Link: VIDEO Channel 10 News story about bullying at Harriet Tubman and the death of teacher Sarah Jenkins (shown with her husband). This news coverage occurred AFTER the debate below on the San Diego Free Press website. I assume that Randy Dotinga disapproves of this "quick hit" coverage. He clearly thinks it's better for the public to be kept out of the loop.
SHOULD THE PUBLIC BE TOLD ABOUT BULLYING OF TEACHERS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
Here's an interesting comment by Voice of San Diego's Randy Dotinga that I found on
this San Diego Free Press story about the death of teacher Sarah Jenkins on February 26, 2014 after bullying by administrators at Harriet Tubman school in San Diego.
[Comment by] Randy Dotinga March 15, 2014 at 10:21 pm
A couple things:
1. The Education Week piece isn’t a reported story by a professional journalist. It’s a blog post by a teacher.
[Maura Larkins' comment: The story contains transcribed testimony of a school board meeting, and includes the video of the public meeting. Randy Dotinga is way out of line in dismissing it because it is not the work of a professional journalist. It's a public record, Mr. Dotinga. And what makes you think a teacher can't gather facts? In fact, a teacher starts out with a huge amount of pertinent knowledge that a journalist, no matter how "professional" he might be, is probably lacking when he covers a school story. It seems you don't want the public to obtain information that might stand in opposition to your media outlet, Voice of San Diego. VOSD is very interested in controlling the information received by the public about schools. To be fair, Mr. Porter's outlets, San Diego Free Press and OB Rag, also have an agenda regarding schools. Since Emily Alpert was fired from VOSD, there is not a single "professional" news source in San Diego that is trying to tell the whole truth about schools.]
2. I don’t know if any local journalist will pursue this story. But it’s important to note that a complex story like this raises major questions and challenges for any professional journalist.
[Maura Larkins' note: It's also important to note that a story like this raises major questions about the integrity of media outlets in San Diego.]
Based on what little I’ve read, there are many potential minefields here in terms of privacy, fairness and sensitivity, not to mention avoidance of libel. And then there’s the wider issue of whether there’s a story to be told that’s relevant to the public and sheds light.
[Maura Larkins' response: Do you find it difficult, Randy, to be fair, sensitive, appropriately respectful of privacy and to avoid libel? It shouldn't be terribly hard. Aren't you really making excuses for professional journalists who fail to cover important stories? The teachers for whom you show such contempt don't have to worry about libel because they are certain of the truth, unlike a journalist who arrives at the scene. In other respects, also, teachers are often superior to many professional journalists when it comes to reporting what goes on in schools. You're not sure whether a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the failure to help a public school teacher improve are relevant to the public? Perhaps Voice of San Diego needs more teacher blogs.]
Everyone involved deserves more than a quick-hit, next-day he said/she said news story. Any journalistic examination will take significant time and great care.
[Maura Larkins' comment:
A "quick-hit, next-day he said/she said news story" is better than a cover-up, Randy. You make it clear that you think that teachers are less credible than professional journalists when it comes to writing about events that the teachers themselves have witnessed. But you also clearly admit that there are many stories that professional journalists don't cover. Your excuses? Worries about libel, for one thing. Witnesses don't have to worry about libel because they know the truth.
You sure do like to help schools keep their secrets, don't you, Randy?
Voice of San Diego's current education stories don't hold a candle to the teacher blogs on Education Week. Why not? Voice of San Diego does not want to take significant time and great care to tell the truth about schools.]
RESPONSE TO RANDY DOTINGA FROM SAN DIEGO FREE PRESS HONCHO DOUG PORTER
Doug Porter March 16, 2014 at 9:02 am
Readers should know that Randy Dotinga usually comes to our site with snide comments. He often spends his days trashing the SDFP and it’s contributors on Twitter. It must make him feel very manly to be so much better than all us, especially those who dare to–gasp–write poetry and other “cringe inducing” articles here.
In this case because the story involves charter schools–a seemingly sacred subject with his primary source of funding–Randy’s trying to sound like a serious journalism critic.
