Daily Kos Labor digest: Teachers face firing for speaking out for their students

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/24/1308984/-Daily-Kos-Labor-digest-Teachers-face-firing-for-speaking-out-for-their-students

In February, Agustin Morales spoke out against "data walls" on which students' test scores were publicly displayed at a school committee meeting in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where Morales is a teacher:

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In May, he was elected president of his union local. In June, his contract was not renewed. Fellow teachers and parents of his students have spoken out in support of Morales, and close to 2,000 people have signed a petition urging the school committee to investigate what looks a lot like the retaliatory firing of an activist—an activist who happens to be one of the few Puerto Rican teachers in an overwhelmingly Puerto Rican school district.

In New Jersey, another local union president is threatened with firing after he protested against a surveillance system his school district had installed to monitor teachers and students. That teacher, Mike Mignone, is suspended pending a hearing; if he didn't have tenure, he might have just been let go as abruptly as Agustin Morales. Mignone, too, has significant community support.

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Alas. That's the idea. Despite elaborate efforts to dress it up (i.e.getting rid of teacher-tenure)

.... as something else.

It's all the rage now, nationally, it would appear.

Been happening in NYC for some time.

Union's been.... ummmm.... "neutralized".

Interesting how that works.

[femmocrat]

2. This is why tenure is so important.

He was very brave to speak out. I hope it leads to bigger and better things for him, if he is not reinstated.

On edit: He didn't mention student confidentiality, but it seems to me that posting students' names is a clear violation of that. We aren't even allowed to put their names on their projects displayed in the hallways!

[madfloridian]

3. If you get a chance...

read my post about Mignone and Belleville school in GD. I was stunned at how many think it was a good thing to monitor the classrooms and lounge and follow the kids wherever they went.

I actually felt like crying later cause I see the writing on the wall. We are so accepting now of just about everything.

Recommend your post.

[Jefferson23]

4. Damn. n/t