NRA Says Arm Them, California Says Arrest Them

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

A middle school teacher in San Diego was arrested last week for bringing a gun and a lock-blade knife to school, the Los Angeles Times recently reported. The teacher, Ned Carter Walker, was arrested in the parking lot as he arrived at Farb Middle School and booked into San Diego County jail on two felony counts of possessing lethal weapons at school.

So much for the NRA’s proposal to arm teachers to defend against the imminent threat of homicidal maniacs who are hell bent on slaughtering Innocents as they cower helplessly in their classrooms. While a seemingly rational proposal (how are lunatics going to kill very many kids when every teacher can just pull out their Uzi and blow them away?), the NRA apparently neglected to do their research and overlooked the fact that this is illegal and would likely result in large numbers of teachers being jailed, forcing districts to replace them quickly with whomever was available—quite likely incompetents and pederasts. Yet for those in the know, the NRA could hardly be called a naïve organization. Their plan was quite likely the result of a conspiracy between with the prison guards unions to simultaneously increase gun sales and overload the prisoners, thus justifying the guards’ demands for greater prison funding and salary increases. Or maybe it was a conspiracy between the NRA and the billionaire philanthropists who want to weaken teachers unions and undermine the integrity of public schools by picking off so many teachers through arrests for weapons violations that the unions and schools would both crumble through attrition.

Seriously, though, bringing a gun to school seems a little foolish, on par with bringing drugs or pornography to school—not something you want to get caught with. Unfortunately, the Times did not report on the context, so we do not know if the teacher had been threatened or had any compelling need for protection. As many teachers know, not all administrators are competent at dealing with discipline issues and it is conceivable that this teacher had a legitimate reason to fear for his life. Perhaps a student had attacked him or threatened to do so. Maybe he even reported it to his administration, which ignored him. I heard of a situation where a dean called for the police because he felt threatened by an angry student and the principal, who was not involved in the interaction and had no way of knowing whether the threat was serious or not, cancelled the call, thus jeopardizing the dean’s safety. Just as likely, though, walker was just a run-of-the-mill gun nut who, like most Americans, is terrified of teenagers and believes them all to be drug abusing, law-breaking, untrustworthy, violent miscreants.

 Arrested and fired for lock-blade knife?

On a different note, a six-inch blade can be an imposing weapon, but there are also lock-blade knives that are two inches, or shorter, designed and routinely used as tools, reasonable and seemingly appropriate tools even in the classroom (e.g., opening packages, cutting string). It is bad enough that zero-tolerance policies are resulting in otherwise good kids getting expelled for possessing toy guns and Swiss army knives (the principal mentioned above expelled a straight-A student who had never been in any previous trouble for possessing a toy gun on campus). The question is, would this teacher be in the same kind of trouble if it was only a two-inch lock-blade and not a gun?

California Schools Not Providing Free, Safe Drinking Water

Several recent state and federal laws now require schools to provide free, fresh drinking water wherever meals are served or eaten. Free water in meal areas not only benefits students who cannot afford flavored beverages or who do not like milk, it encourages all students to drink water, which is a healthier choice than juice or soda. 

While providing free, fresh water in meal areas seems like a no-brainer, 25% of California schools are out of compliance, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

A study of 240 randomly selected public schools was conducted in 2011 by researchers at UCSF, together with nutrition and health advocacy organizations California Food Policy Advocates and Change Lab Solutions. According to the study, the primary reasons schools did not provide the water was cost or ignorance of the law.

The good news is that the number of schools providing free drinking water in meal areas increased after passage of a recent California drinking water law. The bad news is that the law has no teeth: there are no consequences if a school fails to comply. Furthermore, schools can opt out if it would be too burdensome to retrofit cafeterias and lunch areas.

The problem is not just one of providing water. Some school districts are doing this, but the water they are providing is unfit for human consumption. According to the Chronicle article, the advocacy group Community Water Center found a total of 119 violations from 2005 through 2007 at 47 of the 146 schools it examined in the San Joaquin Valley, mostly for contaminants like bacteria, arsenic and nitrates.

The article did not discuss what percentage of schools provide bottled water for students to purchase.

Union Busting in “Pro-Labor” California

In the wake of several recent sexual abuse allegations against Los Angeles school teachers and the mass public hysteria that followed, the California Legislature will consider three new laws that significantly reduce union protections for teachers. These union busting bills (SB 1530, AB 2028 and SB 1059) were set for hearing in the California legislature on April 18, 2012. According to the CTA website, SB 1059 would virtually eliminate Due Process rights for teachers.

