Watchhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443437504577547313612049308.html
Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators
By resisting almost any change aimed at improving our public schools, teachers unions have become a ripe target for reformers across the ideological spectrum. Even Hollywood, famously sympathetic to organized labor, has turned on unions with the documentary "Waiting for 'Superman'" (2010) and a feature film, "Won't Back Down," to be released later this year. But perhaps most damaging to the unions' credibility is their position on sexual misconduct involving teachers and students in New York schools, which is even causing union members to begin to lose faith.
In the last five years in New York City, 97 tenured teachers or school employees have been charged by the Department of Education with sexual misconduct. Among the charges substantiated by the city's special commissioner of investigation—that is, found to have sufficient merit that an arbitrator's full examination was justified—in the 2011-12 school year:
• An assistant principal at a Brooklyn high school made explicit sexual remarks to three different girls, including asking one of them if she would perform oral sex on him.
• A teacher in Queens had a sexual relationship with a 13-year old girl and sent her inappropriate messages through email and Facebook.
If this kind of behavior were happening in any adult workplace in America, there would be zero tolerance. Yet our public school children are defenseless.
Here's why. Under current New York law, an accusation is first vetted by an independent investigator. (In New York City, that's the special commissioner of investigation; elsewhere in the state, it can be an independent law firm or the local school superintendent.) Then the case goes before an employment arbitrator. The local teachers union and school district together choose the arbitrators, who in turn are paid up to $1,400 per day. And therein lies the problem.
For many arbitrators, their livelihood depends on pleasing the unions (whether the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, or other local unions). And the unions—believing that they are helping the cause of teachers by being weak on sexual predators—prefer suspensions and fines, and not dismissal, for teachers charged with inappropriate sexual conduct. The effects of this policy are mounting.
One example: An arbitrator in 2007 found that teacher Alexis Grullon had victimized young girls with repeated hugging, "incidental though not accidental contact with one student's breast" and "sexually suggestive remarks." The teacher had denied all these charges. In the end the arbitrator found him "unrepentant," yet punished him with only a six-month suspension.
Another example from 2007: Teacher William Scharbach was found to have inappropriately touched and held young boys. "Respondent's actions at best give the appearance of impropriety and at worst suggest pedophilia," wrote the arbitrator—before giving the teacher only a reprimand. The teacher didn't deny the touching but denied that it was inappropriate.
Then there was teacher Steven Ostrin, who in 2010 was found to have asked a young girl to give him a striptease, harassed students by text, and engaged in sexual banter. The arbitrator in his case concluded that since the teacher hadn't actually solicited sex from students, the charges—all of which the teacher denied—warranted only a suspension.
Michael Loeb, a middle school teacher in the Bronx and UFT member, calls this a "horrible situation," telling me "if you keep these people in the classroom, you are demeaning our profession."
arents I spoke with described their tremendous fear about what is happening in the classroom. Maria Elena Rivera says her 14-year-old daughter was stalked by one of her Brooklyn high school teachers (who resigned from his position before the Department of Education decided whether to send the case to arbitration). Today her daughter is in counseling, says Ms. Rivera, and doesn't trust anyone: "It so messed her up. I can't protect her."
Local media have begun to get the word out, yet the stories come and go with trifling consequences or accountability. New York City's schools chancellor and districts statewide must have the power to fire sexual predators—and the final say cannot be that of an arbitrator with incentives to lessen the punishment.
Fortunately, state Sen. Stephen Saland has proposed legislation in Albany to do just this, removing arbitrators' final say while still giving teachers due process and the opportunity to appeal terminations in court. But the buck would stop with those officials in charge of our schools and tasked with protecting our kids: the chancellor in New York City, and school districts elsewhere in the state.
Mr. Saland's initiative has little chance of success without union support—which is hardly assured. "I don't understand how they think this could be a gray area," says Natalie Harrington, who teaches English at New Day Academy in the Bronx. "I worry that if the union goes to bat [against] this, it makes it seem like they will do anything to keep anyone in the classroom."
Michael Loeb still supports his union but says it "treats teachers like interchangeable widgets"—defending all teachers no matter what they have done.
The union has reached a moment of truth. With responsible legislation on the table, the right course of action is obvious. At stake is the safety of kids, the reputation of the unions, and the standing of every good and responsible teacher throughout the state
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Before I even read more than the title, it's very clear this is going to be a very sad example of zzyzzx going to bat for the lying propaganda arm of the right wing.
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zzyzzx says
I wonder how distorted this is:
Wiseass Teenybopper girls get detention for smoking cigarettes:"Principal, you suck! My daddy gonna beat yo' ass up when he gits outta jail"
Principal loses his temper: "Why don't you blow me?"
("Solicited for oral sex")
zzyzzx says
See any contract, lease, bank account, or credit card you have with a firm of any size, almost all have an arbitration clause. Gee, if the WSJ hates arbitrators so much, do you the WSJ will criticize the common practice of corporations using them to handle disputes with their customers?
zzyzzx says
Hugging? 6 months sounds like a stiff penalty. It's not like he screwed them.
Not saying there aren't some examples of complete toads in the teaching profession, but let's remember the NYC School System has tens of thousands of teachers. There's bound to be a few rotten apples.
Union-busting has been so good for the private sector - flat wages for most professions despite an explosion in productivity - let's go after the public unions next.
