TENURE – PLAIN AND SIMPLE
By: Melissa Tomlinson & Marla Kilfoyle
Imagine you are charged with the job of making the
decisions that concern the life of a child, including the protection of
that child. If you are a parent, this is no stretch of the imagination.
Now imagine that you are prevented from doing this.
You are afraid to speak up and have opinions for fear of personal
recriminations that could affect yourself or other family members.
Consequences could include temporary loss of income, loss of a job, even
loss of a career. You become silenced, effectively opening the door to
the possibility of harmful decisions to be made regarding children that
are in your charge.
As a parent, you have power. You have legal
guardianship rights over the lives of your children until they turn 18.
For a large portion of that time a child attends school. While that
child is in school it is in the best interest of all children that
adults involved can advocate for the child. When you deny tenure rights
of teachers you are silencing that advocate.
We are 2 teachers and we are 2 mothers. Melissa has 2
boys and Marla has 1 boy. As teachers we understand the importance of
teacher tenure, which for the remainder of this article we will call due
process. First of all, a teacher’s right to due process does NOT
guarantee them a job for life. For example, in New York State any
tenured teacher can be dismissed under 3020a law.
Here are some scenarios in which teachers would need due process to protect children.
Scenario #1
Mrs. Smith goes to a meeting for Johnny, a special
education student that she has taught all year. She knows that Johnny
needs to have speech therapy and plans to recommend that he receive it
as soon as possible. Before the meeting Mrs. Smith is told via email
that she is NOT to recommend speech therapy for any more children
because the district does NOT want to pay for the services.
Mrs. Smith with NO due process rights – goes to the
meeting and doesn’t say a word in advocacy for Johnny because she is a
afraid to lose her job and/or goes to the meeting and advocates for him
and is fired by the district directly after the meeting is over.
Mrs. Smith with due process rights – goes to the
meeting and can ignore the district directive and recommend speech
therapy because that is what Johnny needs. The district cannot fire her
for ignoring this harmful directive without a due process hearing.
Scenario #2
Mr. Jones suspects that one of his students is being
beat up at home. The student in question, Mark, comes to school with a
black eye. Mr. Jones tells his department chair that he is calling Child
Protective Services on the parents. Mr. Jones gets an email from the
district telling him to NOT call CPS because they don’t want the bad
publicity.
Mr. Jones with NO due process rights – does NOT call
CPS because he is the sole breadwinner in his house and cannot lose his
job and/ or he calls CPS and is fired at the end of the week.
Mr. Jones with due process rights – calls CPS,
ignoring the district directive not to, and cannot be fired without a
due process hearing.
Scenario #3
Mrs. Davis is an award winning English teacher. She
has enjoyed teaching an amazing unit on To Kill A Mockingbird for her
entire 15 year career. In this unit she can teach children about social
justice and equality. In Mrs. Davis class is the new president of the
Board of Education’s daughter. When Mrs. Davis starts her To Kill a
Mockingbird unit the BOE President calls her up and expresses concern
that the book has rape in it. Mrs. Davis explains to the BOE President
that her focus on the book isn’t rape but social injustice. The next day
Mrs. Davis is called into her directors office and told she cannot
teach the book.
Mrs. Davis with NO due process rights does NOT teach
the book in fear of losing her job. She is the sole provider for her
mother and herself and/or Mrs. Davis teaches the book against the advice
of her director and is fired at the end of the year
Mrs. Davis with due process rights explains
respectfully to her director that she will teach the book as she has
done so successfully for 15 years. She further states that she will be
attending the BOE meeting to make a statement that the BOE President is
attempting to censor reading lists in the district for children. She
cannot be fired without a due process hearing.
Scenario #4
Mr. Bryant has been a math
teacher at XYZ High School for 25 years. He is loved by his students and
parents in the community. He has been active in school and advises the
award winning Math Club. During Mr. Bryant’s 25th year as a
teacher the district hired a new Superintendent of Schools. This
Superintendent sought to trim the budget and decided to cut several
clubs, including Mr. Bryant’s award winning Math Club. Mr. Bryant made
an appointment with the new Superintendent to plead their case. The
meeting did not go well so Mr. Bryant rallied the community to raise
money to keep the club. This angered the new Superintendent who
Mr. Bryant with NO due process is fired immediately
and the new Superintendents nephew, a new math teacher, is hired to take
his place.
Mr. Bryant with due process is called up to the Superintendent’s office and given a hearing prior to an attempt to fire him.
The above scenarios are only a few that we can
provide to you. We could write a book but we hope that you get the
overall simple reason why teachers need due process rights. Many people
argue that no other job gets due process rights, and in many cases they
are correct, but NO other occupation deals with the complexity of
teaching children and making sure that the environment that they learn
in is free of cronyism, favoritism, safe, and free from personal bias. A
teacher’s right to due process provides a stable, safe, and productive
environment for children to learn and thrive. It gives teachers the
ability to advocate freely for children in their care without fear of
losing their jobs.
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