[Maura Larkins' comment: Hypocrisy alert! I agree with Doug that Randy's employer, Voice of San Diego, censors stories that don't fit in with the agenda of its Jacobs/Woolley/Dammeyer donor trio. But Doug Porter is also guilty of bias in the stories he covers. I don't think it's any accident that the Sarah Jenkins story fits in nicely with Porter's anti-charter agenda. But Doug likes to keep the lid on stories of bullying by teachers and by California Teachers Association.]
Reconsideration about policies towards charters schools is guaranteed plenty of local coverage. This story that might negatively reflect on charters wasn’t covered.
[Maura Larkins' comment: For years I have been writing about bullying by adults in schools. A big part of the problem is the lack of effective teachers evaluations, and follow-through based on objective evaluations. The result is that school politics takes the place of real information.
But Doug Porter doesn't ask for teacher evaluations. He just seems to be using this tragic death to attack charter schools. This same scenario plays out very frequently in regular public schools. Here's a story from last October regarding San Gabriel Valley: Another teacher suicide; students suspended for speaking out about bullied teacher Jennifer Lenihan.
Of course, Doug Porter has the same attitudes as Randy Dotinga. He gets on his high horse regarding this story, but the truth is, he's just like Randy Dotinga: he covers stories that support his own agenda and the agenda of his media outlet.
SHOULD SAN DIEGO FREE PRESS CHANGE ITS NAME? Doug Porter refuses to report brazen injunctions by Judge Judith Hayes violating free speech of a teacher blogger; is it time for a name change for Doug Porter's press?]
HERE'S THE FULL VERSION OF DOUG'S RESPONSE TO RANDY DOTINGA
DOUG PORTER COMMENT
Doug Porter March 16, 2014 at 9:02 am
Readers should know that Randy Dotinga usually comes to our site with snide comments. He often spends his days trashing the SDFP and it’s contributors on Twitter. It must make him feel very manly to be so much better than all us, especially those who dare to–gasp–write poetry and other “cringe inducing” articles here.
In this case because the story involves charter schools–a seemingly sacred subject with his primary source of funding–Randy’s trying to sound like a serious journalism critic.
Reconsideration about policies towards charters schools is guaranteed plenty of local coverage. This story that might negatively reflect on charters wasn’t covered.
The complaints voiced at the at the SDUSD meeting are a five year old problem with the Harriet Tubman School. They were voiced last time the school’s charter was up fopr consideration. The lack of oversight in charter schools and the abusive treatment of instructors is a nationally recognized problem. The school board meeting occurred on Tuesday; apparently the complaints of the students, teachers and parents weren’t even enough of a problem for local news media to follow up on. Or maybe nobody covered the meeting. Or watched the publicly available video of the meeting.
A well recognized educator (http://www.teacherslead.com/Bio.html, http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/11/anthony-cody-on-march-madness-time-to-stop-teaching-time-for-test-prep/) with a significant track record who contributes via the blog format to EdWeek.org isn’t enough of a “journalist” to merit consideration in Dotinga’s opinion. (That’s probably because he couldn’t think up anything nasty or snarky to say.)
Because of the story in EdWeek, which was based on what was actually said at the school board meeting, there are now “journalists” looking into the situation at Harriet Tubman.
My “baggage” in this situation is that I’m sick and tired of his internet bully persona. This “concern troll” persona on display today is one he uses on occasions where multiple interests are involved. Trust me here, his only real concern with this story is trashing SDFP. I have reached out to him in the past to try and reason with him, but he has ignored my requests.
Readers would be advised to keep Mr Dotinga’s baggage in mind when reading his comments in any forum. I would expect that he’ll be a tad upset when he realizes he’s been banished to troll-land around here and can’t respond to this.
Adios, Randy. You won’t be missed.
San Diego Charter Teachers: Bullying Contributed to Death of Colleague
by Doug Porter
San Diego Free Press
March 14, 2014
School Board meeting not ‘the time or place’ to discuss confidential personnel matter of Teach for America instructor, says Harriet Tubman Principal
I didn’t write the headline for today’s column. It’s a headline at Education Week, a nationally recognized print and digital (edweek.org) publication. With a staff of over 70 and budget of over $13 million annually, it’s hardly the product of some basement blogger. Amazingly, it’s about a story nobody else in the San Diego media seems to have covered.