  

SB 1530, sponsored by Sen. Alex Padilla, (Dem., Los Angeles), would give school boards the final decision over firing teachers facing  sexual, drug, and other serious misconduct charges, according to the Topics in Education (Toped) website. The three-person appeals board currently in place would be replaced by an administrative judge whose opinions would only be advisory. This would turn school boards into partisan judge and juries, thus making it much harder for teachers to defend themselves against frivolous or vindictive accusations. The bill would also allow districts to suspend teachers for virtually any “infraction” they deem unprofessional, thus, making it even easier for school boards to get rid of teachers who are outspoken, critical of district policies or active in their unions.

SB 1530 would also eliminate the current requirement that districts issue a 45-day notice to teachers facing disciplinary action and it would allow districts to suspend teachers without pay. Thus, teachers would lose the ability to know that charges have been filed against them and to prepare a defense. This might seem unnecessary—shouldn’t a teacher be aware if she has done something wrong? Not necessarily. Teachers are disciplined fairly regularly based on unsubstantiated accusations by students, parents and administrators. A teacher may be completely unaware that such accusations have been made and should have the right to defend herself and clear her name, something that would become difficult or impossible under SB1530.

SB 1059, sponsored by Bob Huff (Rep., Diamond Bar), would also quicken the firing process and give school boards the final say over firing teachers for misconduct and for unsatisfactory performance, Toped reports. It would also remove the 4-year statute of limitations on misconduct investigations in a teacher’s file.

CTA’s response to the Padilla bill can be seen here: sb1530Page1 sb1530Page2.

Making Schools Safer for Children?
Aside from the fact that these laws will make it easier to fire teachers and take away many due process rights necessary for them to defend themselves from arbitrary, vindictive and retaliatory disciplinary actions, they are redundant and unnecessary. School districts already have the right to discipline and fire teachers for infractions that harm students, jeopardize safety or otherwise undermine the educational process. What happened in Los Angeles (e.g., suspected serial molesters being allowed to stay in the classroom) was due to the laziness and incompetency of LAUSD investigators and administrators, not inadequate laws (see here, here and here).

Rather than pandering to public hysteria about a nonexistent epidemic of molesters in the classroom, lawmakers ought to consider how to make schools truly safer by focusing on safety issues that affect the majority of students. For example, California classes often have 35-40 students in them, making them unsafe for lab activities and reducing the ability of teachers to identify and address dangerous behavior or bullying. Similarly, the declining number of counselors and support personnel in California schools means that many students who are suffering from PTSD, depression, anxiety, grief and other emotional distresses are falling through the cracks. Aside from the tragedy that they are not getting the support services they need to feel safe and thrive at school, some of them could be also become dangers to their classmates if their conditions remain unidentified or treated.

Boston Teachers Reject Uncompensated Longer School Day

The Boston Teachers Union (BTU) and the Boston school district have reached an impasse after 21 months of bargaining, the Boston Herald reported this week. The next step is mediation. Should that fail to bring the two sides to an agreement over the teachers’ contract, the union could call for a strike.

Superintendent Carol Johnson blamed the impasse on the failure of the two sides to find a “middle” ground. However, Johnson hadn’t even bothered to show up for the majority of bargaining sessions, which is the reason BTU President Richard Stutman said the union filed the impasse.

Furthermore, her claim that the two sides have failed to find a middle ground is based on the fantasy that both sides had reasonable and realistic demands in the first place. In reality, the district wants teachers to accept a longer working day without extra compensation, a ridiculous and unreasonable demand. Teachers were asking for a 10.3% pay increase even without the lengthened work day, which quite reasonable considering their pay has been stagnant over the past few years. Their demand for additional compensation for a longer work day ought to be seen as a very generous compromise since it accepts the unreasonable demand that they work longer hours.

However, the district claims it does not have the money to support this. Thus, the only reasonable “middle ground” would be to drop their demand for a longer work day until they have the resources to “fairly” compensate teachers or simply drop the demand.

Longer School Days are Bad for Teachers AND Students

I use the term “fairly” in quotes because there is no fair way to overwork someone. Even extra pay cannot justify compelling a person to work longer and harder than is safe or effective. It is important to consider that teachers are already expected to do far more in the workday than is realistically possible. A typical secondary school teacher, for example, is expected to work 7 ½ to 8 ½ hours per day. In that workday, 5-6 hours are spent in the classroom teaching. In the remaining time they are expected to design and write curriculum; set up and break down lab, art and other projects and activities; contact parents; meet with colleagues and collaborate; write and grade exams and quizzes; grade essays, term papers and lab reports; keep up with administrative paperwork; address discipline issues; as well as a host of other teaching and bureaucratic responsibilities.

While lengthening the work day could provide more time for these responsibilities, in reality the longer school day movement is about increasing the instructional minutes for students, not easing the work burden on teachers. Thus, teachers are expected to use that additional time to teach an extra class, take on additional collaborative or school reform responsibilities, or provide additional remediation and support for students, rather than fulfilling existing responsibilities.

