Since the beginning of my blog, I have questioned some of the money that our leadership has given or spent on programs that many of the rank and file do not support. In fact, my very first blog post was about the non-educational programs that our hard earned money was going to and I objected to it since it was not going to further the education agenda which it should have gone to. Over the years, the UFT leadership has been using member dues and COPE funds for very questionable uses. Remember the very embarrassing quail incident? If that wasn't enough the UFT's Paul Egan, who caused the uproar, also gets paid a very handsome salary paid for by us. When I go to a UFT function, I get cookies and, if lucky, a wrap, not a $40 meal of quail and booze while picking up the tab for 24 of his union friends on our dime.
Now it seems that the UFT is spending our money on causes that I personally object to. The most egregious is being a co-sponsor of Al Sharpton's anti-police march across the Verrazano Bridge. The very same Al Sharpton who, in my opinion, is a racial arsonist. Yes, the very same Al Sharpton who falsely defamed a prosecutor of rape in the Tawana Brawley case and is anti-Semitic, who worked closely with Chancellor Joel Klein to attack teachers by agreeing with the Chancellor that the racial achievement gap was because of the schools and is a notorious tax deadbeat.
This is the very same UFT who refuses to go after vindictive school administrators because they are fellow union members, while supporting an anti-police march. Aren't the police officers fellow union members too? How can the UFT leadership talk out of both sides of their mouth and justify the use of the rank and file funds for this purpose?
A man I respect very much is Pat Lynch, the head of the police union, who is very upset with UFT President Michael Mulgrew and minced few words criticizing the UFT for the substandard contract the UFT negotiated with the De Blasio administration and the co-sponsoring the anti-police march organized by Al Sharpton. Rather than rehash what he said, you can read it Here.
That brings me to the UFT's COPE contribution that's supposed to be used for legitimate lobbying for the interest of its members. Over the years I have been increasingly disappointed in how our COPE contributions have been spent. When I first started teaching, my Chapter Leader, recommended that I contribute $5 a paycheck and that's what I did since I naively thought all the money was going to make our profession better. As I become more and more disenchanted with the union's priorities, I reduced my COPE contribution to $1 per paycheck. By the time I started my blog, I reduced it to the minimum $0.50. Once the Quail fiasco hit the newspapers, I realized that our COPE money was being misused and I stopped contributing altogether. I sent a letter to UFT headquarters to the COPE coordinator stating I no longer wanted to contribute to COPE and had my Chapter Leader sign the release form sent back to me and that was all I had to do.
Until our union decides to include the rank and file in how our money is spend, I will not give a penny to COPE and neither should you..
58 comments:
How long ago did you withdraw from COPE? I am curious if the process is still the same as the UFT central told a colleague differently about a year ago. Perhaps someone can get a hold of and post the (mythical?) withdrawal form online?
I dropped my contributions a month ago..the only way things can change is when people stop contributing to Dope I mean cope
Thank you for writing a blog on this. I was incensed yesterday when I read about "our" union and the anti-police march. I remember, and had to deal with the incredible racial animosity Sharpton caused. Mulgrew and crew have to go. The union become a parody of itself.
I'm often against Mulgrew, but this isn't a fair characterization of the UFT.
This is not an anti-police rally per se, but an anti-police brutality rally.
As to Sharpton being anti-Semitic he has changed a lot from who he was in the 1980s. He ought to be given credit for that, and not be tarnished for life.
Mulgrew could not care less about the members. Lynch is 100% correct about the lousy pattern Mulgrew negotiated and I am glad it is not just me disappointed with the back ended pay. Mulgrew is a fiasco of a union leader.
In 1991, a Jewish driver's car was struck by another vehicle in Crown Heights, causing the car to veer up onto the sidewalk where it accidentally ran over a black child. Sharpton enjoined the resulting black rioters over the next 4 days to "Kill the Jew!" and to "Get the Jews out!" In 1995, Sharpton's remarks against Freddie Harari, a Jewish shopowner in Harlem, resulted in some of his followers firebombing Harari's store, resulting in the deaths of 7 store employees. He is no friend to Jews.
