Noah Berger / Special to The ChronicleParents meet with Oakland school officials at Lazear Elementary School after a protest at the school and district headquarters. Parents say they want a reportedly abusive teacher removed.
Posted on 04/16/2010 7:35:30 AM PDT by SmithL
A group of Oakland parents, frustrated by a nearly two-year battle to remove a reportedly abusive teacher, went on strike Thursday, pulling their children out of school and onto a picket line at the district's downtown headquarters.
Close to 80 percent of Lazear Elementary School's 300 students didn't show up for school Thursday - a loss of almost $9,000 in state funding for the day - and apparently a wake-up call for district and teachers union officials who met with the parents Thursday afternoon to try to resolve the issue.
The boycott was a last resort for the parents, who were tired of the time-consuming and egregious process of getting rid of someone they say is a bad teacher.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Noah Berger / Special to The ChronicleWhat did this teacher do...make the kids do homework?
GOOD FOR THEM!
Good for them!!!!
Put the teacher in a LA school....One with a lot of M13 members.
I suspect the teacher is also a minority. Whitey be long gone.
I say BS to that!
From the description these parents have every right to be upset and should expose this teacher.
Oh! when they refused to identify him that was a given!!
I suspect the WHOLE story is one heck of a lot longer than the SF Chronicle version.
Not discounting that. BUT the key words here are ‘veteran teacher’.
This behavior didn’t just start here at this particular school—he’s only been there 2 years. I suspect if we had a peak at his work file, we’d see that he’s been shifted around the district because of similar problems in the past. And being a union member brings a lot of power to someone like this who would normally be FIRED after the 3rd offense.
Speaking my opinion after working for one of the most corrupt school districts in the country for 5 years, the Dallas ISD.
In nearly two years of teaching at Lazear, the veteran third-grade teacher has repeatedly left his pupils unattended in the classroom and on the schoolyard, physically manhandled students, told children to “shut up,” and at one point locked a girl in the classroom because she wasn’t moving fast enough, said Olga Galavíz González, a parent organizer at the school.
Students fear him, she said.
Wait a Minute! Are you sure this is not Sister Edwina from St. Joseph`s Academy?
Sure doesn’t sound like Miss Emily Litella
Did it occur to you to read the article?
I’m puzzled. He left children unattended on the playground? He’s the only teacher at that school? I can see being upset about having children left unattended in the classroom, but telling a student to shut up? Did he actually lock the girl in the classroom, or is it possible she straggled behind and the door closed before she could get out? There is more to this story if these are the best the parents could come up with for charges against this teacher.
Didn’t read the article, huh?
“In nearly two years of teaching at Lazear, the veteran third-grade teacher has repeatedly left his pupils unattended in the classroom and on the schoolyard, physically manhandled students, told children to “shut up,” and at one point locked a girl in the classroom because she wasn’t moving fast enough, said Olga Galavíz González, a parent organizer at the school.”
Dance of the lemons. Passed around from school to school. Good for the parents.
More parents should pull their kids out when they have a problem such as this jerk.
When my son was young, he was abused by a teacher, and the school tried to cover for her.
Don’t be so quick to jump to the conclusion the teacher isn’t at fault....
Have you ever been to Oakland?!
Leaving kids alone on the playground means easy access to gang members. God knows what they would do to kids if they were given a golden opportunity like this...kids can take off and play hooky (read: join gangmembers and wreak havoc around the neighborhood)...they got lucky the times (I suspect more than once) he left them alone.
Locking someone in the classroom requires knowledge that you have accounted for EVERY student in your class (when I taught I spent a large time counting heads to make sure I hadn’t ‘lost’ anyone, good teachers keep track of their kids!)
Yes, it’s possible the student ‘lagged’ behind, but if their locks were like the ones we had (deadbolts that could only be opened from the inside and outside with keys) then if the child was innocently lagging, if probably would have been terrifying to be locked in the classroom alone with no way to get out to join your class for lunch or whatever.
As a parent and former teacher, I can tell you, these things might not be justifiable for firing individually, but collectively? Especially if he’s verbally abusive as well? You’re darn right I’d want him booted out of *my* kid’s classroom, and school!
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