If The Corleone Family Were Involved In Education Deform...

So here I am on Saturday on I-81 driving north just outside of Binghamton on my way to Skaneateles. My wife is on her iPhone doing whatever as is my son. I am left alone to listen to flip between the Sirius channels.

One can do a lot of pondering in such a situation. I did. I pondered, or was it wondered, or was it

daydreaming, that the Godfather movie (or even organized crime) is a lot like what we are seeing now in education amongst the deformers. Think about it, we're fighting against a crime family.

So what if the Godfather movie and the Corleone's were involved in education reform. Let's take a look.

Be sure to read the last fantasy or parody all the way at the bottom.

Michael: My credit good enough to buy you out?
Moe Greene: Buy me out?  [Fredo laughs nervously] 
Michael: The school, the playground. The Corleone Family wants to buy you out. 
Moe Greene: The Corleone Family wants to buy me out? No, I buy you out, you don't buy me out.  Michael: Your school loses money, maybe we can do better. 
Moe Greene: You think I'm skimmin off the top, Mike? 
Michael: [Michael shakes his head] You're unlucky. 
Moe Greene: You goddamn guineas you really make me laugh. I do you a favor and take Freddie in when you're having a bad time, and now you're gonna try and push me out! 
Michael: You took Freddie in because the Corleone Family bankrolled your charter school, and the Molinari Family on the Coast guaranteed his teaching position. Now we're talking business, let's talk business. 
Moe Greene: Yeah, let's talk business, Mike. First of all, you're all done. The Corleone Family don't even have that kind of muscle anymore. The Godfather's sick, right? You're getting chased out of New York by Barzini Charter School and the other Families charters. What do you think is going on here? You think you can come to my charter school and take over? I talked to Barzini - I can make a deal with him, and still keep my charter school! 
Michael: Is that why you slapped my brother around in public? 
Fredo: Aw, now that, that was nothin', Mike. Moe didn't mean nothin' by that. Yeah, sure he flies off the handle every once in a while, but me and him, we're good friends, right Moe? 
Moe Greene: I got a business to run. I gotta kick asses sometimes to make it run right. We had a little argument, Freddy and me, so I had to straighten him out. 
Michael: You straightened my brother out?  Moe Greene: He was banging erasers against the board two at a time! Students couldn't get any work at the table! What's the matter with you? 
Michael: I leave for New York tomorrow, think about a price. 
Moe Greene: Sonofabitch! Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders! 
Fredo: Wait a minute, Moe, Moe, I got an idea. Tom, you're the Consiglieri and you can talk to the Don, you can explain... 
Tom Hagen: Now hold it right there. The Don is semi-retired and Mike is in charge of the Family business now. If you have anything to say, say it to Michael. 
Fredo: [Moe Greene leaves] Mike! You do not come to Las Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that! 
Michael: Fredo, you're my older brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.


Michael: Well, when Johnny was first starting out as a teacher, he was signed to a personal services contract with this big high school. And as his career got better and better, he wanted to get out of it. But the principal wouldn't let him. Now, Johnny is my father's godson. So my father went to see this bandleader and offered him $10,000 to let Johnny go, but the principal said no. So the next day, my father went back, only this time with Luca Brasi. Within an hour, he had a signed release for a certified check of $1000.
Kay Adams: How did he do that?
Michael: My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Kay Adams: What was that?
Michael: Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.
Kay Adams: ...
Michael: ...That's a true story.
Michael: That's my family Kay, that's not me.