Sharpton has become the smoke to be found wherever the potential exists for racial fires. In instances where peaceful exchanges could defuse situations, there's ol' Al, stoking the flames of racial hatred. That is how he makes his living. He is a college dropout, no one knows who conferred the title of "reverend" on him (a Crackerjack box?), and has held no position except that of race baiter and professional agitator. He has parlayed that into hosting a radio show on MSNBC and being called upon as a "political advisor for race relations (ha!)" by DiBlahblah and many others.
I think it's very telling that in September, he will be honored at the 20th annual banquet of CAIR, the U.S.-based Hamas branch known as the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Naw, he don't be anti-semitic.
And THIS is who Mulgrew wants the UFT to associate with?
How to cancel your COPE contributions from your paychecks:
Please send a fax requesting to cancel your COPE contribution. The information they need from you is displayed below.
They will send a cancellation card to your address on file along with a pre-paid return envelope so that you can fill out the card and send it back right away. As part of procedure, they must also receive the following fax from you:
RE: COPE Cancellation
TO: Danny Corum, COPE Coordinator
My name is ___________, File # _______________. I would like to cancel my COPE contribution as soon as possible.
[SIGNATURE]
[PRINTED NAME]
Please do not forget to sign and print your name on the fax. The fax should be sent to (212)510-6435. Your contribution will be cancelled when they receive the fax and the cancellation card back from you. Please do not hesitate to contact them at (212)598-6826 or at dcorum@uft.org should you have further questions.
Danny Corum
COPE Coordinator
United Federation of Teachers
Legislation & Political Action
52 Broadway, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10004
dcorum@uft.org
phone: (212)598-6826
fax: (212)510-6435
What is the actual process to withdraw from the COPE?
Geo 1:25
I have never heard him apo;logize for his ant-Semitic statements. In fact, he never admitted the Tawana Brawley rape accusation was false. Finally, in his world its always the white abuser and black victim and no other combination like black on white crime or Hispanic vs Black, etc, etc.
To me and many others its all anti-police, no matter how you see it.
I pledge allegiance to Mike Mulgrew and the united tentacles of Randi. To Unity, for which it stands, one union under Mike , for dependence and injustice for all. (And don't forget it!)
For years I voted against Michael Mulgrew and the unity party. I knew he was screwing the membership. Nobody listened to me. But now I am retired and will vote for Michael Mulgrew. I want to see him continue to screw the active members and have a good laugh watching him do it.
To you the cause may be questionable. It may even be the stuff of some peoples imagination. But to this Can't Stand Michael Mulgrew Hatin' Mother of a Black Son Black Teacher MORE member...THERE IS NO QUESTION IN MY MIND. Police brutality is real!!! And I have to tell you, when it comes down to that reality and you have to live the fear of it on a daily basis for your friends, family, and your students, you don't have the luxury of getting it confused. So when it's that clear to you, Al, COPE, Mike, Pat Lynch,UNITY,etc., let them all be damned and let's march baby!!!
What day are the atr's getting their assignments?
I stand corrected. I was mistakenly thought he retracted.
But criticism against certain actions by the police is not blanket criticism of the institution. Many that criticize the UFT still support it.
Why don't you mention how when the hatzola arrived they treated the fat jewish man and ignored the boy. The city has kid gloves on for jews. Always a double standard.
Seriously, some of you racist assholes don't need to be teaching children of color....especially young men of color who are often targets of police brutality. I, for one, support the UFT in its support of the march. All you do is bitch and moan about Rev. Sharpton. Do you really care about the academic and career success of black and minority youth???? Some here, Chaz, included often make me wonder. Oh, and please, don't come back with I have some black friends bullshit.....and I have dedicated my life to seeing them achieve because quite frankly....I, and many other teachers of color would not believe you.
