The NY Post is reporting on the Department of Education settling a discrimination lawsuit brought by three teachers and an assistant principal at Pan American International High School.
Most readers here believe principals like Minerva Zanca are the tip of the iceberg.
From The NY Post:
The city Department of Education has agreed to pay more than $1.1 million to four educators after it allowed a Queens principal to torment three black teachers — including saying one “looked like a gorilla in a sweater.”
The payout will go to the three teachers at the Pan American International High School and an assistant principal who was retaliated against after speaking out against the abuse, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.
The settlement will end civil suits brought by the educators and a federal civil rights complaint filed by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
Please don't take the abuse teachers. Fight back, go public, go to the EEOC, the State Human Rights Commission, the Union, PERB or any reputable place for help. It is better if we can work things out right at the start if there is a problem at the job. However, document everything and fight back as fast as possible if you believe you are under attack.
We'll give United States Attorney Geoffrey Berman the last word here as quoted in the Post article.
The discrimination was brought to the attention of DOE Superintendent Juan Mendez, who did not punish Zanca even after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found reasonable cause that she’d discriminated against the teachers.
“The discrimination in this case was invidious, unlawful, and counter to our core values. This Office will remain vigilant in ensuring that employers who do not comply with Title VII are held to account,” Berman said in a statement.
48 comments:
Chaz would have been all over this one. RIP sir.
I am concerned about the school year calendar. I think Mulgrew did what he does best and gave back more. This is why I think he scheduled a town hall tomorrow to try to sell his reasons why we are either going back before labor day or teaching during the 155 minutes which we use for staff development or parent engagement. Other districts are ending earlier and had their calendars for September done long ago. Mark my words-Mulgrew is giving back something. He can't be trusted. The only thing we have is the ability to opt out in June.
I hope he proves me wrong. Thoughts?
500 people opting out in June will mean nothing to Mulgrew and then that's 500 isolated people. I do agree, however, something is weird about no calendar yet.
Something is definitely up.
Per NYC Health’s guidance, most children with MIS-C have a fever (temperature of 100.4 degrees F) lasting several days, along with other symptoms, including:
· Irritability or decreased activity
· Abdominal pain without another explanation
· Diarrhea
· Vomiting
· Rash
· Conjunctivitis, or red or pink eyes
· Poor feeding
· Red, cracked lips or red, bumpy tongue that looks like a strawberry
· Swollen hands and feet, which might also be red
My prediction is the doe is holding the retro over our heads claiming ‘poverty’ and mulgrew is going along with it.
So, we will probably have to do more work this year on the arm.
This can mean anything from monthly parent teacher nights to a longer school day to working extra days. I really have no idea, but no calendar(even a tentative one) as of the week before Memorial Day is a bad sign.
There is something shady happening. In his April town hall, mulgrew said a calendar would be out soon. Well, a month has passed and no calendar yet. He even said that everything is political in nyc, so there is something going on behind the scenes. Yes, this is all speculation, but looking back at this mayor’s 2 terms, he usually gets the best of the UFT.
Of course the doe would have saved 1.1 million dollars and the millions they wasted on Howard Kwait had they fired the principals a long time ago. It's pieces of crap like this that get the good jobs.
nychoice is the website to use to stop dues in June
newchoiceny.com is the site to stop dues in June
A bullshit Koch funded enterprise. That will please some of the anti union right wingers but nobody else.
I wish folks would stop constantly telling people to drop out of the union. If you need to as a moral imperative, as I did, then do so / but don’t tell folks just to drop out so the Koch Bros can turn us all into slaves, working for that old minimum wage. F**k that bullshit. Visit teachers in Florida and see for yourselves what that gets you. The UFT has greatly betrayed me and I just couldn’t continue supporting it. Most teachers haven’t experienced what ATRs have as a group, or what some of us have personally. Yes, little betrayals add up and that has to change.
In a way, even though it would be a financial hit, I hope the city and Mulgrew agree to hold back our interest free loan repayment. There will be lawsuits and recent retirees will turn against against Unity and Mulgrew. Everything that’s happening in our country, cities and schools is due to folks not voting. We’ve tolerated Trump, Cuomo, deBlasio and Mulgrew for far to long. Vote all of them out when you can. The perennial problem for all is that there’s often not an adequate choice, but if we don’t vote, we are stuck and we are all stuck now. Here’s a link on what we can do -
https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhist-leaders-pen-open-letter-encouraging-americans-to-vote/?mc_cid=06dd7406f5&mc_eid=c3ab956fb1
We have been told that the '21-22 school calendar is due out Tuesday after the holiday.
Bronx ATR. We showed yesterday how the money from the lump sum is already budgeted by the city even after the economy collapsed. Givebacks will be elsewhere in my opinion.
Just read the letter on voting. It is spot on.
My principal told me the work I'm giving the studnets is too hard. A few assignments in 2 months? When they get a job will the work be too hard? Will college be too hard? What will be done then?
130,
Write back to your principal,”please show me examples of what you would expect. I am confused. Thanks in advance for your help.” Then, do no work until he responds.