Tom Hagen: Sollozo is known as the Turk. He's supposed to be very good with a number 2 pencil . But only in matters of business, or of some sort of reasonable complaint. His business is testing. He has the field testing in Turkey, where they create the tests. In Sicily he has the plant to print the tets. He needs cash and he needs protection from the communities for which he gives a piece of the action, I couldn't find out how much. The Tattaglia Family is behind him here in New York so they have to be in it for something.
Don Corleone: What about his prison record?
Tom Hagen: Two terms, one in Italy, and one here. He's known as a top testing man.
Don Corleone: Santino, what do you think?
Sonny: There's a lot of money in that testing.
Don Corleone: Tom?
Tom Hagen: Well, I say yes. There is more money potential in testing than anything else we're looking at now. If we don't get into it, somebody else will, maybe one of the Five Families, maybe all of them. And with the money they earn they'll be able to buy more deformers and political power. Then they come after us. Right now we have the unions under control and we have the charters and those are the best things to have. But testing is a thing of the future. If we don't get a piece of that action we risk everything we have. Not now, but ten years from now.
Sonny: Well, what's your answer gonna be, Pop?

Don Zaluchi really hits the nail on the head in what the deformers, the politicians, the principals without souls, the TFA's, the TC's really think and believe. 

Don Zaluchi could be anybody we know. Uncle Mike, Sock Puppet Walcott, Governor Andy, Lucy Calkins, a pretentious principal, Whitney Tilson, Evan Stone. The list can go on and on...

Don Zaluchi: I also don't believe in Ed Reform. For years I paid my people extra so they wouldn't do that kind of business. Somebody comes to them and says, "I have Ed Reform; if you put up three, four thousand dollar investment, we can make fifty thousand distributing their programs." So they can't resist. I want to control it as a business, to keep it respectable.
[slams his hand on the table and shouts]
Don Zaluchi: I don't want it near charter schools! I don't want it sold to affluent communities! That's an infamia. In my city, we would keep the traffic in the dark people, the coloreds. They're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls.

Beware the Testpocolypse in New York State on August 7, 2013

As the clock is ticking down to when all mayhem is about to take place across the State of New York, we here in the suburbs seems rather calm, as I am sure the rest of the state is.

Of course the rest of the state are not the 5 boroughs of New York City in which we have been told that the sky is about to fall and soon rioting will commence throughout the Empire State?

What is causing all this? Of course it is the release of the state exam scores 4 months after they were administered and 3 1/2 weeks before school begins, tomorrow, August 7.

John King, Grand Poobah of the NYSED said;

“Scores are expected to be significantly lower than the 2011-’12 scores,” he wrote, adding that principals should use the scores “judiciously” when making decisions about whether to fire teachers.

An unnamed putz at Tweed shared; 

“People are freaking out at Tweed,” said the agency official, who asked to remain anonymous. “They’re trying to find a way to spin the scores so it doesn’t look so bad.”

 Lauren Passalacqua, a mindless Uncle Mike mouthpiece blabbered;

“Tests have gotten tougher and scores will reflect that,”

And Bloomberg boy puppet Walcott was allowed to say;

"...scores in reading and math will show a sharp drop because the difficulty of the test increased in 2012."

 So what is the point I am getting at?

Why isn't Louis N.Wool, Superintendent of Harrison Central School District sounding the alarm? Why isn't Dr Lauren Allan of the Ardsley Union Free School District sounding the alarm? Or Scarsdale, or Corning, or Elmira, or Patchouge, or Hudson, or Rosco, or wherever?

Why? Cause it is all a scam. The NYCDOE screwed up. The got what they wished for and now it is coming to bite them in the ass by way of unrealistic exams and standards. Uncle Mikey got caught with his knickers down.

The DOE was unprepared. They didn't get the necessary materials and training into the schools, they money that should have been flowing into the schools has been going to charters, and there are too many incompetent school leaders with the stupid CURRICULI (sarcasm, OK?). And mind you, the bottom of the barrel of reasons has yet to be scratched.

I expect the scores in the other districts I mentioned to dip a bit, but it will be no big deal. There won't be mass hysteria or mass blame, or worse, mass spinning of chicken shit into chicken salad.

In reality what Uncle Mikey and his lackies are saying is that "We fucked up. We have no idea what we are doing so just deal with it." Like, the Mets putting a good spin for their fans year in and year out.

Shouldn't these tests that get students career and college ready be prevalent for students of high school, not little 9 year old boys and girls in 3rd grade?

Parents of NYC, you are all being played!

