Christina Gavin Defends Her Reputation Against False Claims by Unity Hierarchy and District Rep Woodruff

You have to listen to these podcasts and the recordings of the interactions between Christina Gavin and Bill Woodruff to get the full picture of what happened at a s0-called UFT District "social" event; just a week before UFT ballots went out.

 

(If the player doesn't work try clicking the URL.)

This is not the first time we've heard of bizarre behavior from Woodruff, but I will get into that at another time. In fact, the Unity defense of Woodruff itself constitutes bizarre behavior.

 

Here are some previous posts:

• Christina Vs The Unity Caucus Machine - At May 23 UFT Ex Bd

• 
• Stop UFT/Unity Persecution of Christina - Sign an Open Letter re: Christina Gavin & May 23rd UFT E-board Meeting

But let's put things into context. Christina took the lead in compiling election complaints against Unity which is the cause of the persecution of Christina by elements of the UFT leadership. (I'm not sure there's unanimity inside the leadership in this crusade against Christina.) Ok, she is relentless and willing to go to the mat for her beliefs, a much needed elements all too often missing from the usual suspects (me included) in the opposition. And make no mistake about it, Christina is not one of the usual suspects.

 

You really can't  make this stuff up. A must listen 2 part series by our fave podcaster, Noah Teachey exposes the entire rotten process. Note Christina's point by point take down of the UFT leadership case. She should be the lawyer for the UFT, not Beth (nicknamed Rude Beth by Christina) Norton.

 

In Part 2 (Ep. 46) take particular note of the actual recording of Leroy Barr and UFT attorney Beth Norton subjecting Christina to the third degree on when she eats lunch. Bizzaro-land. The Woodruff stuff is pretty funny too.

 

Here are Noah Teachey's notes:

• If you're enjoying what you're hearing, and want to hear more, check out patreon.com/professionaldevelopment

 

Ep 45: The UFTwilight Zone pt. 1, feat. Christina Gavin

 This week, Christina Gavin (school librarian, MORE UFT caucus member, and UFC candidate) makes an appearance on the show to tell us her story from the UFTwilight Zone, where the bureaucracy of a union meant to support educator-members sometimes turns on these very educators if they dare to identify the majority caucus's breeches of UFT election policy and national labor law. This is part 1, which sets the stage for the story and establishes how Christina first became known to Unity's higher-ups. Be sure to tune in next week for some pretty serious evidence of Unity deceit and the thrilling conclusion of the story.

https://lnns.co/a1ipI3JXKEC 

 Ep 46: The UFTwilight Zone pt. 2, feat. Christina Gavin

In today's episode I'm joined once again by Christina Gavin, a librarian, unionist, and self-proclaimed smart-aleck. This is part two of a two-part episode exploring the UF Twilight Zone, a land governed by a single caucus in which the line between fact and fiction is blurry at best. If you haven't heard part 1, which is episode 45 of the show, be sure to go have a listen so we're all on the same page.

>>Christina's conversation with Bill Woodruff: bit.ly/inappropriatebillwoodruffreadalong

>>Play "spot the contradictions" in this false complaint: bit.ly/inappropriatebillwoodruffcomplaint

>>Read and sign an open letter to UFT leadership on Christina's behalf: bit.ly/openuft

>>If you're enjoying what you're hearing, and want to hear more, check out patreon.com/professionaldevelopment

Listen now

https://lnns.co/fRwSrFs9Be2

• Christina's conversation with Bill Woodruff: bit.ly/inappropriatebillwoodruffreadalong
• Play "spot the contradictions" in this false complaint: bit.ly/inappropriatebillwoodruffcomplaint

Woodruff apologizes to her for a half hour, saying she did nothing wrong at the UFT event and then goes on to file charges against her, along with two other Unity candidates, also on the union payroll. And the UFT gang defends him to the hilt.

 

https://www.listennotes.com/e/64c196a127fb4870ba2eb2e768fb4efc/ ====

After Burn

Note this comment by a Unity hack on one of my posts on the Christina situation.