I think Michael Mulgrew, whom I am usually highly critical of, is half right.
I am usually one of the people most likely to attack him for UFT actions or inactions, but, while I am opposed to the UFT working in any way with Al Sharpton - I had a post attacking Sharpton deleted on another ed blog - I think Mulgrew is right to have the UFT protest police violence and the militarization of law enforcement.
The overwhelming majority of our students are people of color, and I am tired of hearing my students complain of constant harassment from the NYPD, which ranges from incredible pettiness (as in receiving a ticket for playing basketball shirtless!) to goonish threats of violence and arrest.
As NYC becomes ever more gentrified and economically polarized, poor and working class people are being forced out of the city, to the local equivalents of Ferguson, Mo., and the NYPD is the tip of the spear for that, via the tremendous pressure police officers are under to maintain NYC as a consumerist playground for tourists, global hot money, and affluent white kids who seek an alternative to the suburbs they grew up in.
Lynch is correct in his criticism of the contract Mulgrew negotiated, but that is not the real source of his anger and, while I understand how he has a legal and moral obligation to defend his members, he'd have a lot more credibility if he made some noise about the impossible position his members are placed in by having to keep "dangerous" populations constantly under heel.
Where has Lynch been in opposing the "broken-windows" policies that compel his members to harass citizens for minor so-called offenses, harassment which inevitably falls disproportionately on the backs of the poor, the working class and people of color.
I'd have more respect for Lynch if he'd speak a word or two about his members being placed in an impossible situation, and having to defend an indefensible social and political order.
Mulgrew's inclinations here, while mistaken in terms of whom he chooses to partner with, are the right ones: teachers should be on the side of the communities we serve when responding to the abuse of State power.
Anon 9:05
Seriously? Many of us who object to giving our dues money to Al Sharpton's questionable causes are racist assholes? What does that make you?
MF:
Sorry you feel that way but that's why I cannot join MORE. Social Justice issues just dilute the message on teacher rights. Our money should go to education causes not anything else!
Chaz, where do I even mention MORE?
Though I might be a member of the group and a candidate on its slate in 2013, I speak for myself only, and not MORE, which as far as I know has not taken a stand on this matter.
I know for a fact that other MORE members disagree with me about many of my comments - about Mark Naison and the Badass Teachers, for example - and that's fine, because I have no political ambitions in MORE, the UFT - though I may have been a candidate last year, we had absolutely no chance of winning, and participating in the election was seen as an organizing vehicle - or anywhere else, and enjoy the freedom that gives me to speak my mind.
If and when I speak for MORE, I will identify myself as doing so -not very often, in fact - and people should otherwise I am speaking only for myself.
It wasn't MORE that's endorsing walking with Sharpton.
It's Mulgrew's UFT.
Latest issues at MORE page are tenure and Common Core (latter of which Mulgrew ferociously --check out video posted by MORE on YouTube-- defends or he'll punch you in the face if you "take them" from him).
High stakes test and Common Core. Those are threats to our jobs.
Tenure is under greater threat than ever. But the word doesn't appear on UFT page here. Mouse-illy they dance around the topic with a link to an Ed Wize [sic] page on teacher due process.
On the UFT Facebook page here there is just a 8/6 referral to a Peter Greene piece on tenure at Huffington Post.
UFT can't bring itself to mobilize to defend tenure and utter the word, "tenure."
Where's big bad Mulgrew's bravado when it's needed?
What some seem to forget, like it or not, blacks are responsible for most crimes. That is factual. This is why so many schools fail and close. All you hear is that the teachers cant teach. Truth is, black students, who make up most of the city now, don't care about school, have no respect for authority of any kind, disrespect teachers like they disrespect police officers and are already criminals before they step foot into high school. They are up all night drinking alcohol and then cant make it to school until 10 AM, if at all. And now..."Its not fair, we get picked on"...With good reason. Look at Ferguson, took total advantage to make this a looting riot.