Dennis Walcott Proves He Is A Puppet

Amazing that I and The Crack Team are still able to get these super duper secret emails that Sock Puppet Chancellor Walcott send out to his centurions, er, I meant principals. The emails are now harder to get, yet through quite nefarious mean, still quite obtainable. Attached to the email is a letter to hand to parents for them to prepare for low scores as well.

So to summarize, Dennis' email he appears to be greasing the skids for the abject total complete shitty scores the NYC DOE is expecting because the tests are "harder." Well, what else can one expect when there is bullshit curriculum being used and implemented across the city. Do you think the parents of Roslyn, Scarsdale, Upper Saddle River, or Rye or being told to expect low scores? Noooooooooo!!!!!

Funny thing I notice, in Dennis' email he suggests that parents be directed to EngageNY or Common Core Library to learn more. Yeah, sure, right, of course, that is really going to happen. /sarcasm

Sorry about the quality.

  

   Testing by   Popeye2112

Mayor Bloomberg Is a Spiteful Little Man

The Crack Team got the phone call today at around 3 PM. We had been monitoring Uncle Mike's news conference yet briefly called away when the Chinese food had arrived. On the other end of the phone was one of SBSB's news stringers. He called to share that the mayor had made a proclamation in concern to the remainder of the week about the schools.

The mayor, our stringer reported, had declared that not only were students not to report to school on Thursday and Friday of this week, but that all staff were to report to their schools at their regular times this Friday, November 2. This, despite the fact that 200 of the 1,400 buildings operated by the NYC DOE have significant damage to be termed, "not operational."

According to Uncle Mike's sock puppet, Dennis Walcott who had sent out a mass email today at the behest of his lord and superior, the reason we are to report to schools this Friday is that;

Staff will be expected to report on Friday to prepare for school opening on Monday. 

If this is not convoluted logic, I don't know what is. Prepare for what? We are never asked to report the last day of a vacation to get the school ready. We are not required to report a week early in August to set up classrooms for the upcoming year. Heck, even the teachers at the damaged schools are reporting to other sites. But why? Don't these teachers have to prepare for the schools opening on Monday?

But it is crystal clear. Staff are in school for one reason only. To prepare for Monday. This means, and it should be adhered to, that no professional development will be in place on Friday, and in the opinion of The Crack Team, if any administrators contradict Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott's edict, they should be brought up on insubordination.

This is just clearly a power grab by a mayor that is an angry little man that desperately needs to show he has the power. He does this only because he can, and he does time after time.

It does not matter that if a teacher is unable to get to work due to the mess that the subways are. Just look at the updated subway map of what lines are and not running. Nothing below 34th St in Manhattan, nothing in NW Brooklyn or SW Queens. As of tomorrow, Metro-North is running a weekend schedule only on the Harlem and New Haven lines. The Hudson line is still closed. Only the Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma lines are running on the LIRR as of now.

I know of a teacher on Long Island that has had her house flooded, her car filled with raw sewage and no means to get to work.

But let's say you can drive in. The 4 East River crossings will be limited to cars with 3 or more occupants. What happens if you don't carpool? If you drive alone. According to Uncle Mike;

"hopes motorists will pick up strangers standing near bridges."

Yeah, we can see female teachers doing this.

I know of other countless teachers that have had basements flooded, have no electricity, trees down, and also rely on public transportation.

What about those who are expecting their basements to be be pumped on Friday? Those teachers that expect the trees on top of their houses to be cut apart? Those teachers awaiting the insurance adjuster?

Not only that, but these teachers also have children in schools that are closed this week and must be supervised. Do they have enough time to make arrangements?

But not to fret teachers of NYC. Sock Puppet Walcott has decreed;

If mass transit services have not yet been restored in your neighborhood, and you have no other safe and feasible way to travel to work, then you should use your judgment and delay your arrival. There will be no penalties for transit-related lateness.

OK, not bad. Does transit delays mean traffic delays as well? But it gets weirder from the sock puppet.