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2022/06/uft-elections-2022-united-for-change.html?showComment=1655540905191#c5460043551358120642

Really, Norm, first you go on about Christian Glavin without noting that she was the person who filed the charges against Janella Hinds falsely accusing her of electioneering on union time. And now you are telling us that Unity candidates shouldn't be able to use their personal Twitter and Facebook accounts to campaign for election -- for some reason. What were you and all the UFCUFT candidates doing? Were all of your personal Twiiter and Facebook accounts that campaigned for election hijacked?

Christina Gavin Replies: Saturday, June 18, 2022 at 4:28:00 AM EDT

Hi Saturday Anonymous,

My name is Christina; not Christian.

If you were more informed, you might know that no “charge” was filed against Janella Hinds. An inquiry was made and a follow-up inquiry was made too, based on the fact that Mr. Cambria and Ms. Norton had at several junctures in the election provided misinformation, even when asked repeatedly.

Seven times over the course of 37 days Mr. Cambria (informed by Ms. Norton) adamantly told UFC candidates that the UFT was not a nonprofit organization, for example. They also informed representatives of all candidates & Marie Wausnock that the UFT’s Communications and Accounting departments have said that it costs $11 to send each email when asked about the cost to send an email to a portion of membership.

Asking twice was no reflection on Ms. Hinds’ character but was based solely on the repeated instances of off-the-cuff wrong answers from Mr. Cambria and Ms. Norton, as I later told Ms. Hinds myself in a phone conversation about this topic.

Indeed Ms. Norton herself stated that no complaint had been filed against Ms. Hinds, but “an inquiry that may lead to a complaint” had been sent to the UFT.

You write to Norm “you are telling us that Unity candidates shouldn't be able to use their personal Twitter and Facebook accounts to campaign for election -- **for some reason**”

UFC did not say this for **some or no reason,** as you falsely claim. On January 31, Mr. Cambria had emailed UFT employees “reminding” them that they were not permitted to use the same accounts to both communicate with members in their roles as representatives of the union and campaign for candidates/caucuses. Was this an unreasonable directive for him to give? Arguably. Was it a UFT directive given by the UFT Election Chair to UFT employees? Undeniably.

Perhaps you should spend less time making uninformed statements from behind anonymous accounts; it might help you to be less wrong in your future commentary.

My reply to the hack attack:

Obfuscation and distraction. Uft employees - people we pay out of our dues. District reps abused the process. They have power over teachers. One of them in essence threatened not to rep a teacher because of his association with me. As for the charge against Janella that was an admitted mistake, apology offered and accepted. It was unity people who claimed the mistake was racist by another black woman - and I do note the vehemence of attacks on Christina and Camille by Unity. A hint of racism at the so called angry black woman. Like the unity hack at that d 7 event who felt threatened by Christina being behind her. If Christina were white would she have felt threatened?

 

Look for follow-up commentary on the misbehavior of Woodruff (Arf)  and other UFT officials.

 

I was wrong - UFT/Unity HAS NOT YET Endorsed Jackson/Vasquez Contest, UFT Staff Director Memo on Senate Race

....while no one is expected to make any financial contribution to Angel's campaign, we recognize that there are those of you who will choose to show him your support.  If you voluntarily elect to contribute to Angel’s campaign you must make the contribution by check, mailed from your home (or other non-UFT mailbox) directly to Angel’s campaign headquarters. You may not hand Angel a check on UFT premises or during UFT work hours. --- Leroy Barr, Anthony Harmon, Staff memo, March 10, 2022

Isn't the very presence of Angel Vasquez deep in the halls of UFT power an ad for his campaign? When trolling for funding, the very fact he is so close to Mulgrew increases his fundraising and dampens Jackson's.

