l:\doc\web\2000\01\teachun.txt Date sent: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 10:55:20 -0500 To: quall_da@leg.wa.gov, talcott_gi@leg.wa.gov From: Cindy Omlin Subject: Teacher Victims of Edu Restructuring Copies to: haigh_ka@leg.wa.gov, schindle_ly@leg.wa.gov, carlson_do@leg.wa.gov, cox_do@leg.wa.gov, keiser_ka@leg.wa.gov, rockefel_ph@leg.wa.gov, santos_sh@leg.wa.gov, schmidt_da@leg.wa.gov, schualbe_sh@leg.wa.gov, stensen_mi@leg.wa.gov, sump_bo@leg.wa.gov, wensman_mi@leg.wa.gov Dear Chairman Quall, Chairwoman Talcott and House Education Committee Members: RE: TEACHER VICTIMS OF EDUCATION RESTRUCTURING I am a former speech-language pathologist with Spokane School District #81. Three years ago, I resigned after working with children in preschool through high school settings for ten years. This communication is to inform you of some of the painful, illegal, and destructive actions taking place in the public school system that are victimizing teachers, and thus reducing the teacher pool, in order to advance the current education restructuring agenda. The teachers union and administrators have a pact of non-representation and non-justice for teachers in order to put forward a mask of healthy cooperation in the implementation of education restructuring. There are many teachers, including myself, who have been brought to the brink of despair and depression through the persecutions and violations of our human rights in the education system. Many have left the system or been forced out through coercive means. I left on my own accord before I could be targeted and have my professional credentials smeared, but that did not protect me from a frivolous lawsuit filed against me by the Washington Education Association for trumped up charges of tortious interference with contractual relations, unfair competition, and trademark infringement (for informing teachers of the their constitutional rights). After 15 months of harassment, the WEA finally dropped its lawsuit. I personally know of many teachers who have been targeted by the administration and/or union. One example is Spokane teacher, Jerry Hughes. Jerry was a democratic legislator and strong union supporter while he served in office. That didn't matter when he questioned the union's illegal tactics in elections and for joint administration-union contractual language that violated the law and teachers' rights. Instead of righting the wrongs, the union maligned Jerry and made his teaching assignment very difficult. At the time I left the district for reasons of conscience, the contract demanded that if you did not sign a covenant to go along with all decisions of the union-administration controlled site council (before they were ever made), you would lose your teaching position and become a substitute teacher. Teachers who question whether certain policies are in the best interest of children are targeted for discriminatory behavior and moved into difficult teaching positions as a strategy to get them to leave. The union has a reputation for protecting bad teachers. Now add to that a reputation for targeting and squeezing out GOOD teachers. (See a note below about the rising number of teacher resignations and the documentation of the current practice of molding a particular kind work force of school employees by targeting for elimination those who do not quietly go along.) There is widespread union malpractice and union malfeasance on behalf of a number of teachers, all of whom are required by law to pay nearly $650 a year for union representation. The number of unfair labor practices being committed against all teachers in general, and specifically against school employees who seek accountability and integrity in the school system, are skyrocketing. Unfortunately, most teachers do not know their union rights or their legal rights. Therefore, teachers who confront the destructive policies in education are becoming human sacrifice on the altar of the restructuring agenda. Those teachers who care, but for some reason are unable to act, are the walking wounded as they bear the violations to their consciences in silence. Besides the adults who are hurting, our kids and state are wounded. People wonder why teachers don't speak out when they hear rumblings intimating Columbine-like activity. They have been punished for speaking out, for seeking what is right and good, healthy and whole. There is a poison in the system that is eating us alive. Teachers are FRIGHTENED. I'm sorry to seem so melodramatic but the stakes are very high for our kids, our culture, and our state. Another Spokane teacher I know was told outright by the SEA director that it was not in the union's best interest to pursue her action even though she was completely in the right. Administrators had targeted her, gathered lies about her, and orchestrated a hit campaign that included some staff and even students after she began questioning some school policies. Her union appointed attorney undercut her at every step--just as mine did when I was pursuing freedom of speech grievances at Logan Elementary. In both cases the union sought for us to settle on terms beneficial to the administration and union but in completion violation of our rights. The Spokane teacher mentioned above was suspended from teaching for "verbal abuse against students." This appears to be becoming a standard practice to marginalize those who question and seek accountability. A nice, calm, and reasonable parent I know who questioned policies in the Mead School District has been publicly painted as a person who verbally abuses teachers by a top administrator! Many teachers are losing their primary means of support. Even sadder, they have lost their vocation causing them to suffer not only physically for lack of income, but mentally and psychologically as well. Had the teacher above not taken in foreign students, she would have lost her house. There are hundreds of these examples throughout the state. I completely agree that education needs reform--a reform which utilizes lawful and thoughtful analysis and change. What education is currently experiencing is revolution--a lawless methodology implemented by state coercion in conjunction with a powerful union which has abandoned its just purpose of representation to engage in tactics of exploitation, coercion and harassment. The abuses must be exposed and righted in order to reestablish a school system based on truth and justice. You hold the ultimate accountability for the public schools. What can you do rectify this disturbing system? Sincerely, Cindy Omlin 4815 E. Pineglen Lane Mead, WA 99021 (509) 466-5349 ============================== Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 08:30:25 From: Lynn M Stuter Subject: ED: teacher resignations on the rise.... I contacted the author of the piece in the Seattle Times about the increasing number of teacher resignations. I sent him the following message: Are you aware of a report, put out in 1991 by the The National LEADership Network Study Group on Restructuring Schools and the US DOE, OERI, entitled "Developing Leaders for Restructuring Schools; New Habits of Mind and Heart"? The following quote is from that report and defines why teachers are leaving the government schools in droves.... "Some potential and practicing administrators are just not appropriate for restructuring schools and no amount of education and training will make them so. Many of the skills and behaviors required of leaders of restructuring schools are either too costly to develop or unresponsive to traditional training. ...... Administrators without the required competencies need to be helped to understand and accept the mismatches between the school's culture and their own beliefs and preferred behaviors. Where training, along with other appropriate measures, is not sufficient to create the needed match between administrators and their settings, we need to help them move to other educational setting or out of education. ..... We need to create learning environments in restructuring schools that support the development of appropriate behaviors. And we need to do it all collaboratively, tapping the knowledge, experience, energy, and commitment of all members of the school community." Lynn M Stuter Education Researcher Washington State <<I wasn't aware of the report. > >Is your interpretation from these excerpts that teachers are leaving because >restructuring is occurring but it's being administered by people who aren't >qualified to do so? > >Thanks for writing. <<