Get ready to be outraged. A new report shows 14 of 16 teachers charged with sexual inappropriate contact with students in New York City's schools are still in the classroom. And an arbitrator actually thought this was a good idea.
Hey! I have an idea! How about HE lose his job along with these pervy teachers?
Arbitration is a union-protected right for New York teachers; and I don't really have a problem with that. Some people get all caught up in how easy teachers have it, but having spent some time in a classroom full of 6-year-olds recently, my hat is off to these people. I can barely handle the zoo that is my kid's birthday party. And there are idiot parents who fly off the handle everywhere; teachers need some protection from the kind of mom who would call the cops because her 14-year-old read a book with a naughty word in it (yes, true story ... sadly).
But if arbitration is in place, the arbitrator needs to have some scruples. They can't simply decide they are out there to protect teacher jobs. They need to use common sense.
But you can't tell me he (or she) used common sense in letting a teacher who stalked his student -- sitting outside her job at McDonald's, and sending her more than 50 text messages -- back into the classroom. I was born at night, y'all, but not last night! And that's one of the more minor allegations! One teacher is said to have bent a male student over and brushed his genitals against the child's behind, making references to homosexuality!
Protecting teachers from crazy parents is fine; if you're protecting kids from pervy teachers too. It can't be one but not the other.
What do you think should happen to this arbitrator?
Image via dcJohn/Flickr