They want, basically, something the students can fake, while doing almost nothing. Like, what is 2+2, you may use a calculator, or, write one sentence. HS seniors. Wow.
Soooooo, where is this principal now? Working a cushy desk job at Tweed or is she already causing havoc at another school in the DOE?
@Mike. I agree. I would also ask the tool i mean principal to point out the hard.
I would say "How dare he students" but this is what we expect these days. And remember, the poor kids, they are all good kids, they don't have electronics to do the work...
Some mischievous city kids are manipulating and posting clips of their teachers’ remote learning lessons on social media, leaving some educators wary of video classes, several sources told The Post.
“There are a lot of us who aren’t comfortable with it,” a Bronx middle school teacher said. “You never know where your face is going to end up right now.”
An eighth grade instructor at the Bronx school warned colleagues that kids – especially in older grades – were posting lesson footage on sites like Snapchat and sometimes adding profane captions or inappropriate filters.
“There are risks right now that most people aren’t even aware of,” the teacher said.
The scattered provision of live video teaching has been a source of intense controversy locally and nationally since schools closed due to the coronavirus crisis.
Some parents have complained about a lack of meaningful communication with teachers while others have lauded staffers for preserving some normalcy during remote learning.
The New York City teachers union has told members that they are under no obligation to conduct live teaching even if principals insist on it. While some have opted to do so, parents claim others are limiting their effort to posting assignments.
Some city teachers limit their online lessons to audio communication to avoid any involuntary appearances online, sources said.
Others said they were uneasy exposing their personal living spaces to students and that already blurred social demarcation lines are being erased altogether during the crisis.
“Teaching is a stressful job,” said a Bed-Stuy middle school staffer. “Before you could go home and separate yourself from it. But now even your apartment is a classroom.”
With teachers and students regularly texting and emailing each other, the source said informal communication is adjusting how kids view authority.
“They interact with us now the same way they do their friends,” said a Harlem middle school teacher.
The Bed-Stuy staffer said teachers are routinely monitored online by their students.
“They see us on Twitter, on Instagram,” she said. “The student/teacher relationship has totally changed, especially in the last five years or so.”
A Bronx staffer said her students routinely scroll through dating apps like Tinder to see if they can spot their instructors and their profiles.
Some city teachers are even balking at interacting with their students over their personal cell phone out of privacy concerns.
Many block their numbers or use encrypted messaging apps to correspond.
“There are things teachers have to worry about in 2020 that would have been pretty hard to imagine not too long ago,” the Bronx educator said.
The students will do everything except the right thing, and then make every excuse. As per the ny post article, that is why I wont ho live. As per 130pm, good question, if they cant do basic HS work how are they going to get through life other than govt dependency?
The uft should immediately stop video learning based on the article above. Fat chance...
We do this because we are the butt of every joke. And all must pass after all this screwing around during school time.
You know there’s a program that can take you actions, voice and movements and put you in a porno? Some jackass showed me one of AOC and Trump. Educators beware. The DOE will use it to terminate you - some are almost impossible to differentiate from the real thing.
422,
The UFT has told its members not to do live teaching if they don’t want to.
I am definitely not a UFT apologist(weingarten sold us out), but mulgrew said in his last town hall that live teaching is not required.
The doe isn’t even requiring live teaching online.
Here is the issue with UFT members and why our union is not as strong as it could be and that reason is that people will still do live teaching even though it isn’t required.
So, a principal can say ‘so and so is doing live teaching and it’s having a great impact.’ By one person doing live teaching, it makes everyone look bad who is not doing the live teaching.
If we all did not do live teaching, no one would be criticized for not doing it.
Personally, I can’t complain about my administration. But, I have friends who have been observed and critiqued for their live teaching lessons and when I say ‘you don’t have to do this’, they respond ‘’everyone else in my school is.”
Therein is the problem. When everyone does something, you stand out if you enforce rules. That is not easy to do.
4:59: It's the same thing with teachers who pass students who do nothing versus those who fail them. The administration compares the teacher that failed the students to the ones who passed them and say, Well how come so and so can get his/her students to pass and you can't? Our UFT rep actually told us to accept plagiarized work and she calls herself a teacher. Haha.
@7:37 pm: My point exactly. Why won't teachers stick together in school? If your students are not passing, fail them. Either you're a teacher or you're not. That UFT rep is a loser.
I got a similar email from principal saying work is too hard for ell and sped. It is basic writing. Ok, how will a boss not fire them when they say the work is too hard and they got away with it in HS?
Waiting for support,
In theory, I agree with you on passing and failing students. However, in areas like East NY, bed Stuy and bushwick, you can have years where if you really held students accountable, then maybe 10-15 percent of the kids will actually legitimately pass. Believe me because I have worked in all three neighborhoods. How do you justify 80-90 percent failures on report cards?
I tried this early in my career and was really put under the microscope. One year, the AP practically lives in my classroom during the S/U rating days.
So, yes, I will pass more kids than I fail now, but I won’t do things that young teachers do like work my lunch period, live teaching now or give out my cell number. I will follow the contract, but I’m too old to have the stress that comes from being under the microscope of failing too many kids.
I give you credit for fighting the good fight though!