Saturday, March 19, 2022

Reading the above, oh the horrors. I don't love most politicians but with Robert Jackson, what's there not to love? Three years ago I went up to Albany with Leonie Haimson and a crew for some hearing and after we had some time to kill waiting for the train and Jackson graciously invited us to his office to hang out. You can't find a more pro-teacher/education anti-ed deformer than Jackson. Which may explain the actions of the UFT/Unity leadership. As James Eterno says - Jackson is too pro-teacher. I'll get into how the leadership of the largest teacher union is fundamentally anti-teacher another time.

But I jumped the gun. I was wrong in assuming the UFT has endorsed Angel Vasquez instead of Robert Jackson. But if you read the memo below which should have expressed horror at UFT employees supporting Jackson's opponent you can guess why I had that assumption. But I still feel like the UFT/Unity leadership is playing the role of Norman Bates toward Robert Jackson.

Robert Jackson

I got a call from someone in the UFT media department

#AFT14 Convention Video - Common Core Debate - Mulgrew is Going to Punch Someone in the Face

Has anyone speaking against the common core said they don't WANT standards? .... Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater? The baby is in the bath water... Pia Payne-Shannon, Minneapolis Teacher opposing common core in rousing speech at AFT convention

I extracted a 12 minute sliver from over an hour debate including the Mike Mulgrew "punch you in the face" line. Followed by Leroy Barr and new NYSUT President Karen Magee (see Randi's face as she qvells at her coup) - I didn't include all of Magee's - yada, yada, yada. I put in 2 speeches of a Chicago teacher and a rousing rebuttal from a Minneapolis teacher.

It was union leadership pushing common core vs classroom teachers opposing. I still have a load of great speeches, mostly from Chicago, which I'll put up tomorrow.

#AFT14 Report - Common Core Debate - Epic Battle Between Chicago/CORE and UFT/Unity

The great Sarah Chambers nails them to the wall opposing Common Core .....

Watch it live: bit.ly/1wbeSZG

Gloria in visitor's section just texted - Unity are positioning themselves now near mikes....  Common Core debate begins

[Common Core] will die no matter what the AFT does because, frankly, it doesn’t matter.... Ravitch

UFT throw heavy hitters Mulgrew, Barr - while CORE uses their rank and file -  who are more than capable of holding their own. This is not to say that others around the nation are on the Randi team. So far only Chicago people are opposing the AFT/UFT reso.

UPDATE: See Chicago - reasons to oppose common core.

Debate is beginning on common core. Randi is calling for extensive discussion so no one calls the question prematurely -- poor Unity people who are designated "call the questioners." Randi mentioned the jostling at the mics at the committee meeting, which we reported on (AFT Convention Update: Chicago CC Reso Goes Down O...Posted Fri 5PM),

I am taping off the screen. Leo Casey spoke before and to me he seemed to be branding the foes of CC as tea party people.

There's no way I can keep up in this space but this is the place where teachers can fight this battle out. No question Chicago will lose this one but will walk away with dignity.

Minneapolis teacher is backing Chicago. Attacking pro reso people for distorting debate as if opposed are against standards -- we are against corporate designed standards. You are not going to set our kids up.
Opponents are pinning CC to testing -- if you don't understand what is going on - SHAME ON YOU! Goes after Leroy Barr statement that children in California and NY should be learning the same thing. One of great speeches so far.

I'll do my best to get some video but you can find it online I'm sure. Don't miss this debate.

Gotta end this but with this..

Here is the Ravitch comment

As for Common Core, I agree with CTU. Teachers don’t need scripts. They don’t need “standards” written by a committee that included not a single classroom teacher. They need class sizes they can manage. Their schools need equitable funding. They need tenure to protect them from political reprisals. They need due process and speedy resolution of complaints. They need respect. Common Core does nothing to alleviate the poverty in which nearly one-quarter of our children live. It does nothing to restore the art teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors who have been laid off. It does nothing to address the root causes of poor academic performance: poverty and segregation. It will die no matter what the AFT does because, frankly, it doesn’t matter.