All Psyched Up With No Place To Go

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

From Norm Scott, longtime teachers' union activist and school 
reformer in NYC.  His reference to "BloomKlein":  Michael Bloomberg, 
the billionaire mayor of New York,  took over the school system and 
appointed Joel Klein as its chancellor in 2002.  Klein had been a 
Wash, DC attorney, a legal council for the Clinton administration, 
and an Ass't Attorney Gen'l in the Justice Dept.  No background in 
education.  His standardista school "reform" program is called Children First.

My observation on tenure and teacher union protection, based on 20+ 
years of anecdotal evidence:  the corporate standardistas and all 
friends/minions of those in power like to rail against due process as 
the last refuge of bad teachers (burnouts, racists, abusers, 
molesters, etc).  However, once the tenure shield is down, they 
rarely go after this tiny minority of truly disgraceful 
cases.  Instead, they aim their fire at their REAL targets: rank and 
file organizers, political critics, opponents of the standardista 
juggernaut.  It's a time-tested bait and switch tactic.

Dump the sell-out union bureaucrats in order to defend our unions!

Pete Farruggio
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************


The online edition of Education Notes will appear irregularly 
whenever I decide to get out of the hammock. Using a combination of 
expanded material from the print version of Ed Notes, columns in The 
Wave, and assorted news and musings.

Quickie:
a. City Grad rate is really 39% not 54% as BloomKlein claims
b. 5th grade reading scores drop drastically, proving last year's 4th 
grade scores trumpeted by BloomKlein was bogus.

When all is done and told (probably after BloomKlein are gone) the 
"children first" "reforms" will turn out to be the proverbial 
rearrangement of deck chairs.


An edited version of the article below appeared in the School Scope 
column in the June 16th edition of The Wave, a weekly based in 
Rockaway in Queens. The Wave (www.rockawave.com), published since 
1893, is the oldest community newspaper in the United States.


All Psyched Up With No Place To Go
by Norman Scott
     How many times have you heard BloomKlein defending the 
"Children First" initiative by crying to the press about how hard it 
is to remove a tenured teacher and how the teacher contract was the 
only thing holding them back from being able to truly change the 
school system so that every child will be able to achieve a PhD? How 
many times has the education press bought this line, to the extent 
that teachers and their 200-page contact are pilloried regularly as 
the major hindrance to reform? We expect this from the general press, 
which is owned by and large by anti-union people (other than The 
Wave, of course). You know the stories bandied about. Like the 
teacher who murdered and ate 12 children but ends up sitting in a 
rubber room (or teacher reassignment center) for decades collecting 
his pay. The anti-union press loves to spread these stories to prove 
BloomKlein's point.
     Well, thank goodness for the UFT and that 200 page-plus 
contract, teachers say. (They say it less since the last contract was 
signed in October.) Then again, you get these words from Randi 
Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers, when she 
spoke to a business group a few years ago:
     "Yes, this is a union president who is going to talk about 
removing teachers who should not be teaching. And I do that without 
hesitation, because this is a union that is not about just keeping 
people. We are about keeping qualified people.... I want you all to 
know that I fully briefed Joel Klein last night on this speech 
because I want to do in every way possible what I can to extend my 
hand in partnership, and my members' hands in partnership."
     Okaaay! UFT members will find it comforting to know their 
leader will cooperate in getting rid of "unqualified" people. The UFT 
is more worried about bad PR from defending guilty people than they 
are in protecting the innocent. (See regular NY Post blaring 
headlines "UFT Defends Pervs"; see no NY Post headlines about 
teachers going through hell after being wrongly accused.) Randi's 
statement may have just been PR for the business community and some 
would say she should take this stance. But it is not a message a 
union leader should send if.
     . Principals and DOE officials are using tthe process to remove 
people for reasons having nothing to do with their teaching ability 
or their relationships with children (people accused of improper 
relationships, for using physical force, etc.) In other words, are 
people being removed who are good teachers, but are pains in the 
asses, not well liked, or just plain eccentric? Or even worse, are 
active politically in the union at the school level in standing 
against abuses of the contract? It is imperative for a union leader 
to make this point in EVERY forum to rid the public of the attitude 
that teachers are guilty until proven innocent.