 If you cannot come to work, you should use annual leave, personal leave/CAR time or compensatory time to stay home....For those who have no applicable leave balance, leave may be advanced for this purpose.

Wow, what a guy. Tell me there won't be a principal that will hold a teacher taking Friday off against them.

Why aren't other school districts that have closed for the week having teachers come in on Friday? According to the Journal News;

All eight of Rockland County’s districts and Eastchester, Byram Hills, Blind Brook, Valhalla, Chappaqua, Ossining, Pelham, Mahopac, New Rochelle and Scarsdale became among the first districts Wednesday to concede that schools will be closed for at least this week

Why? Because these school districts are not run by little spiteful men, or women, like our mayor. These districts celebrate their educators, take pride in their educators, and do not see educators as interchangeable parts.

We have 14 months left with this little Napoleon of a man that is mean spirited, and worst of all, angry. He needs to get his way, only his way, all of the time. No one in this country has done more to destroy the professionalism and respect of educators than this little man.

Goodbye to PS 154 in The Bronx?

Wow, I have been gone for some time now.  According to SBSB records the last blog post was October 2. Unfortunately, I have been quite busy of late and have had a bad case of writer's block. But not to fear, as when the blog started back in 2008, I have recently been blessed with a whole slew of fresh material to blog about.  For those haters of the blog and for those that need their SBSB fix, I and the Crack Team are back.

So, what is new? My school, PS 154 in the Bronx has been slated for closure. Actually a decision has yet to be made, but rather the euphemism, "Early Engagement Process," is being used.

I'm not going to get into the details on the process of how the school will go about being saved or closed, you can read it on the handout we were given in our teacher's meeting after school last Monday, October 15 which you can see below. 

154x

District 7 superintendent Yolanda Torres and network leader Debra Lamb met with the staff in the library last week. Amongst what we were told, besides the "this is a beginning, not an end," and "this is a great opportunity," is;

The DOE will look at the entirety of the school community. The decision will be "holistic," based on the feedback of the parents, the staff, and the education process.

PS 154 is in this predicament because of three years on a row of C, C, and last year, an F.

Our last quality review was in December 2009 in which we were proficient. So how did we get a C that year?

So what is it we were told is next?

Come November and December feedback and data will be collected. During the winter, a decision will be made in, I would presume, a Caesarean manner. Thumbs up or thumbs down. But wait, there will be one last hurdle. The phaseout, if there is one, will go before the Panel for Educational Policy and the jibe I got, and I am sure the parents got, was that the PEP is a bastion of independent neutrality and the decision will be made.

When the questions came to ask the superintendent, I of course brought to Yolanda Torres;

"our budget has been cut over a million dollars over the last 4 or so years. We have no math coach, no literacy coach, not AIS teachers, no full time SETSS teacher. We are being asked to be in a race that we are starting 100 yards behind the starting line. The decision to close the school or not is all based on which side of the bed Uncle Mike or Sock Puppet Walcott wake up on that morning. It's as if we are being set up to fail"

That statement was met with silence.

To the parents of 154, you are being conned. Ask yourself why is this being done? Because they can. They know by seeing 30 parents showing up for the parents meeting that they can get away with this. Think about this. Will this be done on the Upper East Side? Riverdale? Forest Hills? The south end of Staten Island? NEVER!!!

As parents you should be up in arms at the lack of any support. The shoving down our throats of a bogus curriculum from Tweed. Your children's education is at stake. Your community is at stake. Your children are nothing but one vast data collection to the corporatists and profiteers that have taken control of the NYC DOE. Be angry at the people making the decisions.The time to stand up is now, not tomorrow, not next year, but today!

Will Governor Andy Cuomo Show That He Has Balls On Evaluations?

What a horrible time to be Governor Andy. Here he is in the middle of a fight over releasing teachers evaluations. On one side he has teachers (not including the UFT because they already caved) and on the other side he has New York City super villain Uncle Mike and his henchman Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott wanting to shame and humiliate teachers in their ques to to diabolically take over the world of education. What is a governor to do?