Plenty of money and PR for this - a march against our fellow union members and civil servants. But where are the marches and protests against the use of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) for a good part of the UPK expansion, which bypasses the union pay scale, benefits, contract, and due process rights? If anything, we should be calling attention to the fact that these are UNION jobs that our union is quietly allowing to be filled by scabs. But, NO - better to get involved in a fight that is not ours, which will result in the PBA hating us even more than they do already after we set that awful pattern that everyone else is now stuck with.
12:16 -- get your facts STRAIGHT and lose the HATE.
The first private ambulance from Hatzolah was blocked by the POLICE from treating Gavin Cato. A second Hatzolah ambulance arrived and gave aid to Gavin's cousin Angela until a city ambulance arrived and took her to the hospital. Meanwhile, a totally innocent yeshiva scholar, Yankel Rosenbaum, was brutally stabbed by Lemrick Nelson, who was identified by Rosenbaum as his murderer before he died from his wounds.
The ever-helpful Al Sharpton (if it puts money in his pocket) gave the following extremely inflammatory speech at Gavin Cato's funeral:
“The world will tell us he was killed by accident. Yes, it was a social accident. … It’s an accident to allow an apartheid ambulance service in the middle of Crown Heights. … Talk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights. The issue is not anti-Semitism; the issue is apartheid. … All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it. No compromise, no meetings, no kaffe klatsch, no skinnin’ and grinnin’. Pay for your deeds… If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.” A banner at the funeral read: “Hitler did not do the job.”
Apartheid? South Africa? Hitler? This for a complete accident, a car that was pushed by ANOTHER car up onto a sidewalk. Oh, and I should mention that two weeks after the incident, an Italian businessman named Anthony Graziosi stopped at a red light in Crown Heights. Mr. Graziosi had a white beard and a business suit on. This was enough to get him mistaken for a Jew--and to get him shot and killed by 4 blacks who surrounded his car.
Sharpton also organized a "protest march" in Crown Heights following the death of Gavin Cato. Such lovely phrases like “Heil Hitler,” “No Justice, No Peace,” and “Death to the Jews" could be heard from his followers. They also burned an Israeli flag. Very civilized.
Kid gloves for Jews? Give me a break. Then-mayor David Dinkins and his police commissioner Lee Brown declared “the community needed to be allowed to vent.” So they did NOTHING to stop the attacks on Jews for THREE DAYS, during which numerous Jews were bludgeoned in the streets, 27 cars belonging to Jews were destroyed, and there were 225 robberies committed by blacks on Jewish homes and businesses.
When you posters here use ignorant and uninformed phrases like "kid gloves for Jews" and "racist assholes", I shudder to think that you are in the same profession as I am. Perhaps your time would be better spent rioting in places like Ferguson, MO where you can be true to yourselves, BABY.
Seriously Chaz....I am a black teacher who cares about black youth...and I sure as hell care about black youth who are subject to police brutality on a regular basis in this city and across the country...THIS MARCH IS NOT ABOUT SHARPTON.....not at all...but you and bunch of others here and on the UFT FB page have made it about him. Al is not a saint and he definitely doesn't speak for the entire African-American community....but you guys are so blinded by your hatred for him that you can't see that....and let me give you all a suggestion...start looking at black males, hell all people of color, as human beings....as people deserving of some basic human dignity....show some damn compassion..because I know many of you can't stand the black students that you teach based on some racist bullshit I have read by posters on this blog and others as well. If you don't want to pay COPE money to the cause, that is your right, but don't use that as some blatant excuse to ignore a big ass elephant in the room and use Al as the reason. anon 9:05
For you to support Pat Lynch, someone who I personally have never heard make a comment that isn't anti- person of color, even when officers of color are shot and killed by their white alleged counterparts, speaks volumes for who you are. For you to conveniently overlook the video-taped murder of a person of color who the rally is in support of in favor of a cop who belongs in jail is truly disturbing. You might support teachers because you are one, but the thought of you teaching any child of color just reminds me of all that has been historically wrong with the BOE/DOE.
