I am a former OUSD educator and am currently working to put an end to workplace abuse (workplace incivility, workplace bullying, workplace mobbing, workplace violence, and workplace war)specifically in education workplaces.

I also work with a citizen lobbying group (www.healthyworkplaceadvocates.org) in an effort to get Anti-Workplace Bullying legislation passed in California. I would like to talk more with you about this very real problem in education workplaces.

I can be reached at rhea@theeducationworkplace.org

In this sick scenario of politics, such lazy and inept staff milk the system for employment benefits all the while stagnating an otherwise potentially healthy educational environment, thereby preventing resources from being any use to anyone let alone a child’s education. Our education system is dysfunctional on this basis – no diversity.

Bring back tenure protection for probationary teachers and legislate anti bullying laws in California and circumstances will change. At the present time teachers can be bullied into breaking the law which is the biggest game in HRs. While a tenured teacher could do damage to this system, most who reach that level of employment have been groomed to corruption, and those who have any fight in them have been routed out of the district. To make matters worse, teachers moving on to other districts in this mess are referred to as trash, and the state and NEA refers to this practice as passing the trash. What is actually taking place is quality people who could make a huge difference are lost in the shuffle. Educators know this. Districts know this. The legislature knows this. People need to know this to stop the mystification politics of really bad education in the hands of crony socialists.

Want to make a difference in education? Advocate for anti bullying legislation and spread the word. Otherwise expect more of the same dilemma for your own children as they enter responsible lifestyles their own lives set aside at the whim of some self-aggrandizing Jabba the Hut that would fill his own belly at your expense.

Here’s what district’s can currently get away with. A teacher in California can be terminated for: 1) not participating in head hunting schemes to place otherwise ordinary children into alternative federally funded programs without due process, 2) having knowledge that a district psychologist participated in sex abuse of several female children in order to avoid financial responsibility, 3) reporting Hughes Bill violations, 4) reporting when a male classified staff is stalking a female child or when a teacher dumps a desk full of books on the head of a handicapped child, 4) reporting institutional abuse where a child is dragged out of a classroom on the basis of a non-acute behavior and then placed in a time out room behind a closed door for three hours, 5) reporting when a child has been tied to his desk by a substitute teacher, etc. This is not even a scratch on the facet of our diamond of an education system in California.

Ever wonder why the state is reluctant to legislate workplace bullying laws yet is demanding ever increasing performance through standards? Social regulation my friend. Tolerance of bullying makes one insensitive to the feelings of others, and the increase in demand for academic performance in this social milieu alienates human conscience. The outcome is an aggressive population loaded with nationalism that can be led anywhere by it’s nose, particularly into war. Your children are being recruited to walk blissfully into a future led by politicians who haven’t the slightest inclination to involve their own families in the destructive forces that they them selves have set in motion. You can stop this process.

Remember, much as you would like things to change, this is an entrenched population that will only be displaced by legislation that stops workplace bullying, and this includes workplace bullying in every employment setting throughout the state.

http://workplacebullyinglaw.org/index.html

For school administrators in the habit of following HR standards of routing employees at will, there will be a time when you fall administratively to your own games. Even with minimal proposed monetary sanctions district tactical policy will fail to immunize your jobs in a reversal of workplace ethics.

Poor baby Mr. Franco. Live with it.

I recently spoke to an administrator who visited the California Departmenmt of Education. He showed up without an appointment and was not allowed past the lobby. He also had to give his ID, and they ran his name.

Now, these bureaucrats are the same pushing for this parent involvment nonsense, only that many parents from the flatland schools could probably not even visit the decision makers. So push them to the schools where they can obstruct education. Such backward nonsense! And we wonder why American public education is in a crisis!

I am appalled at the district supporting the parents over the children and the school. Mr. Franco has done what many others will never do, move a school forward. What is the message that will be sent to the kids?

Mr. Franco, perhaps you should consider a charter school.

I know private school teachers who have been told point blank to raise the grades of kids with activist parents because “these are our clients.”

You forget another reason districts are scared: Lawsuits. If this principal got angry and, perhaps understandably, hit back, he could put the district at risk. The onus is on employees to rise above the abuse in a confrontational situation. However, we are not robots, as some parents and students seem to believe.

The real mission of OUSD as shown by their actions is the pacification of the families enrolled inthe school. OUSD will pat them on the head and tell them they are wonderful (they’re not) or that they are improving (they are not) or that the future looks rosy for their children (see the stats).

It’s only some of the teachers and families that are fooled by this game. Actions speak louder than words. In their treatment of staff such as Franco we see the real agenda.

Above all OUSD doesn’t want demonstrations, protests, complaints, or any of the black folk unhappy. They’d put them all on morphine if they had it on hand. OUSD will sacrifice any staffer to keep the lid on no matter what happens to the scores or the kids. OUSD can handle NCLB – they will milk it for every bit of $$ it’s worth as the schools “fail” and needs “remedial” funding.

If the kids turn out unemployable, in jail and diseased, well, it was expected.

The only chance for these kids is to replace the school board incumbents with the most right wing, retired military types on the market. That won’t happen because the electorate are as dumb as they come and the families involved in OUSD place a premium on kiddies being comfortable instead of being worked like synchronized swimmers.

See, if you just ignore what happens to people like Franco, you can just be happy.

If the school was a real school anybody who manhandled staff would be violently subdued and taken to jail in chains. Or does OUSD maintain school police & security staff?

My only question is why do good people continue to tolerate the beating and neglect that they get from OUSD administrators?

Anyway, good luck Mr Franco. You have done good work.

Turner