     So you tell your principal that you think the latest directive 
from some idiot buried somewhere in the Region or Tweed bureaucracy 
is absolutely nuts, impossible to implement and will actually be 
harmful to students. The next thing you know you are in the rubber 
room and awaiting your appointment with a Department of Education 
Medical Office shrink (to qualify for this job you must quack like a 
duck 3 times a day.) You must be crazy for not seeing the logic of 
any DOE "the plan," whatever "plan" that may be.
     I must be writing fiction here. Would/could a teacher be 
removed for anything other than an issue related to their teaching 
ability? Let's take the case of David Pakter who taught for 37 years, 
mostly at the High School of Art & Design. I met Pakter this past 
year when he asked people to attend so-called 30-20A hearings 
designed to fire him as a way of showing him support.
     In September 2004, Pakter was removed from his school two days 
after he refused to surrender a videotape he had made of a music 
class (with the teacher's permission) in an elementary school housed 
in the Art & Design building. Pakter was trying to document that 
these kids (mostly white, middle class) were getting a high-level 
music program while the kids at the high school (mostly poor black & 
Spanish) were being denied similar services and he was claiming this 
was a Federal Civil Rights violation. (He had sent a letter to Joel 
Klein about some of these issues in Oct. 2003 and believes that 
letter was the initiating factor in his subsequent problems.) While I 
don't agree with the way Pakter went about it, this is clearly a 
political fight not one that I or most otherrs would chose but it is 
his right to express these opinions. His tteaching ability was never 
once in question, even by the DOE.
     The charge of insubordination where teachers who don't follow 
even the dumbest orders are subject to the ordeal Pakter is going 
through, is what this is all about (my principal once charged me with 
insubordination for refusing her order not to work on my roll book 
during another boring faculty conference.) Putting such powers in the 
hands of the all too many ego-driven, megalomaniacal, power-hungry 
supervisors is frightening. As to basic constitutional rights, 
apparently you leave than at the schoolhouse door. But hey, with 
testing all the time curriculums there's no time to teach about the 
American constitution anyway, which BloomKlein have repealed.
     Pakter was banished to languish in one of the system's lovely 
rubber rooms for a year. The principal who ordered his removal 
retired the following day, leaving Pakter to fight a ghost.
     Why would the DOE spend enormous sums to get him fired (there 
are numerous hearings with DOE lawyers present and a high-paid 
arbitrator in addition to NY State United Teacher lawyers) over an 
incident like this? Pakter was told all he had to do was surrender 
the tape and he would be given a slap on the wrist. But he wouldn't 
do it, never believing that a teacher with 35 years of satisfactory 
ratings, having been praised and honored for the work he did with 
students as an art teacher, would find himself in teaching purgatory 
over such a trivial matter. Call him stubborn or eccentric. He may be 
a good teacher but he must be crazy for fighting the system.
     So naturally he was sent to a DOE shrink. And guess what? The 
DOE shrink ruled he was unfit to teach.
     But they weren't dealing with someone they could intimidate. 
Pakter was not in teaching to make a living. He already was beyond 
retirement age and could have ended the proceedings at any point by 
just retiring. He is also a well-known designer of 
watches  (http://www.davidpakterwatches.com/)  he had to postpone 
oone of his hearings to make a trip to China to help set up a factory 
for his watches. He also has sons who are lawyers. But more about that later.
     Pakter had used his wealth to supplement his teaching, often 
buying books for his classes he felt the students at hiss school 
should be exposed to a language other than Spanish and brought them 
French language books, which he used for the first couple of minutes 
of each of his art classes. The Art & Design administration 
criticized him for not following the art curriculum. He holds a 
Masters Degree in Anatomy and designed, funded and built from the 
ground up, the nation's first Medical Illustration program for gifted 
inner city students, with the aim of having the program serve as a 
launching pad for entry into Ivy League Medical Schools.
     That his students were deprived of the skills and knowledge he 
brought to the table when the DOE yanked him from his Medical 
Illustration program was of no concern to the DOE. After all, 
stamping out supposed insubordination must take precedence over what 
is best for children. Call it "Children Last."
     Pakter went to an independent shrink (Forensic Psychiatrist, 
Alberto M. Goldwaser, M.D., D.F.A.P.A) at his own expense and, lo and 
behold, he was found to be normal. Attempts to submit this report at 
his hearings were fought rigorously by the DOE lawyers (you should 
only see what this crew is like.) At the Final Binding Medical 
Arbitration early this year, the arbitrator conceded that there was 
not the slightest scientific evidence to support the claim by the 
Director of The New York City Dept of Education Medical Office, Dr. 
Audrey Jacobson, that Pakter was not fit for duty, yet, the DOE 
delayed for almost half a year the admission by Jacobson that her 
department was incorrect in their original finding. Finally, on June 
5, 2006 Jacobson admitted in a signed letter sent to Pakter, that her 
office made a mistake in claiming he was not fit for duty.
     "The independent medical arbitrator has upheld your appeal, and 
has declared that the Medical, Leaves & Benefits Office was incorrect 
in deeming you unfit for duty as of August 16, 2005. The findings of 
the medical arbitrator are equally binding on you and the Department 
of Education. A copy of the arbitrator's decision has been sent to 
your physician." I guess an apology would have been too much to 
expect. The entire medical office should have been made to walk on 
their knees from Tweed to Pakter's apartment with copies of the 
letter in their mouths. They should have been joined by BloomKlein.
     Pakter recently wrote in an email/press release:  "Due to the 
fact that numerous Department of Education doctors and office 
administrators were involved in what many observers consider the 
premeditated and willful 'railroading' of Mr. Pakter', numerous 
lawsuits seeking multi-million dollar damage awards for possible 
intentional medical malpractice are expected to result from this 
case. Some observers believe that some of the doctors who were 
involved should have their license to practice medicine, permanently 
revoked." Go get 'em tiger! It's nice to have sons who are lawyers.
     Now I know many of you, especially people outside the system, 
must be shaking their heads, thinking "where there's smoke there's 
fire" and there must be something else going on behind the scenes. 
Larry Taylor, the former chapter leader at Art & Design, one of the 
most respected teachers I have ever met (and one of the six 
opposition members of the UFT Executive Board) testified in Pakter's 
behalf and has been firm in his commitment to the fact that Pakter 
was an excellent, caring teacher. That's good enough for me.
     Is this case an anomaly? Wave editor Howard Schwach reported on 
former Far Rockaway teacher Francine Newman's book "Cannibals at 110 
Livingston Street." She was found not fit for duty by the DOE Medical 
Office in the 1970's and fought for eight years all the way up to the 
Second Circuit Court of Appeals to have the charges against her 
thrown out. She finally won and resumed her teaching career.
     You know that "problem" 200-page contract it should be 400 
pages. The principal at Humanities High Scchool in Manhattan recently 
sent a member of the staff for a psychiatric exam and is reportedly 
sending a bunch more teachers he doesn't like to the rubber room as a 
preface to a visit to the DOE Medical Bureau. Pakter's lawyers may be 
very busy soon and "Dr." Jacobson may just as well send out a form 
letter of apology.
     Quack, Quack!