Anon 2:19 and 2:45
You have your opinion and I have mine. I don't believe my union dollars should be going for non-education issues.
As for Mr. Sharpton? He is what he is and I would never give that man one penny. Our union could have spent the money on improving educational outcomes for black youths, not waste it on a march that is anti-police who are our fellow union members.
MF and Geo:
I have been very consistent about my distaste for the social justice aspect of our union caucuses be it Unity, MORE, or New Action. I believe that member money should go to educational issues and make our profession better, not tyo be used for other purposes.
Michael. I understand that you never mentioned MORE but by supporting our union's funding of the Sharpton directed march is what the social justice plank of MORE is all about.
9:05 - You can't pass up any opportunity to show your basic lack of class, can you? Gutter language and all. What "racist b___t" has been posted here, pray tell?
I treat all students equally. Being human, I may like some of them less than others, but I know myself to be fair. That's being a professional. Now about the black students in my classes....
I have been told that "you don't belong here, you white" at one school by a charming little black girl. I have been struck in the head on several occasions by objects thrown by black male students. I have been spit on by black students. I have had Skittles thrown in my face by black students. I saw a black girl try to vandalize my backpack. Another black girl tried to physically push me out of the classroom and lock the door. I've had a black boy remove a DVD from a DVD player while I was showing it to the class and run off with it--cos "he didn't want to watch no DVD, he wanted to watch television." And of course, I am regularly invited to suck the d___ks of black students and threatened all the time that they will "find me after school and jump my a@@", "kill me with a knife", or commit some similar act of violence upon my person.
Oh, and let's not forget any sort of classroom discipline request ("Please put away your phone", "Please sit down", etc.) or finding that they failed a test being attributed to, "You failed me because I was black!", "You only told me to put my phone away 'cos I'm black!" and other ridiculous statements.
No, I'm an equal opportunity disciplinarian. If anyone of any ilk has a cell phone out or needs to sit down, I'll ask that of them. If anyone doesn't study for a test and therefore fails it, I'll give them the grade they deserve. Scantrons don't lie.
I don't recall any white students trying to do this severe a level of stuff. Sure, there were paper wads and disrespectful remarks from some of them, sure, there were various shenanigans like any classroom misbehaviors, but nothing of the severity described above. No spitting on me, no being told I don't belong in the school due to my race, no threats of physical violence, no being struck in the head by HEAVY thrown objects.
This has nothing to do with bigotry, O Disciple of Sharpton--this is what I actually experienced. So if you want us to characterize our black students as "deserving of some basic human dignity" and exhort us to "show some d___m compassion", then you'd better tell students such as the ones described above to start ACTING like they deserve "basic human dignity" and "compassion", because spitting on me and threatening me and trying to destroy my personal property is not a great selling point.
