Who Ya Gonna Call? MORE - July 12, 3-6 PM - Can Teachers Fight Back Against Principals, DOE Legal and OSI?

Every day we hear more stories about the situation faced by school workers and how the UFT leadership has let them down while principals have full power to use DOE legal and OSI against them. We have seen so many similar stories, we can see how the wheels operate in the minds of so many principals, who have DOE Legal, OSI and an enormous range of weapons.

What do school workers have? A UFT that says you are lucky to have a job or a paycheck no matter how humiliated you are -- until you find you don't have a job. No matter how much we bring it up, the union leadership refuses to consider the attacks on so many schools staffs as part of a plan and treat each situation individually, thus leaving people isolated -- unless they come to a group like MORE which at the very least can offer some sense of collective action. Which is exactly what we intend to do a week from 3-6PM today at the Dark Horse - 17 Murray St. just a few blocks from the Tweedle dees.

To illustrate the point here are a few powerful recent articles by Arthur at NYC Educator,

• Your Health Care Circa 2017 
• Summer Assignment--Wake the Sleeping Giant
• Forging the UFT Unity Wllderness 
• Day by Day in the ATR

and James Eterno at ICE

• JOHN BOWNE HS PRINCIPAL SUED AGAIN 
• WE DON'T NEED A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION NOR MORE MONEY FOR COPE

Even if not under investigation or even if your principal loves you, things can change on a dime, as our friends at CPE1 found out when they were hit between the eyes by an evil principal.

Mayoral control has not worked out for anyone, yet the entire world seems to think not having a democratic measures of control over the schools by people with the biggest stake is a good thing. And that includes our own union which has supported variations of mayoral control forever.

Collectively we have learned many lessons over the years. And I use "we" in the broadest terms to include many of you out there who blog and read the blogs.

Next Weds - July 12 -- MORE is doing its annual summer series event to try to bring some order and sharing to this collective knowledge base. Do we have easy answers? No. First we have to ask the questions - at the very least to prep people for what they may face. Like I hear even experienced people wonder why for a fairly minor issue they are removed from the school while others with more serious issues stay in school and even in the classroom but don't realize how much say the principal has in that decision.

What can you do when the new principal - depending on how competent - engages in actions clearly designed to wipe out the experienced staff? They have so many weapons and you have pea shooters and the UFT so often absent -- ie, see cozy relationship between your district rep and the district supe?

If you have something to offer, or want to hear the stories of others, come on down.