There was a glimmer of hope, a glimmer of maturity from Governor Andy for a brief second in yesterday's Daily News. Governor Andy in his best transliteration of Mario said;

“To those people I say, really? Disclose all the evaluations for public employees?” added Cuomo. “Then how come you’re only singling out teachers? Where’s the policeman’s evaluation? Where’s the fireman’s evaluation? Where's the evaluation of the mayor’s staff, and the governor’s staff and the [Assembly] speaker’s staff?”

Yes, where, where, where????? Where are these evaluation of other public servants?

But as the hack Ken Lovett reported;

Fans of releasing the teacher evaluations publicly argue there is a difference between educators overseeing kids and other public workers.

And this ditty;

Cuomo agrees — but said he’s trying to come up with a plan that balances the teachers’ rights to privacy and parents’ right to know.

I like how Lovett refers to those that only wish to humiliate teachers as "fans," as if they are rooting for the Yankees or Mets, but I digress.

But what is Governor Andy to do? But more importantly, why is it that teachers must be shat upon time and time again? Why not cops?

Why not release NYPD police officers evaluations to the public? Isn't a citizen's right to know about the police officers arrest records, and patterns, important? What about any disciplinary records of these cops? What about complaints about cops? As a citizen living in a precinct would it not be beneficial to know which cops have made erroneous arrests, been disciplined, have had complaints made, or worse, have used their weapon once too often? Surely, a police officer using a gun the wrong way can end someone's life. I deem that worse than a student having that so called "bad teacher." 

While we are on the subject of cops, how about seeing the evaluations of the "house mouse?" Yes, that is the term given to that officer who sits around the precinct all day too chicken shit to go out on patrol.

Why can't we see the evaluations of firefighters? Would not one who is in a burning house wish to be rescued by someone not grossly overweight and who will be able to complete a rescue? 

What about doctors who are employed by the NYC Health and Hospitals? Should we not have an evaluation on how many patients have died when cared by these doctors? How many malpractice lawsuits have been filed? How many won? Lost? Settled?

Hey, while we are on a bender here, what about MTA bus drivers and motorman? We should all be able to see their safety records and evaluations. We entrust these people to get us to our destinations with safety. Why are we not able to see how they rate? Hell, let's throw in the captains of the Staten Island Ferry. Gosh darn it!

As far as politicians, they are evaluated by whether or not they get elected or re-elected, so why not throw open the books and let's look to see everyone of their donors and how it correlates to how they vote. That includes Governor Andy.

But it will never happen. Like the Jews in Nazi Germany were, teachers make great scapegoats to blame all of society's ills on. That, and the above mentioned professions are largely phallic based, and will be untouched by those making bad decisions who feel they have bad penises. Bashing teachers is just another misogynistic ploy by powerful men to keep women down.

The bullshit and hypocrisy that emanates from Gracie Mansion and Albany smells like New Jersey on a humid, hot summer day. The pollution needs to be cleaned up.

Look To Westchester County To Fight Pearson and the Deformers

PEARSON CEO "DAME" MAJORIE SCARDINO

For those who don't know who Janine Sopp is, run do not walk, and check out her blog Change The Stakes. Janine is a parent in Brooklyn, in fact she is not an educator,  as well as an artist and she is leading a movement to end testing as we know it. I have spoken and emailed with her a on several occasions and she is smart as a whip and really is quite knowledgeable.

I bring Janine up for several reasons tonight. The main reason being is that I read an interesting article in today's Journal News (Westchester County) about how scores of students in Westchester and Rockland counties refused to take the Pearson inspired field tests this week. In fact, the Tarrytown school district is sending a bill to Pearson for $20,000 for the time the students and teachers missed from class. Can anyone imagine Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott allowing this?

According to the Journal News, in Scarsdale;

“just over half (53 percent) of the eligible students were absent. Of those who took the test, about 16 percent did not respond to the questions or filled them in randomly,” said Vicki Presser, the district’s spokeswoman.