Anon 9:05 here....ok...so Chaz...I can safely assume that you approve of the HOMICIDE (and it has been determined that to be the case of Eric Garner's death by the ME) of an African-American male by a police officer....or maybe you just don't care....or maybe it is a combination of the two....this has nothing to do with Sharpton, his checkered past, or some damn COPE dollars....I want a straight answer....don't punt the ball on 2nd and 3 wherever somebody writes something here that 1) doesn't fit the agenda of your blog or 2) you have no true conceptualization of. I am of the belief that you are 100% disingenuous when it comes to educating students of color. You spout all this faux concern bullshit about quality teachers in the classroom ad nauseam and how the students need them...but being a quality teacher is more that just getting up in front of kids for 20 years teaching them about some damn rocks and minerals to pass a Regents Exam.....it is about showing empathy, compassion, and concern for their well being both inside and OUTSIDE the classroom. It is clear to me that you have none of those traits (you fake them) because all you do is bitch and moan about not being able to get a permanent position and an ATR system that you will not be able to change...but in reality all you care about is a PAYCHECK. If you are so pissed off about this system you would leave (any smart HUMAN BEING would leave a situation in which they are brutalized)...but the reality is that you have no place to go...you are inextricably STUCK. And then you have the gall to call out the union that you loathe so much because it wants to support justice and fair treatment for black males.....you are some piece of work....and please don't pull the ATR card out again and default to complaining about Mulgrew and the UFT...because guess what....it is akin to a race card. But in the Eric Garner situation....the race card is in living color on video for the WORLD to see. And for the record, I support police officers and the hard work they do....what I don't support is abuse of power by some police officers that will put the lives of all citizens in danger. And isn't also the job of teachers to help our students to become better citizens???? Ok...I have said my peace. Have a good evening.
I testified against Sharpton for 10 days at his losing defamation trial in 1998. I was a state of mind witness for Steve Pagones, the former ADA Sharpton insanely accused of kidnapping and raping the 15-year-old-Tawana Brawley.
On direct, I recounted the many preposterous lies he told me about the case in SPIN magazine in 1988, including, my favorite whopper, DNA evidence of gang rape that he promised to produce but never did.
On cross, I dueled with Sharpton's shyster Michael Hardy who called me a white supremacist and pervert.
Anyhow, Sharpton lost. Yet he has never admitted that he was wrong or apologized for assassinating Pagones's life.
No doubt, Sharpton has a lot of scoundrel in him, but sometimes he's right. As for the kiss of Mulgrew I'm with Chaz and Fiorillo--icky.
Mulgrew actually sold us used toilet paper in the form of this current contract. People are starting to realize it and all of this is a diversion. During the march he may strip and bungee jump from the Brooklyn Bridge (in co-support of nudists). He (the union) has and will continue to do ,or not do, whatever the hell he feels like. And there's nothing any of us can do about it.
If you're a union member that is a criminal, you are no UNION member to me. The officer was wrong and so are you Chaz and those who keep white supremacy alive by saying some of the things I have read. I don't care if you post this or not we (humans) know how sick or nation is by the constant denial of the truth. It's really ironic that you teachers don't see that what has systemically happened to the black male is happening to the UFT, especially the ATR members. Today them, tomorrow us. I thought you were smarter than that.
Given the emerging and predictable facts in the Michael Brown Ferguson case, it is time for the UFT to moonwalk away from any sign of support to Rev Al.
This should really be obvious but Mr. Mulgrew may not realize that if you are on the same side of Rev Al in a race/law enforcement issue, it is time to reexamine your postion.
Anon 11:17
Whether the police officer is wrong or not is not the issue. Using our dues for Al Sharpton's race bating march is the issue.
Our money should be used to improve the profession not for non-educational political issues.
Anon 9:05
I support our dues and Cope money to be used for the members and for education, not for anything else!
Gee 9:05, you insist on showing us with every additional post full of potty language just who you are. Does your purported demonstration of "empathy, compassion, and concern for their well being both inside and OUTSIDE the classroom" extend to YOUR white students as well? Or only the students who look like you? I believe you're getting paid to care for ALL your students.
Have you ever seen Chaz teach, or seen what he does to engender "showing empathy, compassion, and concern for their well being both inside and OUTSIDE the classroom" for ALL his students? I seriously doubt it. Your obvious contempt for what he teaches--you're SURE he only teaches about "d__n rocks"--is very indicative of your closed mind.
If Mr. Garner had been white, would you have been so concerned about his death while in police custody? Somehow I seriously doubt that.
You condemn Chaz because it doesn't seem to YOU as if he "wants to support justice and fair treatment for black males". Why single out black males? Aren't we ALL deserving of justice and fair treatment?
