Teacher Arrested

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

Norm Scott is a retired teacher and current 
newspaper columnist and blogger in New York 
City.  He's been a life-long progressive educator 
and union activist, fighting the good fight 
against the racist, sell-out bureaucracy of the 
AFT/UFT.  Here's an excerpt from his latest 
bulletin.  A teacher set up for false arrest by a 
principal?  Shocking?  Not to many of  us who've 
been victimized, or seen our friends victimized, 
in similar fashion for having been whistleblowers 
or organizers inside the schools.  Actually, it's 
part of standard operating procedure in many 
school districts, especially when the union 
bureaucrats collude with the administrators.  Here's Norm's blogspot:

<http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/>http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

and here's the excerpt (ICE is Independent 
Community of Educators , Norm's opposition group in the UFT):
Teacher Arrested
     In one of the more outrageous acts by a 
Leadership Academy principal who wanted to get a 
teacher who has been a critic of her policies out 
of her hair, a parent ally of the principal 
claimed the teacher abused her child when the 
teacher escorted the child to her seat after she 
had run out of the room twice. Five cops came to 
the school (the principal was seen grinning ear 
to ear), arrested the teacher and held her until 
7pm, when after they did their own investigation, 
they decided she did nothing wrong and released 
her saying ?it was all nonsense.? The ?arrest? was rescinded.
     I spoke to one of the arresting officers 
and he said the principal could easily have 
prevented the arrest with just a few words, but 
?she clearly has an agenda.? If you can?t beat 
them using the contract, just manipulate a parent 
into doing it for you. The story is emerging that 
the parent herself is being investigated and it was all just a cover-up.
     The teacher will now sit in the rubber room 
(Teacher Reassignment Center) most likely for the 
rest of the school year and probably beyond.
     What had been the response of the UFT? I 
took the teacher to a UFT Exec. Bd. meeting to 
state her case. It is clear that the UFT does 
only what it has to do and nothing more. ?We?ll 
get you a lawyer for arraignment, but since you weren?t arraigned??
     The teacher is helpless and the help from 
the union is minimal. It's almost 3 weeks and the 
District Rep has not even returned her call. The 
UFT sent in Victim Support for the teacher and 
she said that is not what she needs. What she 
needs is for the principal?s actions to be 
exposed so this will not happen to other 
teachers. Of course, the union doesn?t do that. 
She also needs an advocate to try to get any 
paperwork that exists at the DOE and the police 
department, which is not all that willing to 
cooperate since it has to answer as to how a 
teacher can be so humiliated after 22 years 
without a mark against her record in front of 
parents, students and colleagues. The UFT takes 
the position that all that is up to the teacher, 
responding with ?What if they?re guilty?? Duh! 
Let the DOE and police worry about the guilty. 
The UFT is there to protect the innocent. And, 
yes, to protect the rights of the guilty too.
     The DOE will spend months investigating 
with a bias favoring the principal, who will have 
months to work over the story with the children. 
Where is someone to investigate for the teacher? 
The union just shrugs. When ICE?s Jeff Kaufman 
tried last June to get the union to hire people 
to jump in and investigate on behalf of the 
teacher so both sides get told, the UFT Exec. Bd. 
led by Randi Weingarten said ?NO? and accused 
Jeff of playing politics. The teacher in the 
rubber room waiting for the ax to fall doesn?t 
see that as politics. Just one more reason why I 
am running with and supporting the ICE-TJC slate 
in the UFT elections. More on this case that puts 
a chill up the spine of every teacher in future 
columns. Or you can check my blog (see below) for updates.