Coming soon: How Maria Colon, a chapter leader at JFK HS, blew the 
whistle on the school administration for cheating on regents exams 
and is going through 30-20A hearings to fire her for daring to fax 
proof of their transgressions. "Children First" indeed!

Bio Notes on Pakter:
     Pakter is an internationally known artist, represented by 
Portraits, Inc. and a world authority on the oil painting techniques 
of the Renaissance and Baroque Masters. (See 
www.oldmasterportraits.com). He recently completed a commission for 
the great grandson of J. Pierpont Morgan. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani 
honored him in a City Hall Ceremony for "Conspicuous and Outstanding 
Achievement" a few years ago.
     His Oct. '03 letter to Klein can be read 
at:  http://www.parentadvocates.org/nicemedia/documents/ACF1C0C.pdf

Updates since the original article appeared in The Wave on June 16:
     On June 16, 2006, David Pakter received the following email 
from a UFT special rep handling his case:
     "Please send a fax correspondence to your Principal today 
advising him that you are reporting to work on Monday morning, June 
19, 2006. Attach a copy of the medical arbitrator's decision."

Pakter sent the following response to his lawyer:

Some major questions:

1) How can [the special rep] at the UFT order me back? I work for the 
DOE, not the UFT.

2) Isn't it logical I should get directives directly from the DOE on 
DOE letterheads?

3) How can I be sent back when I am out on 30-20a charges and that 
case is still pending and awaiting a written decision from Martin 
Scheinman, Esq.???

4)) It was Scheinman who refused to consolidate the two cases, 
therefore the Medical vindication does not vitiate the 30-20a case 
and I insist on a verdict for the record.

5) Sending me to the same school is returning me to a clearly hostile 
environment, as I would be reporting to a Supervisor who railroaded 
me and whom I will be suing for major damages.

This is all one BIG attempt at a huge cover up and I want to fight 
this attempt in Federal Court.

I did not go through more than three years of hell to end up in this situation.

I insist that all those who participated in what transpired, face Justice.

DP