I'm vindicated!

[ginlindzey]

You'd have to look back a couple of years in the blog to read about the nightmare that happened at my former middle school, Porter, when the new administration let discipline go to hell and I desperately pleaded with the district to do something. I ended up breaking up a gang fight in a girls restroom (rather traumatic), wrote a lengthy email that I sent to district officials that I had already been in proper communication with plus copied that to the superintendent and school board. The principal hijacked my evaluation, marked me down in 6 areas, & screwed me over in numerous ways. My thanks for being concerned about the safety and welfare about students, colleagues and self.

She was awarded a brand new middle school to open this year. However, this has just appeared on the district website:

***
Administrative Changes Announced at Two Austin Middle Schools - Statement from Dr. Paul Cruz, Associate Superintendent for Middle Schools
Printable View

December 21, 2007 - Today I advised the faculty and staff of Garcia Middle School that their Principal, Ms. Judy Szilagyi, will leave the campus at the end of this semester, to accept another position with the Austin School District. Ms. Szilagyi is an experienced elementary and middle school principal, and her work to help launch the District's newest middle school campus last August is to be commended.

Also today I met with the faculty and staff of Fulmore Middle School, and advised them that their Principal, Lucio Calzada, will leave their campus at the end of this semester, to become Garcia's interim principal for the remainder of this academic year. Dr. Carol McKenzie, an experienced middle school principal who has served the Austin School District in the past, will become interim Principal at Fulmore.
***

It's all I can do to resist writing the superintendent and saying ABOUT TIME--NOW, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE IT UP TO ALL THE FAITHFUL TEACHERS YOU SCREWED OVER WHILE SUPPORTING THIS WOMAN?

I know, I know, let it go, Ginny. Let it go....

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

how do you not get in trouble for writing all the stuff you do about other people and institutions?

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

At least I sign my name to what I write.

I don't get in trouble because the people I work with know me for the honest, decent, hardworking person that I am. They know that I'm the kind of person that will take the risk and speak up for what is right.

I did that. I did that with this woman and the school district that I live in and that my children attend. I spoke up against the incredibly dangerous situation that was playing out at a school I enjoyed working at. I did what any decent person would do WHO IS NOT INTIMIDATED BY EMPLOYERS AND BLACKLISTING.

Teachers are treated like slaves. We are treated like slaves because we allow it. IN WHAT OTHER PROFESSION do people regularly put themselves in an environment that can be dangerous? That year from hell--FROM BLOODY HELL--was caused by THIS WOMAN'S INCOMPETENCE, by the district's totally unwillingness to believe THE TEACHERS WHO HAD WORKED AT THAT SCHOOL FOR YEARS over this new comer--all because she was administrations and we were lowly teachers.

HOW DO I NOT GET IN TROUBLE?

How could I not believe in what I do if I don't have the guts to speak up for the safety and well being of my students? Of my friends and colleagues who still teach in the district?

How do you cower in whatever hole you do, not speaking up?

I was vindicated by the district removing the woman from office. AND YET, there will be no apology from the district for the mental and emotional harm they caused by refusing to listen to my pleas and the pleas of almost every teacher at that school. Administrations don't apologize, they just move on.

This is my blog about the REALITIES of teaching. If you don't like it, go read someone else's blog.

My 2nd reply to this

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

You know, I've reread what I originally posted, and I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I should be getting in trouble for?

You want to know WHY I'm not getting in trouble because of a disastrous principal--the kind that drives good people desperately needed from the profession out the door--was removed from her job? Why should I get in trouble for something I copied and pasted off the AISD website? Something that was already public consumption?

What, indeed, is WRONG about discussing the ills in education? We talk all the time about bad politicians. We love to run them out of office, expose their faults, run negative add campaigns or make bumper stickers. Relatively speaking I've said very little except that this person made our campus SO DANGEROUS that teachers were receiving death threats from STUDENTS--MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS--and little to nothing was being done about it. Gangs were ruling the schools. ADULTS were afraid to go in the hall.

Yes, I'm angry that you come on my blog and QUESTION me on this.

I stood up and didn't run away from the fight when my name was called. I stood up and then when I lost I accepted that and left, but now without some pretty traumatic emotional wounds.

WHY should I--a teacher, a person who loves people and loves youngsters and loves learning--have to be AFRAID FOR MY SAFETY and those around me? WHY should I keep SILENT?

JUST BECAUSE I AM A TEACHER?

Yes, they were slaves in Rome and had to take their licks. I am not a slave. I may work like one but that's out of choice.

I suggest that the reason I haven't gotten in more trouble is that I have a file folder of emails and documents that can verify what went on that year, stuff that a reporter might find interesting. The district doesn't want bad press. And in fact they count on the fact that teachers fear for their livelihoods or, more likely, CANNOT AFFORD THE TIME AND MONEY TO GET A LAWYER. Because I tell you what, if I had had the time and money last year, I would have sued them big time.

