Bounced out of school

[tonysam]

Another perspective about NYC's infamous rubber rooms.

Excerpt:

Dr Joy Hochstadt, the lawyer representing them, says rubber rooms are being used by heads to get rid of whistle-blowers.

“Again and again, I see these nonsensical specifications in 3020-a charges (also known as Teacher Tenure Hearings, similar to a General Teaching Council hearing in England and Wales). Never have I seen it where a teacher taught substantively incorrect concepts, facts and ideas,” she says.

Dr Hochstadt, a former teacher who spent time in the rubber room but was subsequently cleared of the charges against her, cites the case of Brandi Scheiner, a primary teacher for 24 years. She was sent to a reassignment centre for seating her pupils in the wrong way on the floor during story time and acceeding to a request from a five-year-old pupil for more glue.

“Mrs Scheiner is loud, funny, round and cuddly, the perfect type of kindergarten teacher and surrogate caretaker for students,” she says. “These criticisms were not against her teaching: they were against Mrs Scheiner personally and against her top-scale salary.”

US campaign groups such as Teachers 4 Action and the National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse claim that the rubber rooms provide a route for heads to get rid of high-salary teachers. They claim that the Department of Education hopes that teachers will get so fed up with the rubber rooms that they resign, allowing the school to save on their salary.

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[RaleighNCDUer]

1. First I've ever heard about this - how bizarre. nt

[tonysam]

2. From a blog is a comment

on a NY Post report of a teacher who has been in the rubber room for a decade:

I read with real amusement how the New York Post reported about a teacher, Alan Rosenfeld, who has been sitting in a DOE "rubber room" for almost a decade while collecting his full salary. What the New York Post seemed not to understand is that the real cause for Alan Rosenfeld receiving his full salary for doing nothing for nearly a decade is Chancellor Joel Klein himself.

A little history is need here. Alan Rosenfeld was charged under New York State Law 3020-a by the DOE and he went through a full 3020-a hearing and after the independent Arbitrator heard all the evidence against Mr. Rosenfeld, decided that he was only guilty of one minor charge and gave Mr. Rosenfeld a one week suspension without pay. This Arbitrator dismissed all the remaining charges as being unfounded hearsay and expected Mr. Rosenfeld to be returned to the classroom. However, along came Chancellor Joel Klein who decided that a person like Alan Rosenfeld should not be in the classroom and sentenced him to a permanent stay in the "rubber room". This is known as "Chancellor discretion".

Now I ask you. Who is responsible for Alan Rosenfeld receiving his full pay while spending a decade in the "rubber room"?

Was it the New York State "due process" law?

How about Alan Rosenfeld's somewhat abrasive personality?

Could in be the teacher union contract?

Or was it Chancellor Joel Klein's fault?

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[mzteris]

4. ah - Mr. Rosenfeld - you left out

Alan Rosenfeld hasn't set foot in a classroom for nearly a decade since he was accused in 2001 of making lewd comments to junior-high girls and "staring at their butts," yet the department still pays him handsomely for sitting on his own butt seven hours a day.

In 2001, six eighth-graders at IS 347 in Queens accused Rosenfeld, a typing teacher who filled in for an absent dean, of making comments like "You have a sexy body," asking one whether she had a boyfriend and making others feel uncomfortable with creepy leers.

BIZMAN ON CAMPUS: Typing teacher Alan Rosenfeld outside the Brooklyn “rubber room” where he clocks in every morning with fellow classroom exiles and manages a law practice and real-estate fortune.

Because the Department of Education could not produce all the students as witnesses, he was found guilty in only one case. A girl testified that Rosenfeld stopped at her locker, where she was standing with a friend, and "said I love him because I talk to him so much."

. . . The DOE can't fire him.

"We have to abide by the union contract," spokeswoman Ann Forte said.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/school_creep_bQL5kouK80obW5MhZRyq7J#ixzz0egdeCd4E


BTW - he was sentenced to the rubber room in 2001. Klein wasn't even Chancellor until 2002 . . .

[mzteris]

3. more on some of those "teachers"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=219x18686#18722