Can you imagine this kind of boycott in the NYC? Nope. Won't happen, can't happen.  How can this happen when at my school PS 154, a new principal is introduced and the superintendent and network leader appear at a special meeting to quell any parental concerns and only 10 parents, 5 of which were with the PA, show up? In fact, statisticians have estimated that there would have been 20 parents if food had been served.  If the same situation occurred in Bronxville or Ardsley, would only 10 parents have shown up? 

In my opinion, the fight is in the wrong place. To fight the deformers, to fight those shoving tests down our children's throats the fight, perhaps the "muscle" must come from the suburbs. The suburbs need to be ground zero for the fight. Of course, this is not saying that the parents of the inner city should not be involved or have a major voice in the fight, but the backlash needs to come from the suburbs.

Politicians care only about votes and money. Politicians don't give a rats ass about the underclass. Once the hoity toity parents realize that deform is coming to Scarsdale, Bronxville, Great Neck, Roslyn, Franklin Lakes, upper Saddle River, etc... then the proverbial poop will hit the fan. Once these parents realize that their children's education is being destroyed, they will fight like hell to end this destruction.

The reason why the deformers get away with what they do is silence and compliance of the parents of the inner city. They know that the parents, and in no way am I saying all of them, are wither too tired, too afraid, too apathetic, too unknowledgeable of their rights, to truly mount a fight. In the suburbs the communities are smaller and more close knit than they are in the city. Where else is it better to light the spark of the fight needed? Ardsley or Brooklyn? Ardsley has a population of about 4,500 and a school district size of about 800.


The politicians will care once Edgar J Puffenstuff who lives in a million dollar home in Irvington NY and donates regularly to his favorite political party sees how his children are nothing but test scores are affecting their lives. At that point the politicians will want to appease the Puffenstuff's of the state.

About 2 months or so ago, I received my free copy of "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman." Living in Mt Vernon NY, I had no inkling to show it here. It needed to be shown in neighboring Bronxville at the public library. I knew it wouldn't be received well in Mt Vernon. But those in Bronxville need to see the train wreck heading their way.

But circumstances prevented me from showing it in Bronxville. We are moving next month to Harrison NY. Home of the McMansions and estates in the Purchase section of Harrison to the rich and richer. This is where TITBWFS will be shown. This is where the shit will hit the fan come January. News 12 and the Journal News are out of the reach of Uncle Mike.

It is time to set up base camps in Nassau, Suffolk, Fairfield, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, and Bergen counties. From here, the fight can and will be won.

BREAKING NEWS AT PS 154 THE BRONX!!!

Has it been two weeks since I last sat down and blogged? Apparently so. Too those who have missed my unique take on the happenings of education, I apologize for being away for so long. For those that hate my writings and were glad to see the gap in my blogging, too bad.

The last two weeks have been hectic. I was doing the Math scoring, was house hunting, was driving my son to and fro to baseball games and practice, and plotting my campaign to run for chapter chair. Was coming home exhausted or too late to do anything but to crawl into bed and just vegetate. But to paraphrase Carol Anne, "I'm baaaack!"

And boy am I back with some interesting news which happened a week before my last blog post. Now sit down and get a drink before I share it with you. I'll wait until you do. OK, ready?

April 29, 2012 was just a regular day at PS 154. It was the first day of not worrying about testing and for the first time in months actual learning was happening. The flowers were in bloom, the sky was blue, and all seemed peaceful. That is until our principal went over the PA at 1:15 PM and announced an emergency meeting at the end of the day for all staff in the auditorium. Immediately I knew what it was about, but if I share it now, there would be no further reason for me to blog.

At 4 PM (extended day) we gathered in the auditorium to hear our principal tell us that she had gotten a phone call from the superintendent that morning that that day was to be her last as principal. Now mind you, this was the principal that had replaced the infamous John Deacon (Linda Amil-Irizarry) in May of 2009. Why did this happen? We have no idea and no one is sharing. Should it have happened? I won't say. But I have issues with the way it happened.

