Friday, March 28, 2008

Why Did The UFT Agree To Suspend Teachers Without Pay & Health Benefits?


We all know how terrible the October 2005 contract was to the classroom teacher. However, from my point of view the worst part of the 2005 contract was the UFT agreement of the "probable cause" section for teachers subject to the 3020-a process. To refresh your memory the "probable cause" section of the 2005 contract allows the DOE to suspend teachers without pay or health benefits for up to three months simply on hearsay testimony. Hearsay testimony is as simple as one student accusing the teacher of misconduct and getting his/her friend to agree it happened without the friend being there. that is all it takes for a teacher to spend the next three months without pay or health benefits. Do you think this is fair? I don't.

Randi Weingarten told the delegate assembly that the only teachers subject to the "probable cause" provision of the contract are ones that are arrested and subject to felony charges. Her stooge Leo Casey has commented on Edwize that the union agreed to the "probable cause" section because the union does not protect perverts and pedophiles. I fully agree with Leo Casey that there is no room in any union for perverts and pedophiles. However, how about the teacher unjustly accused by vindictive students and his/her friends of misconduct that did not rise to even a police investigation? According to Randi Weingarten & Leo Casey those teachers will not be subject to the "probable cause" section and it's associated unpaid suspension and no health benefits. Were they telling the truth? Or was it that the DOE expanded the definition to include incidents that did not result in criminal action? As much as I want to blame the DOE on expanding the alleged misconduct subject to the "probable cause" section, there is a smoking gun that shows that the UFT was a willing participant in what misconduct is subject to "probable cause". Listed below is "Appendix H" that explains all.


Teacher Contract 6/1/2003-11/12/2007

APPENDIX H
PROCEDURES FOR PROBABLE CAUSE HEARINGS

On October 2, 2005 the following understanding was reached regarding probable cause hearings:

"The UFT will conduct a meeting of lawyers who represent UFT members in 3020-a proceedings to inform them about the new procedures regarding offenses involving sexual misconduct with a student or minor not a student. During that meeting there will be a discussion of what would constitute probable cause including that we agree that in a probable cause hearing the hearing officer may accept hearsay as evidence of probable cause, and that a criminal complaint and corroborating affidavit of the SCI report is sufficient evidence to create a rebuttable presumption of probable cause".

The key statement from the above paragraph is " We agree that that in a probable cause hearing the hearing officer may accept hearsay as evidence of probable cause". What happened to Randi's statement to the delegate assembly that only teachers subject to criminal felony action would fall under the "probable cause" section? Did she lie to the delegate assembly or was she deceived by her flunkies? Regardless, she misinformed the delegate assembly to push through a very unpopular contract that has put the teachers in a very dangerous position in and outside the classroom.

Yes, there are many disagreeable givebacks in the 2005 contract but nothing affects a teacher as much as the UFT agreement with the DOE in the unreasonably low burden of proof to remove a teacher under the "probable cause" section of the contract.

Shame on both the UFT and DOE for allowing the use of hearsay testimony to affect the livelihood of innocent teachers.

P.S. By the way Leo how come in your October 23, 2005 (3:25 pm) comment on Edwize about sexual misconduct, you chose to overlook discussing Appendix H? I could only assume you knew that simple hearsay can get a teacher a 90 day unpaid suspension without health benefits. Shame on you most of all for deceiving the members by omitting that hearsay is evidence enough under the "probable cause" section.

6 comments:

17 (really 15) more years said...

Only in the DOE world would hearsay be admissable evidence. It flies in the face of everything that our judicial system is all about (even regular viewers of "Judge Judy" know that "hearsay" is inadmissable).

I used to think that Randi was not as smart as she thought she was, and allowed herself to be duped repeatedly. Now I believe she is crazy like a fox, and she knows exactly what she's doing.

JUSTICE not "just us" said...

YOU ARE MY BROTHER!!! THANK YOU
ONE OF THE BEST BLOGS I HAVE READ. THANK YOU!

A COLLEAGUE OF MINE WAS RAILROADED ON SUCH CARGES. HE HAS BEEN EXONORATED OF ALL CHARGES. STAY TUNED FOR ALL THE DETAILS IN EL DIARIO LA PRENSA. I WILL TRANSLATE!

Anonymous said...

17:

I was shocked to hear that some teachers were taken offline based upon accusations from students. Like all of us I thought it was only for teachers who were arrested by the police for felony charges. I did my own investigation and found out that indeed teachers were suspended without pay and benefits based on hearsay evidence. This hearsay evidence is so weak that even the police wouldn't touch it.

I figured that Randi & gang were duped again by the DOE only to come up with Appendix H. Where the UFT agreed with the DOE on the hearsay evidence.

Just think one student can make an accusation against the teacher and have his/her friend tell an investigator that the student told the story to that student. That is enough to suspend that teacher. Disgusting.


Justice:

Thanks for the compliment. I am an independent union member but I have found the "Unity" gang seems more concerned with their creature comforts than what is good for the classroom teacher.

We need to have a more pro-active union, not reactive. Albert Shanker must be rolling over in his grave seeing what has happened to the UFT in the last ten years.

Anonymous said...

As usual, I completely fail to understand what New York City public school teachers don't comprehend, or WHY they don't comprehend the simple, dreadful facts.

The people who make up the "leadership" of DOE, most especially bloomberg and klein, along with the "leadership" of the UFT (especially those who DON'T TEACH or maybe teach 1 class) care only about:

Making lots of money by enslaving and torturing other humans (living off them and their labor and effort and misery);

Attempting to feel better about being alive by trying to feel as if they have any effect on anyone on the planet.

They accomplish this by:

Watching people they hurt SUFFER BADLY.

Oh, goody! They're having an effect! They now feel like, big, IMPORTANT, SPECIAL people. They feel like they're SUPERIOR TO OTHER PLAIN ORDINARY PEOPLE because others are crying, having strokes, losing their homes, developing cancer, being divorced by angry spouses, going broke, living in the street, etc.

They feel like they're SUPERIOR because they're taking a good deal of your money and enslaving you and you're so damned stupid and gullible, you LET THEM! Ha, ha! The joke's on you!

They are close to 100% evil, rotten, psychopathic.

What the hel* is it going to take all of you out there to figure it out???

THIS IS ALL DELIBERATE, CONSCIOUS AND CALCULATED TO USE, EXPLOIT AND DESTROY YOU EVERY SINGLE DAY OF YOUR LIFE!

Get it now???

Get it yet???

Chaz said...

AnoN;

You don't think I get it?

However, many of the teachers do not. They think these things can't happen to them and that the union will protect them. Naive and clueless to what is in store for them.

Under Assault said...

Great post, just got a chance to read it.