Workplace Bullying

Harrasment in the work place is not tolerated.
Greene v. Seminole Electric Cooprtative, Inc. 701 So.2d 646 (Fla. 1997)
(According to Elizabeth Kristen, a law student at UC Berkeley: Plaintiff was allowed to sue under a hostile work environment claim under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act because he was harassed and ridiculed about his weight.)

You should be handling these complaints through your Union. File Greivances for harassment or violations of the union contract. Otherwise, you may want to request a meeting with the Superintendent of the School system.

To Mr. O'Brien,

I did call the union. I was told that she was a bad principal and a bully. I got the impression they already knew this. I was told there was nothing I could do but transfer out of the school for the next school year. I should take some time off (absence) and when I come back just shrug off her bullying.

ACROSS THE COUNTRY, A BUREAUCRATIC SYSTEM has put into IN PLACE a procedure that CIRCUMVENTS THE union contract, education regulations and basic civil rights laws TO REMOVE ANY TEACHER. This “process” has so infiltrated OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM, THAT NOW OUR TEACHERS’ CAREERS, REPUTATIONS, HEALTH CARE AND PENSIONS ARE BEING ROUTINELY DESTROYED, and there is ABSOLUTELY NO RECOURSE TO THE LAW available to those teachers, because the union represents them, and they fail miserably to do this! In the process, wonderful teachers are humiliated in ways that are reminiscent of slavery. Anyone who tells you that the union is the place to go is clueless, or complicit. No attorney will buck the unions, and teachers who seek attorneys to sue, soon find out that no one will help them. Those that do sue, fight a ten year battle in Federal court that eats up their poor resources as monied DOE lawyers delay. Principals have tacit approval that anything goes. Go to endteacherabuse.org (The NAPTA site or read "White Chalk Crime" by Karen Horwitz ) and read of all those like you who have discovered that principals are not bound either by the Constituion of the US or common moral ethics.
The media is silent because they cannot afford to challenge the unions, and the legislature depend on union money to get elected. While the media focuses and points the finger only at those "bad teachers", the union mishandles tens of thousands of cases. The crucial point where the contract would prevent the abusive false allegations from being ‘Put-out’ as CHARGES- IS AT THE SITE, where the site UNION rep depends on the principal for everything: the student load, the duties, the materials, the program. Collusion with administration has become EPIDEMIC HERE in NYC, and grievance procedures are abandoned.

You ARE alone, and if you do not resign, harsher measures will be used to send you packing.TEACHERS WHO SPEAK OUT ABOUT UNSOUND EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE, the ‘whistle-blowers’, are the first to be singled out. Senior teachers, with strong voices are next to be targeted, particularly as their meager salary reaches longevity steps. They are followed by any teacher that is disliked by some petty, failed human being, often with poor credentials, but given power to ‘supervise’ teachers. “Staff-developers” whose job is to train and facilitate learning, often become tyrants who evaluate and demean teachers whose methods they fail to recognize, because they lack the rubric that recognizes the indicators for evaluation.

Those ‘business managers’ at the top -- principals and superintendents -- who call themselves “educators,” in an astonishing number of systems have as their HIGHEST PRIORITY TO MAINTAIN THEIR POSITION IN THE CASH-COW THAT BECOMES THEIR PERSONAL Bank ACCOUNT. They are given tacit permission by a system that fails to protect teachers, and they stoop to tactics that are so egregious that people find it hard to believe. THAT IS THE PROBLEM! Ordinary people who believe in the law of the land are incredulous and say, “How can this be true?”IT IS THE SHEER NUMBER OF SYSTEMS THAT EMPLOY THIS TACTIC THAT MAKES IT SO HARD FOR PEOPLE TO GRASP.
IS IT ANY WONDER THAT THE SCHOOLS ARE FACING A CRISIS OF ENORMOUS PROPORTIONS, AS THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST ARE subjected to heinous and criminal procedures, and finally TERMINATED? Worse, tens of thousands of senior teachers, the mentors, are GONE, and now these petty tyrants who call themselves "administrators" are going after younger, inexperienced teachers LIKE YOU! . When these new teachers reach a tenure year, they are routinely terminated in the most illegal and heinous manner. IT BEGINS WITH PETTY HARASSMENT AS YOU ARE EXPERIENCING NOW.
I hope that some young attorneys who want to make their bones see the MILLION$ TO BE MADE IN CLASS ACTION SUITS AGAIST THE UNIONS. It is the UNION which has allowed YOUR principal to become a petty tyrant, and YOU are a victim of the union's failure. PERIOD! End of STORY!