The EdWeek story is about a meeting of the San Diego Unified School Board on Tuesday, March 11th. The charter for the Harriet Tubman Village Charter School was up for renewal. A group of parents, teachers and students wearing blue bravely stood up before the Trustees and proceeded to raise serious questions about the way the school is operated.
Accusations were made suggesting violations of both the Education Code and State Law by the school’s administration. And the suggestion was made that the bullying tactics and leadership style at Harriet Tubman contributed to the death of Sarah Jenkins, “a young, bright, dedicated, caring first year teacher at Tubman.”
Here’s a portion of the testimony of 8th grade teacher Clarisa Mondejar, as transcribed from a video of the meeting by Anthony Cody:
When administration had concerns about Sarah’s abilities and performance they did not provide support for her or guidance. Instead they piled more and more work on, called her names, and criticized her at every single turn. On October 24th, Sarah wrote an email to the administration informing them that she had a medical condition that made it difficult to meet their excessive demands. She ended the email by begging for positive support, writing “being kind, helpful and specific helps me better myself. But calling me incompetent is not helpful but rude and unprofessional.”
The next day, Sarah was terminated, which I believe is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Sarah passed away three weeks ago from complications of stress-related seizures. When administrators found out we did not receive support or compassion. Instead we were told to not share this information with students, not with parents, that Sarah was only at our school for two months, and at the end of the day she didn’t make an impact.
The
video of the school board meeting lasts for for more than two hours. The 1hr, 54 min mark is where the testimony begins, the ensuing (and angry) school board discussion starts at about the 2 hr 20 min mark.
Here’s Whitney Carpenter, 7th grade teacher:
We apologize that we have not spoken earlier, as we are a staff that exists in fear of bullying, retaliation and losing our jobs.
Back to the Edweek account (empasis mine):
After the teachers spoke, several parents addressed the board as well, including two who voiced support for the principal. The principal spoke defiantly, reciting their test scores and attendance statistics. “I cannot apologize for putting children first because that is what I signed up to do. Today is not for talk about one confidential personnel matter involving a Teach For America teacher. This is not the time or place for it.”
Janelle Ruley, the attorney representing the charter school, took the mic and stated, “As a reminder, the District must consider, must consider, increases in pupil academic achievement as the most important factor for renewal.“
Board members Richard Barrera and Scott Barnett give impassioned speeches after learning that the Trustee’s hands were tied. Their choices were limited to approving the charter renewal or denying it, which would close the school down. None of those giving testimony wanted that to happen. They did direct the district staff to further investigate and report back to them in April. At that point SDUSD’s only option will be to initiate expensive and time consuming legal action to de-certify the school.
I’m sure there is more to this story. My question today is “Why the hell didn’t this episode get any coverage in the local media?” Anybody? Are charter schools really that much of a sacred cow?
[Maura Larkins' comment: Hypocrisy alert! This story fits in nicely with Doug Porter's anti-charter agenda. But Doug likes to keep the lid on stories of bullying by teachers--and by California Teachers Association.]
UPDATE: Chris Bertelli w/ Teach for America has added a comment saying Ms. Jenkins was not a TFA teacher.
COMMENT BY "Teacher" March 15, 2014 at 5:52 pm
The principal merely messed up her speech probably because she had no idea this was coming. There was aTFA teacher at the school that happened to be Mrs. Jenkins best friend. Mrs. Jenkins began to suffer from Gran Mal seizures because of the stress at school. She was terminated in the end of October. She continued to have seizures and stress problems because of the horror she experienced. Her best friend and teacher on staff the TFA teacher began to be a target now and for a few months dealt with it. The day Mrs. Jenkins went into a coma from another Gran Mal seizure, the TFA teacher was extremely targeted and the day after Mrs. Jenkins died, the TFA teacher was terminated. There is way more emails, information, and details that cannot be published online at this point, but believe me, this is a horrible and very true story. Her parents are involved, but not in the public forum for Tuesday Night because as I said before, they do not live her, but are very much involved and informed. There may not even be an obituary, not everyone has one. As for her
Facebook page, it is not a memorial page, but merely started as a prayers and information page for her. All positive and dedications, now continues as an information or her celebration of life for family and friends. It has no information about her previous employment because that was such a terror in her life the family did not dare speak of it, the mere mention of the name would effect Mrs. Jenkins very greatly. This terror of bullying and many violations to law, ed code, and the brown act are what the teachers want stopped. The bullying has happened to MANY teachers over the years, but this is the first time they were able to gather together and make a stand against what was going on. Past teachers, the TFA teacher, parents, and teachers stood together that night. Get all of your facts before you start assuming teachers are lying. They have already gone through enough, support them, don’t question if their experiences were real. Local news was at the school yesterday to do interviews.
