems to be a wistful feeling amongst teachers that some big and powerful and wonderful person will rescue a mistreated teacher. That person has to be you. King Arthur has gone out of business, and everybody is on his or her own and the few intrepid souls who won't let you down and will do what they can.

I learned that in cases like Goader's, his being kept on the payroll and reassigned to calling parents of delinquent children is perfectly legitimate as far as the Florida statutes are concerned. Only if the administration fires you can you get an administrative review.

The thing about the torture of teachers by Elia, Kipley, and the Lucco Brazzzi Valdez, chair of the behind-the-scenes torture committee, is that the teacher under duress usually gets no support from anybody unless some citizen comes along and goes to the board to complain about this torture.

Bitching about administrative torture of teachers has been my job off and on. The thing that I have noticed is that teachers who used dwindle into the board meetings to deliver piteous appeals for better treatment of teachers have stopped coming altogether. They don't even dwindle any more.

My conviction is that if only a cadre of six intrepid teachers formed a team and came to every board meeting and complained about the unprofessional, sadistic treatment of teachers, that would make a difference. Just nag them into the ground is the ticket to success. The board might wake up and see that its members would look bad at election time because a half dozen teachers' asking the editorial boards for interviews when the newspapers interview the candidates could have an effect on editorial decisions. Remember that the Tribune laced into Elia after the group I assembled and got an interview for with the Tribune editorial people resulted in their taking a new and unsympathetic look at Elia.

And keep in mind, ta-dah! that the Constitution beats out state laws. So if you want to go for broke and sue the board for abridgement of your First Amendment rights, go for it. You will be a hero to your grandchildren and great grandchildren for eons and role model for their glorious, desperate thrusts against tyranny. I know the best First Amendment lawyer in the area. We are both members of Phi Beta Kappa.

I also talked to one of the partners in the breakaway law firm that peeled off from Holland Knight (two women and a man) and started their own firm specializing in First Amendment cases. They all left HK in disgust of the firm's tolerating sexism so blatant as to make you want to vomit. Holland Knight forgave a sexist thug for running up and down the halls of HK demanding that women "feel my pecs." He's a full partner, by the way. Was and still is. I summoned my old women's rights skills and gave him a Barefoot and Pregnant Award, one of my better productions.

One of the women who left HK told me blogs are havens of the First Amendment because they don't have any money. Newspapers have money via insurance; that's the reason that lawyers will take those cases. Lawyers go where the money is. Teachers running blogs don't have money.

My read on the school board and administration is that their Achilles heel is publicity. They don't want the public to know what utter s.o.b.'s they are in the treatment of teachers. So the best thing teachers can do when they see an administrator advancing to fire them for breathing is to squawk, squawk, squawk. Forget being decorous; get over the need to be liked. Don't be a team player. Be your own team. Just holler at the top of your lungs. You then are to be feared because you will not take guff lying down. And your attacker will be caught in the spotlight too. And these little creeps want to stay under the safety of their little rock in the big system that beats up on teachers. They want to beat up on teachers, but they don't want to get caught. This is the route Thomas took and saved his grits. It's the only thing that works. Don't holler, and you are dead meat.

Pax vobiscum.

lee