Once again, the NYC DOE show how it just does not care about the schools, the communities, the parents, or even, yes I am going to say it, the students. Does the DOE have the right to change principals? Yes it does. Does the DOE ever do it right? No it doesn't, especially when it comes to principals that wish to have sexual intercourse with inanimate objects, cheat on tests, cheat on teacher observations, etc...

What the powers that be failed to do was take into account the parents or the community in this decision. I do not mean asking the parents for their input, but having the decency to contact and share with the PA and to be in the school at dismissal to discuss this with the parents. Also, a letter should have gone home with the students that day sharing the removal of the principal. This would have happened in Scarsdale, Bronxville, or even Riverdale or Forest Hills. But not on 135th St in The Bronx. Why? Because those that are do not give one iota of thought to those that they feel aren't.

I spoke up in the auditorium. I had too. I was not supporting the outgoing or the incoming principal. I only spoke up in support of the great school community and the students. I feel that PS 154 has and is being set up to fail. Three years in a row, the budget has gone down. Two years in a row, we have received C's. We have failed to meet our AYP in ELA last year, and failed AYP in Math for Spec. Ed. and ELL last year. This is not the staff's fault at all! How can a teacher teacher with over 30 kids in their class and several serious behavioral problems? This is not an excuse, this is an explanation and a fact. How can we go forward when students are leaving the school with no education because the only instruction students are receiving are to the tests?

I am not in any way besmirching past or present administration. The fault clearly and will always lie with the nattering nimrods on Chambers St. For Uncle Mike, his sock puppet Dennis Walcott and all those brainless law school educated consultants do not give one shit about the communities and the students. They see only $$$$. They care for only $$$$. And they certainly do not care for the underclass of the city, whatever their skin color is. For Tweed and Uncle Mike feel that it is only the well educated, well developed, well connected, white person that can save little boys and girls of color.

It's time for the parents to rise up now. It is time for the parents to not feel afraid, anxious or scared and take control of their children's schools and their education. They need to say NO to the deformers and YES to education. Only with the parents finally having enough and finally putting a stop to those in power will we as teachers begin to have that voice again as decision makers when it comes to education.

THE TIME IS NOW AGAIN!

The Hypocrisy of Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott and the Daily News

The Daily News with seemingly nothing better to do, has taken a course over the last several days to do Uncle Mike's bidding and besmirch teachers who have been accused of inappropriate contact with students. The News whines that these teachers, when afforded their rights under the United States Constitution were either found not guilty, had statements and evidence thrown out, or given penalties other than being terminated by a impartial arbitrator.

Which brings me to the defense of my pal, Chaz the Blogger, henceforth known as Eric Chasanoff. Eric, has been raked over the coals by the Daily News. Not only for coming out as he has on his blog, but for The Daily News misrepresenting the truth. Thankfully, The New York Times at least gave Eric the chance to share his side of of the truth, and Eric gave his side as well.

Which brings me to wonder. Why would The Daily News editorialize this past Friday that "Pervy Teachers Must get the boot, whilst pervy administrators, or administrators that beat up children don't get the boot? Sock Puppet Walcott gave this information, not just regarding Eric, but 15 other teachers. The editorial says; 

"Chancellor Dennis Walcott had identified the 16 as having been worthy of dismissal when he reviewed disciplinary cases in the wake of the arrests of several school staff members"

The sock puppet decided to share this on his own, on did it come from someone much higher, like a deity in the form of Uncle Mike?

One can only read about Bronxdale High School's principal John Chase Jr and the proclivities he wishes upon his penis. Or even Dr Mychael Willon, formerly a LIS/Network Leader and had a plum position at Tweed recruiting principals. Did not the NYC DOE due its due diligence and was either aware or unaware of Dr Willon being caught masturbating or some other deviant sex act in a Wichita KS adult bookstore in 1990. Or did the NYC DOE ever investigate the diploma mill in which "Dr" Willon received his Phd, in which several other school districts saw through the charade and did not hire him? But, and this is a big but, perhaps the NYC DOE did come to its senses and decided to gently allow Willon to leave and land on his feet at Alternative Unlimited, a student tutoring and educational company, as chief academic officer in Houston TX?

