Rubber Rooms: NYC Teachers Paid To Do Nothing [With Video]

[tonysam]

"I worked hard to be a teacher," Grace Colon said through tears. "To be an advocate for my students."

After 16 years as a teacher, Colon was sent to a rubber room. She was paid then, but last month was fired by the Department of Education for various charges, including the physical abuse of a student. She still denies the charge and is appealing.

Rubber rooms cost taxpayers more than $53 million every year. Some teachers have been paid to do nothing for as long as seven years. When CBS 2 HD asked the Department of Education about it they simply said the process is a long one.

Here's how it works: a teacher shows up for class, but is handed an envelope. Inside it reads there are allegations against you. Please go to this address. Eventually that turns out to be a rubber room like one CBS 2 HD saw on West 125th Street. But months can go by before a person finds out what the charges are against him or her, and those months can turn into years.

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Comment after the article by veteran teacher David Pakter:

Pablo Guzman has always been one of my true heros -one of America's most courageous Investigative Reporters. That is why I must speak out re the grave Injustice that WCBS News Editors have done to him by gutting and butchering his story. Even the story title is identical to what the media has used ad infinitum for years to suggest that NYC Teachers relish the opportunity to be incarcerated in these Kafkaesque gulags where innocent Educators get confined often for years for strictly Political reasons. I was one of New York's most highly Decorated Educators, Honored by Mayor Giuliani in City Hall as a Teacher of the Year for Exceptional Achievement. I designed the first Medical Program in the Nation for gifted Minority students. But once I became a Whistle-blower I was banished to the Rubber Rooms to silence me and I am just one of many Dept of Education Teacher victims. Mr Guzman uncovered the truth about the system but WCBS gutted all truth from a potentially explosive story. A true Journalistic tragedy.

[sabbat hunter]

1. the system needs to be reformed

so that teachers are not paid to shuffle papers for years on end. Speed up the process. If they are truly incompetent or have abused kids, etc make it easier to get rid of them. At the same time keep protections for teachers so they are not singled out for political reasons, pushed out due to age but still competent, etc.

[tonysam]

2. They won't because of the fact there are just 20 arbitrators

being paid $2,000 a day and work only five days a month.

It's really cushy being an arbitrator. I wasn't in New York, but Nevada, and my arbitrator lived in Del Mar, California, certainly one of the wealthiest areas in the nation. Naturally he was never going to rule in my favor, for arbitrators typically don't get asked back if they piss off the districts too much.

For union lawyers alone in my case, they cost $25,000--in union dues, which is indirectly paid for by the taxpayers. I believe my bogus case cost upwards of $100,000. And on a fake case because the principal was completely negligent.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. NYC teachers don't shuffle papers in the rubber room.

That's what we do in the CLASSROOM. (We used to actually *teach*.)

RR people sit and do literally nothing. You may be thinking of what DOE calls 'modified duty'. related, but distinct.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Months before finding out the charges? That needs to stop.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Bloomberg either owns the NYC $ media or has influence with it.

A hatchet job by CBS is not exactly a shocker.

I suspect a plant: UFT and Bloomberg are deadlocked and about to enter into arbitration.

In a just society ( twenty years ago) one could challenge CBS' license on these grounds.

Not anymore.