Typical WSJ propaganda - a little truth and a lot of bluster.
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The United States is the most perverted and depraved nation in the world where sex laws are concerned. I wouldn't for one microsecond trust anything reported from the Wall Street Journal.
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Maybe it's true that there are some things a teacher can be accused of for which there should be no due process.
Maybe if one student says a teacher did or said something that was inappropriate, that is automatic grounds for ending their career.
Maybe teachers contracts need to be changed to say that any accusation of (insert list of actions or behaviors here) is grounds for automatic firing.
Hey, maybe they should even make sure that all 100% of the students (including the 1 or 2% that are crazy) know the list. "Dude, all you have to do is accuse your teacher of X and they are fucking GONE ! That is so cool !"
This is a topic that is easy to oversimplify because we all HATE child abuse of any kind. No surprise that zzyxx or the wsj jumped on it though. Because it makes unions (defenders of teachers contractual rights) look bad.
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If we legalized dueling to the death again - a lot problems would be solved. People would be polite. Ad revenue from duels could generate huge $ for 'duelbook' websites. And it wouldnt cost the taxpayers 50k a year to keep someone in jail for 'saying inappropriate things' - that guy would kill or be killed.
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iwog says
It's an editorial, in which there was no distinction made between a teacher or administrator being accused of a behavior versus being guilty of it.
Teaching or for that matter any job working with children is unique in that everyone is very sensitive about the possibility of inappropriate behavior. That is, every hint or accusation of such behavior is going to get very serious and immediate attention. Even if propaganda says otherwise, doesn't your common sense tell you this is true ?
I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm saying everyone is on it when there is an accusation of child abuse, as they should be. But an accusation is not the same as proven guilt. And yes, that's where the union comes in.
Special breakdown for zzyxx: In order to defend and protect those who are falsely accused, you have to also apply a similar process to those who are gulity.
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Of course the unions would support their own sexual preditors, what else would you expect from a union?
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Honest Abe says
There ya go Abe, your signature reply right on schedule.
There's a study that shows Republicans are overwhelmingly responsible for sex crimes against minors. I think the ratio is 5 to 1. Here's a good list:
http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Examples_of_Republican_hypocrisy_on_moral_values
Right wing nuts attempted to put together their own list of Democrat sex crimes, however they didn't find many and their list looked really lame compared to the child rape that Republicans are often guilty of. Sandusky is a Republican. So is Joe Paterno.
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/09/jerry_sandusky_and_joe_paterno_registered_republicans/
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As I have previously said, I sometimes think that all the right wingers on this site are just liberals in disguise, with the goal of making right wingers look stupid.
But then again Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, Michelle Bachman and all the others can't all be liberals trying to make right wingers look stupid.
The truth is there really are a lot of people out there that are THAT gullible and clueless.
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Priests & boys/ Coaches & boys/ Teachers & students
If one of these happens, I'm turning it into Left/ Right Bull Shit
Fuck the victims???
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I know that this may come as shocking news to some, but I think that that their may be a need to call shenanigans on this story.
The "evidence" of this story rests on three examples of teachers who supposedly behaved inappropriately and then were given a slap on the wrist by the system.
As much as others may trust the integrity of Rupert Murdock's media empire, a pattern of routine and systematic deception has caused me to trust the WSJ about as far as I could throw an obese pill-popping AM radio blowhard.
To verify the story it should be easy enough to read up on the vile deeds of Alexis Grullon, William Scharbach and Steven Ostrin that were covered up by the Catho...uh no I mean Penn St...uh... once more time -- the wicked teachers union.
Right?
So, when searching for any stories about teachers Alexis Grullon or William Scharbach there were plenty of google hits until I set the search for articles that happened before the WSJ article, then...zero results on any sex scandal.
Hhmmmm... I guess that makes sense. The internet was not around in 2007 when the alleged events occurred, right? And, no one is interested in teacher sex scandal stories way back then anyway, right? So of course there were no stories about it until the WSJ dug it up from the microfiche archives at the library. I am a little bit lazy so google is as far as I went. If anyone can find any evidence that teachers Alexis Grullon and William Scharbach actually even exist it would be interesting to see.
OK, that leaves us with the poor deviant Steven Ostrin. I did actually find one old article about him from way back in Feb 3, 2011.
You can read the entire article if you want to know about all the political wrangling that ended up in getting Ostrin a suspension, but here are the pertinent highlights.
"...all charges were dropped against [Steven Ostrin] in 2007, he gave her the information that there was no substantiation of the charges by SCI - nor was there an investigation at all - and Steve was acquitted at the criminal trial by a jury."
"The real story of Steve Ostrin is based upon the fact that no one believed he sexually abused any child at any time. Grace and Julie were two young women who saw an opportunity to make some money, and the City complied..."
Are these the best examples that the WSJ could come up with to support their case that Unions "Go to Bat for Sexual Predators"? Really? They state that in the past 5 years they have 97 cases to pull from and of the three best examples two mysteriously can't be referenced and the one that can it seems pretty clear that the guy did not actually do anything wrong, but instead got fucked over by the arbiter.
*clap*--pause--*clap*--pause--*clap*
Good show WSJ, yet another hard-hitting journalistic masterpiece. Way to show those teachers who is boss.