How do I not get into trouble?

WHY THE HELL AREN'T YOU ASKING WHY THE DAMNED DISTRICT DOESN'T GET INTO TROUBLE FOR THE THINGS THEY DO? Why aren't they sued in a class action suit for endangerment to child and adult alike? Why aren't they sued for negligence?

Do me a favor. THis is my website. If you're going to keep asking about why I don't get into trouble, at least have more guts and sign your damned name.

Coward. At least I always sign mine.

Re: My 2nd reply to this

[(Anonymous)]

With all the defamatory comments you make about colleagues, signing your name may eventually be your downfall.

Even if it is your website, printing this woman's name while accusing her of "hijacking" your evaluation is at the least unprofessional, and possibly libelous. She could sue YOU. Something to think about.

No, I'm not the same "anonymous" that originally commented. But, I wondered the same as they.

Re: My 2nd reply to this

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

Defamation is the issuance of a false statement about another person, which causes that person to suffer harm.

Slander involves the making of defamatory statements by a transitory (non-fixed) representation, usually an oral (spoken) representation.

Libel involves the making of defamatory statements in a fixed or medium, such as a magazine or newspaper.

* Copying text from the AISD website about her removal is not a false statement.* I am not writing to cause her harm; I wrote what I wrote because teachers need to learn to stand up for themselves and not to be totally walked all over. I stood up, took the consequences, but was proven right in the end.

I wonder how many teachers leave the profession because of physical or emotional abuse from students and administration. You know what you're told? Don't break up fights. Don't break up fights because you, the teacher, could be the one that's injured. They follow this with examples from previous jobs--the person that had to have back surgery from being shoved into a locker, etc etc. But on the other hand, if you can save a kid from a brutal beating, aren't you obligated to do so as the parent in loco? If it had been your kid, wouldn't you have wanted me to do that?

I have documentation that the School Safety Act was violated at my school. I have documentation that I followed the proper chain of command in a professional way through the district. No one has ever disagreed with that. However, the violations were allowed to continue. If blogging about it isn't professional, so be it. But I will not be blackmailed into silence like other teachers. I care too deeply about the teaching profession and about teaching students.

At a time when we have Columbine and Va Tech and other school shootings in our country, I find teachers are left in a curious position. We are supposed to speak up regarding what we see as dangerous situations to prevent such shootings. BUT, you would have me say nothing about dangerous situations. I guess it's all ok because no one was killed at my school. Frankly, that was just luck that year.

BTW, saying she hijacked my evaluation is perfectly accurate. I had a copy of my evaluation from my original evaluator. I had wisely photocopied it for my files. It was the draft and changes were to be made to take into account the professional work I had done for the year and the quia.com related materials I had developed for my students. My evaluator had said that those areas would go up.

The principal did indeed hijack my evaluation--something the teacher's union said was illegal. She wrote me down in areas that I could PROVE were incorrect (and did prove). I was not allowed to appeal to my original evaluator regarding anything. No one else had a change of evaluator. The principal had never even observed me teaching. But, after I broke up the gang fight and appealed yet again to the district to address the safety issues on our campus, she came after me. I didn't gossip about it, I didn't go to the papers, AND I also did NOT leave my school responsibilities like half our faculty, taking sick days right and left to avoid the dangers and chaos of our campus. At a time when there were never enough substitutes to cover classes, I didn't shirk my responsibilities. I showed up at school, even though any place but my own room frightened me. PROFESSIONAL.

FWIW, all previous and subsequent evaluations by other administrators have been glowing.

But I guess it is ok for an administrator to abuse her position of power, eh? Or at least let's not talk about it because it's unprofessional. Kind of like when it was ok for husbands to beat their wives because it was a family matter? And family matters should be kept quiet?

And do you wonder why more people do not go into teaching? Or do you wonder why there really aren't more Columbine's?

and a month later

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

We are reading _Animal Farm_ in English class right now. We will be reading _Night_ after it. In both, there is a theme of not speaking up until it is too late--that nothing can be done. Rules are violated or broken and everyone cowers in fear and won't speak up. In Animal Farm, it is, of course, when the pigs are changing the rules and eventually become tyrants over their fellow animals, pushing them to longer hours for less food, etc. In Night at the beginning it's when no one speaks up in the beginning when different groups are being rounded up. And then it's that particular person's turn and it's too late to fight.

And, yes, I guess I'm still defensive about all this, and was made to think about it again today when I ran into another former colleague who was also glad and relieved to hear about this principal's removal. But most people didn't speak up because their jobs depended upon it and they didn't want to make things worse or ruin their employability. How like those animals on Animal Farm we are sometimes! Certainly those that hide behind anonymity, who won't speak up, who won't even see that the emperor not only does not have new clothes but is stark naked, will continue to be that way. And I shouldn't be surprised or comment. I shouldn't. But I do.

Maybe with me it's a bit of post traumatic stress from the gang fight even still.... whatever