You ask "...isn't also the job of teachers to help our students to become better citizens...? With the racial vitriol spilling from every word you post, the personal attacks on people you don't even know, and the sheer ignorance of several of your statements, I question your conviction to that role or even your qualifications.
The whole and ENTIRE point of this is that COPE monies are collected to lobby for and further the interests of teachers in their profession, not to pay for any political activity outside that milieu. Moreover, as a union, we have a natural and mutually beneficial relationship with other unions. It is NOT in the interest of teachers to have their president, acting on his own, sully the good name of our union by condemning another union AND declaring support for an event associated with a blatant racist who has uttered anti-semitic, homophobic, and anti-Mormon remarks, who has called for violence against Jews and others, and who is a tax cheat.
Anon 7:07
I couldn't have said it better myself.
It matters little which part of the racial divide one finds themselves on. The use of our money for uses not related to our profession is just plain wrong.
Keep up the cause chaz.
To Anon 7:07 and Chaz, yes you could have said it better. I don't see either of you condemning poster BB who says black students are criminals even before they hit the school door. Both of you stand by the individual in silent solidarity. And by the way, if you are a black teacher you are more likely to teach in one of those hyper segregated all black and brown schools, where the teachers are disproportionately of color. The likelihood of that black teacher having taught a white student is not high. In all my 22 years of teaching this black teacher has yet to have a white student as a NYC public school teacher.
Anon 10:36
I despise racism either black or white. However, I will allow for differences of opinion on my blog.
Remember, this post was about the inappropriate use of member funds not whether you support the march or not.
Anon 7:59:
I hear you. I also teach in a school that is dominated by black students and I have encountered the same issues that you have. I have had students come into the room and make up obscene raps about how I suck their d---k mad hard every night, that I am a "white 'ho" and a "white skank". I have had students follow me down the stairs daring each other to "push that white b---- down the stairs and f--- her up". I have been told to "get you white a$$ in a white school" and that I "have a dried up white p---y". I have had Axe deodorant sprayed in my eyes. I have had students help themselves to me personal belongings (yes - going right into me desk/cabinets) and when I tell them to respect my things, the race card immediately gets pulled out - "It's 'cause I'm BLACK!!!" I have has students come up behind me and pretend to hump me in the behind while I am writing on the board. A boy beat me seriously enough to send me to the hospital because I told him to sit at a different table. And my administration's response has been to do NOTHING, yes, NOTHING, and tell me that I am not "culturally relevant" to the students (hmmmm, what does THAT mean?) and suggested that I buy them pizza to make them like me.
My blood boils when I hear the argument that "black kids act no worse than white kids - they just get punished more". That is such a crock. I have taught in predominantly white schools and while we may have had some issues, they were NOTHING like the magnitude and severity I have seen in black-dominated schools. The kids in MY kids' school do not reach this level of violence and hate toward teachers - even when the teacher is black and the students white. And when a student gets out of hand, the Office Krupke "I got a social disease!!" defense is NOT used - the kid is held accountable and removed from the class. Repeated offenses, and the student will eventually be sent to an alternative school. The end.
Until we openly discuss the behavior of these kids in the classroom, and how they are fully empowered to behave in any way they see fit because the race card will ALWAYS be the "get out of jail free" card, there is little hope of improving minority educational outcomes.
Nobody will openly discuss facts. Unfortunately, they are facts. Look at the crime rate, the shooting stats, the failure of blacks vs whites vs Asians in public schools, the single parent rate, the teen birthrate, etc. By the wat, whatever students graduate, for the most part, is because we are pressured to fd that, not because they deserve it. I got school to school to school and see the same thing. Almost every teacher says they just pass everybody because they don't want a principal on their back. On merit, maybe 10% would pass. Just check how they write...Like preschool..