@10:02pm. Thanks. And,yes,the stress is a killer. I'm retired now but admin tried me. Tried to end my career lol. I had the last laugh. They ended up in the paper as donny would say it was Huge. I won they lost. I kept my integrity. I'm still called upon by admin i met as an ATR after the attempt was made on my career. They respect me and I respect them. They know that I am only going to do what's best for the students. I'm no hero or anything. My initial fight was a b@$ch. It was stressful as hell but now life is good. I had to take a stand. I can face myself. But again the stress is intolerable. Now we will see what happens to the teaching profession. Looks like that position of turning your head to avoid the admin is going to take a big bite out of the arce of many. Good luck and stay safe
Seriously these kids will be lucky to get jobs at Rite Aid. 1/4 valedictorians do not even hack it in city college.
Friend told me kid in their school broke wrist and cannot do work lol, seriously cant use technology to use your voice or other hand.
THis generation and the ones moving forward are going to be the laziest, dumbest fucks ever, most entitled, softest narcissistic, bunch of whiners you can imagine.
Teaching is not a profession you can recommend to anyone especially in DOE. Sewer rats have a better life than the pension and life of a tier VI, lucky for me closing on 20 yrs.
I saw an eyewitness news report that stated the UFT has agreed to work until June 26th with the right to negotiate compensation at a later date while other districts are finishing around June 17th. What a joke!
That means I’m done posting assignments around June 17th.
So much business needs to be done(ratings, calendar, possible plans for the fall, sbo votes etc). And what has been done? Nothing.
I just don’t think mulgrew wants to fight like he should. He must be taking advice from weingarten.
Anon2323,
As a doe teacher, everything told to us as a youngster(work hard,pay attention, be respectful, give 110 percent) is not applicable to the doe.
This system punished those who work hard. I was(key word being was) one of those teachers for two years and it caused heartache and headaches to my mental and physical health. I was depressed and self medicating myself. Not a good combo.
So, I went to get some help by seeing a social worker who told me ‘you can only do what you can do. That’s it. You can’t turn chicken shit into chicken salad.’ Since then, I subscribed and still subscribe to that motto. This is only a job. It is not a career or a calling.
It’s a gorgeous day today. No kids handed in an assignment. So what? At 245, I am going to play golf. During lunch, I’ll eat outside. It’s nice eating in my backyard as opposed to some rat infested park in Brooklyn.
I agree with you on tier 6. It’s a life sentence. You could rob a bank and be out of jail before a tier 6 teacher gets a pension.
Be well!
10 days to write 3 paragraphs, they need 3 more days. And the work is to hard, as per guidance, ap and principal. Ok, im done. From this point forward, if they have an issue with my work, we can have a roundtable with them, me, the NY Post, the chancellor and supe...We can discuss why my work is too hard but students pass other class with less than 15% attendance and get 85 in English while unable to write a sentence.
Sorry for the incorrect grammar above, just very frustrated.
Don't forget also, the students have as many times as they want to revise an assignment for mastery. Too bad they don't get multiple chances on the same Regents exam.
If they were working at Goldman Sachs or McDondalds, what happens when the work is "Too hard?"
If you have an assignment due tomorrow, and you already had 8 days to do it, why ask if I will accept it on Monday? Why can't it be done on time? By the way, I must accept all late assignments until June 26. Yeah, real accomplishment. They really earned that diploma.
Such hostility toward these kids. It should be aimed at administrators who promote this.These kids will get fired in corporate America if they say the job is too hard.
The kids are the ones not handing in the work or complaining about it.
It isn't the kids? How would you respond to these being posted in Google Classroom? This is a public forum and students have no issue saying this to a teacher?
Why are you assigning work in a physical education class?
i don’t actually need this class so you a dub my guy
aint nobody doin this, work in a physical activities class? nahhhhhh.
yo bro what we doing lml you wallin
is there another assignment you can give us bc i’m not doing this
you doin the most, cmon son,
you buggin smh
"im dead not writing a page i still had mad other class work to do now your dragging it"
This is why pe should not be required in hs how u got us writing a whole essay for this u high
im not writing an essay on this bs. im gonna give you a paragraph
Student sent this to me...
My guidance counselor told me for assignment 1 you gonna give me new or easier assignments to do?
Work too hard? Learn English...
"You want thousands of information what you want me to do write 5 pages essay? "
Getting all these assignments, 8 days late 25 days, 60 days late. Who cares, right?
155 pm, if a student or students said those things to me I would've just locked them out of the google classroom and failed them.
To the people writing posts on this beautiful day,
Just stop. I went to the golf course and played golf today at 245. In 20 years of teaching, I have never done that. I played like crap, but enjoyed myself.
Go find something that makes you feel good. Take a walk, workout, have a beer, let the sunlight hit your face and feel good for a minute.
Stop worrying about kids in the city.
I post what I have to post and then I go on with my day.
This job isn’t that important.
@ 11:15 I have that mindset, come to long island and we can play some golf!
@1:55 lol, I am a pe teacher, admin wants us do try zoom since 35% failing bc they dont do any of the work bc they dont care for PE.
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