Judges Lock Up More Teachers

Star-Ledger ^ | December 6, 2001 | SUE EPSTEIN, BEV McCARRON AND KELLY HEYBOER

[ZULU]

Another 88 Middletown teachers -- including a woman recovering from cancer, a man with spina bifida and a veteran teacher who hadn't missed a day of work in nearly four decades -- were led to jail in handcuffs yesterday as one of the nastiest strikes in New Jersey history dragged through a fifth emotional day without a settlement.

[SUSSA]

When one becomes a bureaucrat he knows what he is getting into. Many bureaucrats are prohibited by law from striking. Any of these bureaucrats can get out of jail by quitting or retiring like the one bureaucrat did.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Not bad for a job where a tenured teached can't be fired unless caught naked, having sex with an under-aged student while smoking crack.

Plus the teacher must be convicted. OJ would still be teaching if that was his career.

[Alberta's Child]

Your comparisons are not accurate because they refer to specific incidents instead of ongoing violations. If I run a stop sign, I am charged with a single violation and I pay whatever the appropriate fine is.

If I drive without a license, get charged with driving without a license, and appear before a judge without a license on an ongoing basis while refusing to stop driving without a license, I would hope he was competent enough to throw me in jail.

[Labyrinthos]

secondly the supreme court gives everyone else the right to strike

Not true. The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld laws that prohibit essential public employees (i.e. teachers, sanitation workers, firefighters, police officers) from going out on strike during contract negotiations.

[JenB]

What do you call 100 NEA members in jail? A good start?

[JimRed]

They broke the law; they belong in jail.

They are sharing cells with one another. A modest proposal for their rehabilitation in jail is to mix them in with the results of "public education"; the general population.

A little time spent with the street slime they helped to create could do wonders for their attitude problem!

[gatex]

"Sorry, but it is the fundamental right of Americans to not work,"

But is it a fundamental right to be able to work as a teacher---or are there restrictions on who can get a job as a teacher ?

[hobbes1]

JAIL THEM ALL....

They Earn on AVERAGE...fifty Five thousand Dollars a year, for little more than a part time Job. Let them get out inthe Real world, and GO TO WORK IN JUNE JULY AND AUGUST....

They'll come back to teaching for Room and Board.

[Eska]

Got a spike, but we actually need two to carry us through.

Teaching new classes this year, electronics, physics, lots of 10 hr days at school and up till midnight at home in preparation, no joke. Didn't put the time in the woods like I usually do. That's the down side to teaching I guess.

[Alberta's Child]

If the district fires all the strikers, and replaces them with people with waived qualifications, I'm OK with that . . .

If it were that easy, it would have been done already. The same laws that prohibit teachers from going on strike prohibit the school district from firing them or locking them out during contract negotiations. "Job protection" in this case is a two-way street, even if the teachers don't seem to enjoy meeting their terms.

I have relatives who are school teachers, and I'd be the first one to throw them in jail if they violated the law. If they didn't like the terms of their employment, they should go and work somewhere else.

The fact that public school teachers are probably the only college-educated, licensed professionals that bargain for their compensation collectively speaks volumes about the mediocrity of the profession. I can't imagine engineers working for the New Jersey Department of Transportation or lawyers working for the Attorney General's office joining a union, can you?

[HeartOfDixie]

The real problem here is the government is in a business that should be run by the private sector. One group of bureaucrats just jailed another group of bureaucrats. Get the government out of the education business and the whole problem goes away.

Hear, hear, but it will never happen until the sh|t really hits the fan.

[11th Earl of Mar]

The right to own a firearm is guaranteed by the Constitution. There is not Constitutional amendment that guarantees the right for public school teachers to strike. Did you forget that?

[hobbes1]

If someone can jail you for not going to work, that is involuntary servitude. I am completely appalled at this judge's actions, and am curious as to how the community benefits from this in terms of chewed up jail space.

While I usually agree with you, I am appalled at your lack of concern for the people who, thru whatever artifice, are compelled to send their children to these publik skoolz.

Simply, they are in effect Public Servants of a sort, and well paid ones at that. If they were striking say, at the end of the school year, and /or threatening not to come back, I might tend to agree,But the rights of the Children that attend that school, and the taxpayers that support it, GREATLY OUTWEIGH the Teachers right to have a Job Action.

And further, Once a Judge Orders you back to work, you are unfortuneately the object of a court order. Contempt is Contempt, Lets face it these are not reporters Protecting Sources, these are Teachers (For all practical Purposes) Taking HOSTAGES.

P.S. I bet they could've resigned, to avoid being Jailed.....

[SUSSA]

One teacher, Carol Ann Drum, retired on the spot rather than have Kreizman send her to jail.

The judge didn't put Carol Ann in jail. The rest of the bureaucrats could avoid jail to by just quiting or retiring.

[hobbes1]

How timely Thank You.

[Artist]

Then there was the Biology II "teacher." We called this class "Frankie's Film-Fest" because after he took attendence he would drop a tape of "Nature" or some David Attenburough doccumnetary into the VCR and leave! We wouldn't see him again until a minute or two before the class was over.

At least that was a little educational. We live in what is supposed to be an excellent school district, but one of our young neighbors says she's always watching TV in class. Her high school teachers pop feature films into the VCR for the class to watch....or just turn on the TV so they can watch cartoons!

Needless to say, we're homeschooling.

[Alberta's Child]

Carol Ann Drum did the school district a huge favor. Every district in the state would love to have their older teachers retire, so they can be replaced by younger teachers with lower salaries.