Oh but there is more. As I mentioned when I "came out," we had an assistant principal at my school, affectionately known in these pages as "Numb Nuts," that had a hankering for beating the shit out of children. Numb Nuts is better known as Derrick Townsend. Derrick has landed nicely on his feet at Community for Special Education 2 in The Bronx.

What did Derrick Towsend do? Well we need to go back to January 2007 in which I notified by immediate superior at the time, principal Cynthia Ballard of Townsend's misdeeds. Read on;

On Monday, January 22^nd, 2007 during the extended day program, I heard a commotion outside my office, Room 219, in the hallway. I stepped to the doorway of my office and saw that XXXXX was struggling with Mr Townsend. Mr Townsend appeared to be attempting to get XXXXX inside his office. Mr Townsend then took XXXXX’s right arm, and pulled it behind and up XXXXXX’s back as he was doing this; he slammed XXXXX into his closed office door with XXXXX’s face and chest bearing the brunt of the impact.

On Thursday, January 25, 2007 at approximately 12:20 PM the 3^rd grade was in the auditorium to watch a movie before they ate lunch. XXXXXX had come down with his class, and was not cooperating. XXXXXX had decided to sit in the 2^nd or 3^rd row of the far right (if facing the stage) set of seats. I was standing at the back of the auditorium, and saw Mr Townsend approach XXXXXX. I do not know what was said at first, but Mr Townsend was soon getting very animated. Mr Townsend then grabbed XXXXXX by his upper left arm, and pulled him out of his seat violently. He dragged XXXXXX up the aisle to the last row of seats, and threw XXXXXX into the aisle seat.

   On Tuesday, January 30, 2007, at apprixomately 12:20 the 3rd grade was in the aditorium to watch a movie before they ate lunch. XXXXXXX was talking to XXXXXX in the last row

   Of seats on the right side of the auditorium. Mr Townsend asked XXXXXX several times come sit with his class. XXXXXX refused, and Mr Townsend walked up to the last row. Mr Townsend walked down the row, grabbed XXXXXX, by his upper arm, yanked him up, and dragged XXXXX into the aisle.

WOW! So did anything happen? Before you answer, think for a moment. What would have happened if pretend Townsend was a a teacher not an AP. Yep, you are right. This was reported to OSI. OSI kicked it back to the principal, the same principal that had just hired him one month earlier, to lead the investigation. The investigation was unfounded. Why? Because in Cynthia Ballard's reports to OSI she blamed the students. Described them as troublemakers and discredited them. There was no recourse.

Flash forward to February 13, 2009. Townsend in a fit of pique because a 3rd grade girl would not follow his directions after sharing with Townsend that she was touched inappropriately by a boy, yanks her out of her seat by the arm, drags her through the classroom, down the hall, all in front of 50 students and at least several adults and leaves bruises on her arm. 

To make a long story short, he is finally removed and sent to the Rubber Room and languished there until the Rubber Rooms are closed. At no time, and this is to the best of my knowledge, were any witnesses called to testify at his hearing. I believe that the case was settled and he went his way.

The funny thing is Townsend had about 6 open corporal punishment allegations against him that year. One for dragging a 3rd grade boy a good fifty yards from the playground into the school whilst tearing the boys shirt in the meantime, dragging a 1st grader down the hall, punishing another boy who misbehaved at lunch by having the boy clean the cafeteria.

Where is the outrage from Uncle Mike and Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott? Where is the outrage from The Daily News? It is time to stop the hypocrisy! It is time to stop the open season on teachers! As long as hypocrisy shines at the NYC DOE I, and others, will be there to expose and fight against the hypocrites.

Oh, and the above three administrators I had mentioned, I would never allow any of them within 100 miles of my son. Not only would I have no problem having Eric Chasanoff as my son's teacher, but I can only hope and pray that once my son enters high school he would have a science teachers as knowledgeable and caring as Eric. Eric is a mensch.