HERE IS THE EDUCATION WEEK STORY BY ANTHONY CODY
[This story contains transcribed testimony of a school board meeting, and Mr. Cody includes the video of the public meeting.]
San Diego Charter Teachers: Bullying Contributed to Death of Colleague
By Anthony Cody
Teacher Blogs
Education Week
March 14, 2014
At a San Diego school board meeting on Tuesday, March 11, dramatic testimony from teachers and parents uncovered serious questions about the way their charter school has been run. Harriet Tubman Village Charter School is known for high test scores, but the death of a first year teacher has contributed to a sense of deep concern. Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Grey Panthers, once said: "Dare to stand before those you fear and speak your mind, even if your voice shakes." The testimony at this meeting is riveting. And the discussion that follows is disturbing.
I transcribed some of the testimony, which begins roughly at the 1:54:00 mark in
this video.
Amy Nimps (?), President of Parent Teacher Council, active on student site council, charter renewal committee, parent of daughters in grade 3 and 6.
We have experienced high turnover of teaching staff, particularly in the 6th grade classroom, which affects me directly as I have a daughter (in 6th grade). The most recent turnover was just just two weeks ago, with only 65 days left before the end of the school year. This turnover affects my daughter's ability to realize her true potential. She has lost a role model and a teacher she was very connected with. This turnover is affecting the integrity of the charter, the morale of the staff in general and the effectiveness of the teachers who teach our students. Such pressure and stress cannot be a benefit to the remaining teaching staff, or to their ability to give their best to our students. I attempted to contact our Board of Governance to express my concerns, and I was met with resistance, lack of concern, and unapologetic apathy.
I am of the opinion that our Board of Governance has lost its ability to be objective and to act in the best interests of our school. The teaching staff at Harriet Tubman is our greatest resource and they must be supported and encouraged to thrive without fear of retribution. When we first came to Harriet Tubman we were an extended family of students, teachers, parents, community members whose priority was strong instructional programs, a safe and caring environment, and a continual push for academic excellence. Somewhere this year that was lost. Upon approval of our charter I am requesting an immediate investigation of the concerns brought forth so we can again be the village that it takes to raise and educate our children.
Whitney Carpenter, 7th grade teacher:
I represent the teachers at Harriet Tubman Village Charter. On behalf of all the teachers at Tubman, we love our students and our school. We want nothing more than for Tubman to be the best learning environment possible for students and educators. We are here today to ask the Board to approve the renewal of Tubman's charter, but with the added condition of completing an investigation into what we believe are serious violations of the Education Code, the Brown Act, and the school's charter.
We apologize that we have not spoken earlier, as we are a staff that exists in fear of bullying, retaliation and losing our jobs.
We have concerns regarding the protection of our students, the success of our school and the integrity of the charter. Our charter requires us to follow the credentialing requirements of the Education Code. Several teachers this year and last year taught without proper credentials in the subjects they were teaching. In fact, this is the case for two teachers at the moment. One teacher, when initially stating she was not qualified to teach a subject, and felt uncomfortable teaching the subject, was told she could do it, she was capable, and to do it "until we get caught, and then we have a year to fix it." We also have questions regarding whether one of our administrators actually holds an admin credential, as there is no record of it with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Our administrator has violated the Brown Act by coercing several of my colleagues and me to not attend public governance board meetings. Board meetings, such as this month's, have been canceled by administration without notice or approval by the governance board.
Our charter has been violated as our administration has prevented Board members from monitoring and approving the compensation of staff, by both hiring and firing staff without proper board approval. When learning of a recent teacher's firing, a Board member actually had thought the teacher had quit, and was surprised to learn she had actually been fired. We urge you to please approve our charter but under the condition of a full investigation into these claims and more.