Check the numbers, talk to the students. What percent of them have already been arrested while or before they were in high school? Sit and listen to their conversations. All I hear, all day, is they are doing credit card scams, they find ways to steal sneakers, the went to the corner store and stole candy and detergent, it never ends. I found out how to "jailbreak" a cellphone, I signed up for a cellphone plan, gave them a fake name and a fake ID, took the phone and now have it for free, I can go on for hours.
Nobody will discuss it because it sounds bad. Everybody has the poor children syndrome, truth is the poor children would slit your throat if they had the chance. I think suck my dick and faggot is on my birth certificate I hear it so much.
Anon 1:07 I too a black teacher have been subjected to the same behavior/treatment that you have been subjected to. My students don't go light and easy on me because I am black. My Principal does absolutely nothing, then she wants to turn around and talk about "classroom management". What I ask you to do is to resist attributing this to the students race cause it's not. The type of thinking that leads one to that kind of connection is really undisciplined and sloppy.
Instead of criticizing and blaming the students why don't you critique the system that would allow what you just described to take place? We know that people will only do what we permit them to do. What kind of system is this that permits children to run amok? The behavior that you speak of is deplorable and unacceptable, period. It's not black behavior. Now a system that would allow and even encourage this kind of behavior, where is the critique on that? The students didn't create the system and they do not run the system. They are the real victims. The bottom line is that we can always walk away they can't.
You should have gone directly to precinct that's attached to the school community that you teach in and report some of that stuff that you were subjected to. You were the victim of sexual harassment and crimes. You should have also gone to the EEOC. When these schools and administrators know that you will do nothing, that let's them off the hook and makes it worse for you and all of us.
Now Chaz, you know darn well that the stuff BB is posting is just pure foolishness it's not an opinion.
I think what BB says, although hard to hear, is for the most part true. Teacher after teacher is saying the same stuff, BB just was very frank about it. May have been a nicer way to say it.
All you guys are way too hung up on race. The crap we deal with is because of entitlement and no accountability for the students. If you try to be civil and not lose your temper they take it as a sign of weakness and that you're afraid. The behavior then escalates. That's part of what's so laughable about restorative discipline. But, I digress, this has nothing to with race. Any kid who's always allowed to do and say whatever they want, with no consequences at school or home, will degenerate into the thugs we all have to deal with. Another thing to consider, is that the inaction of the DOE and UFT to hold students accountable is severely jeopardizing their future employability and development as adults.
STOP WITH THE BLACK AND WHITE BULLSHIT ALREADY THERE ARE DECENT AND INDECENT HUMANS IN EVERY RACE
truth be told most black and hispanics (AND I AM Dominican) are highly represented in prisons because their parents failed them..
Ever see what they do when they go into a classroom with computers, go right to the black teen fights, or right to the disgusting music And they wonder why these kids go into Community College and cant write a sentence.
How about the Bloods and Crips conversations and wars I have to deal with every day?
Anon 8:46
I totally agree with you. Its not a black or white issue, its about the dysfunctional family and community.
Perhaps bc they are tired of white men teaching them put the melanin man in positions of power within education system n watch the children rise
Wow White men see nothing wrong with being savage rape is norm for your people no need to defend it naturally wicked ways. It's got to come from the lack of Melanin
Well said n agreed!
I will say that's fugazy that the union would take dues n spend them like that, it's utterly disrespectful
Precisely
Lol u white folks are really funny sad part is you lack the finesse of reasoning. Ur ancestors learned from Africans Greeks learned all they knew n know from Africans u hold people hostage a few 100 years strip them of their names culture family n spirituality n then talk shot about them when in reality we the melanin rich people of the world are masters of creation we rise above the bs Everytime n that's y the schools go hard to deprive them of a proper education.
Wrong! My people could never out thieve white folks especially the principals that have these 5-7million dollar budgets yet have no order or intention to spend the cash give by feds on students. So put that in it pipe ;)
Please don't start cooning foh. It's because of white supremacy
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