Additionally, the act of teaching itself is tremendously tiring and stressful. In no other profession is an individual expected to deal with 150-180 different personalities in 45-90 minute spurts, understand each student’s individual needs, tailor services to support these diverse needs, and provide support and empathy for those coming to school hungry, depressed, anxious, frightened, bullied, sick and angry.

In order to maintain sanity, patience and effectiveness, teachers need down time in between classes and at the end of the day. Lengthening the school day without hiring more teachers will increase the likelihood of teacher burnout and reduce teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom. Overworked, burned out workers are more likely to make mistakes. It is harder to notice when a student is struggling, sick or anxious. One reason that bullying often goes unnoticed by teachers is that large class sizes and overwhelming workloads prevent them from being aware of every student interaction that occurs in and near the classroom. Increasing the length of the school day will only worsen this.

Police Kill Texas Teen At School

Police in Brownsville, Texas fatally shot 15-year-old Jaime Gonzalez in the hallways of his school this week. The boy was brandishing a pellet gun, which police believed to be a handgun, the Chicago Sun Times reported. The police fired three shots at the boy, including one that entered the back of his head, suggesting that the boy was facing away from the police and not an imminent threat, according to the WSWS.

The boy’s parents are accusing the police of using excessive force and demanding they be punished. While many of the details of the case have yet to be released, it does seem excessive to have shot the boy three times, particularly in the back of the head, when a single bullet to the leg would have likely brought the boy down and ended the standoff. Also, the school was apparently locked down, which meant the threat to other students was minimal, giving police more time to try to talk to the boy and negotiate a surrender.

This tragic event will no doubt add to the general national hysteria around school safety and school shootings. It should be noted, however, that student homicides are rare at school, accounting for less than 2% of all youth homicides, according to USA Today, with kids 50 times more likely to die violently outside of school (often at the hands of their parents or other relatives). According the U.S. Department of Education, there were 15 school homicides in 2008-2009, the most recent year for which data is available, compared with 34 in 1992-93. Sadly, this week’s school homicide was at the hands of the police.

School Cop Convicted Of Faking His Own Shooting

Jeff Stenroos, an LAUSD police officer who shot himself last year and then blamed it on an imaginary gunman, prompting officials to lockdown nine schools, was convicted by Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard N. Kirschner of five of the six counts against him. The judge also ordered him to undergo a psychological exam at a state prison, according to the Los Angeles Times.

There are, however, larger questions that remain unresolved, such as whether or not LAUSD will continue to lock students in classrooms for hours at a time, without access to food, water or restrooms, for every little disturbance, including hoaxes or whether LAUSD continue to hire bumbling fools with guns to “protect” their students?

Ultimately, though, I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Stenroos had enough sense to shoot himself in the bulletproof vest, rather than shooting wildly into the air and accidentally hitting a student.

Force Teachers to Inject Students or Hire More Nurses?

The following is an expanded version of the letter I sent to the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday:

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article today by Bob Egelko, “Obama Administration steps into insulin shot fight,” about whether California can force teachers to inject the state’s 14,000 diabetic students. Egelko got the got the basics right: teachers are unqualified to provide injections, while nurses, who are qualified, have been so significantly downsized that half of California’s school districts no longer have them. However, the Justice Department’s assertion that non-nurses should be allowed to give shots is absurd and shows great disregard for the safety of students.

Furthermore, Egelko’s claim that educators support non-nurses giving injections is simply not true. As a teacher and a union organizer I know my colleagues are opposed. Teachers lack the experience and skill of nurses, as well as the time and environment to safely give injections. While giving shots, teachers are still responsible for 30-40 other students, in contrast to nurses, who can give injections in their offices, without other students present. Needles are potentially dangerous instruments. Distractions can lead to accidents or compromise the safety of other students, including the transmission of HIV or hepatitis.

Allowing non-nurses to give injections discourages school districts from hiring more nurses. This can undermine student achievement, as nurses provide routine healthcare that helps keep uninsured children in class. Lack of insurance can increase absences by up to 40%, according to education researcher Richard Rothstein, exacerbating the risk of failure. In a study of Baltimore school children, high school drop-outs averaged 27.6 absences per year, while graduates averaged only 11.8.

The solution is obvious: restore K-12 funding. With $18 billion cut over the last three years in California, it is not surprising that schools have cut nurses (as well as librarians, counselors, teachers and services). Unfortunately, this option is off the table, as the ruling elite would rather risk the safety of other people’s children than accept even a modest tax increase. With over 600,000 millionaires and 80 billionaires, a 1-2% income tax increase just on California’s rich, (and another 1-2% increase on their capital gains), could bring in billions of much needed revenue.