Clarisa Mondejar, 8th grade teacher.
In reviewing our charter we noticed a major change from the 2009 version to the current version. In 2009, a clause stating that the principal must hold the trait of compassion was included. This clause is no longer included, and I wish I could say why. But as far as we know, no teacher was involved in creating the charter. We wonder if the removal was in response to the 2011 continuing remedy period that was placed on our charter for a large number of violations. Three specific clauses were directly tied to the mistreatment of staff and teachers, but this bullying has not stopped since 2011.
I want to tell you the story of Sarah Jenkins. Sarah was a young, bright, dedicated, caring first year teacher at Tubman. When administration had concerns about Sarah's abilities and performance they did not provide support for her or guidance. Instead they piled more and more work on, called her names, and criticized her at every single turn. On October 24th, Sarah wrote an email to the administration informing them that she had a medical condition that made it difficult to meet their excessive demands. She ended the email by begging for positive support, writing "being kind, helpful and specific helps me better myself. But calling me incompetent is not helpful but rude and unprofessional." The next day, Sarah was terminated, which I believe is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Sarah passed away three weeks ago from complications of stress-related seizures. When administrators found out we did not receive support or compassion. Instead we were told to not share this information with students, not with parents, that Sarah was only at our school for two months, and at the end of the day she didn't make an impact.
In 2011, our administrator had to prove that formalized systems were in place for teachers to complain about retaliation and bullying. Also a formalized system needed to be established where employee complaints could be processed. And lastly, an internalized commitment showing that teachers have an effective process to address concerns with mismanagement needed to be installed. Our union grievance procedures give us the opportunity to address issues that arise from violations of our contract, but do not cover unprofessional and unethical behaviors by administrators outside the framework of the contract. Given the mismanagement of the governance board and the continued unilateral decision-making, no such systems exist. In order to complain about the bully we have to speak to the bully.
In 2011 accusations were strong enough so that a clause was created that stated there needed to be evidence that successful resolution of complaints involving retaliation and general mismanagement were documented. This evidence, including a formalized complaint system, and an effective internalized process addressing these internal mismanagement issues are still missing from our school. I'd like to think that had they been in place, and effective, Sarah would still be here with us. Please, for the sake of all of our teachers, and more importantly, our students, approve Tubman's charter with the condition of investigating these claims and more.
Rachel Varga, 4th grade teacher.
I am one of just three teachers who remain as teachers at Tubman since the last time the charter was up for renewal. The teacher turnover rate has consistently been around 50% since our principal arrived. This year, for example, just eight of our 18 teachers were here at the end of last school year. Some of our 6th grade students have experienced four separate teachers this year. This is obviously a detriment to our students given the number of lost instructional days, and a lack of consistency for the kids. In total, we have lost nine teachers out of 18 positions since last June, and we still have three months to go in the school year. The ability to hire and retain high quality teachers is a core function at a charter school, and unfortunately, for many reasons, it has been lacking at Tubman.
After the teachers spoke, several parents addressed the board as well, including two who voiced support for the principal. The principal spoke defiantly, reciting their test scores and attendance statistics. "I cannot apologize for putting children first because that is what I signed up to do. Today is not for talk about one confidential personnel matter involving a Teach For America teacher. This is not the time or place for it."
Janelle Ruley, the attorney representing the charter school, took the mic and stated, "As a reminder, the District must consider, must consider, increases in pupil academic achievement as the most important factor for renewal."
The
response from the school board begins at about 2:20 on the video. Board members have been told they have very limited options. After some heated discussion, they vote to approve the charter's renewal, with some assurance from staff that a serious investigation has been initiated.
The teachers at this charter school are represented by the San Diego Education Association. The local president, Bill Freeman, also addressed the school board and encouraged them to investigate. In spite of their concerns, the teachers and parents were united in asking the board to renew the charter. But the level and persistence of these issues raises questions about whether there is any effective oversight in place.
[Note: Chris Bertelli, TFA's Communications Director for California, stated via Twitter this afternoon: "just wanted to clarify that Sarah Jenkins was not a TFA teacher." (Mar. 14, 2014)]
