The Daily News and the Rubber Room

On May 4 and May 5, The New York Daily News printed two articles about NYC's Rubber Room. In brief, a "Rubber Room" is a holding pen in which teachers, paraprofessionals, school aides, secretaries -- almost all school related personnel -- who are accused of violations wait to be tried. They can wait there for months into years. Because the city claims they are dangerous to kids, the individuals accused aren't given anything to do. The punishment is a la Sartre's play No Exit in which individuals are trapped with nothing to do but be in close confines with other trapped people.

You can look up the articles. It's not that I don't want to give you the links, it's that I am so disgusted and so tired of hearing about this issue in the way that the Daily News presented it, that I don't want to look for the addresses again. They're not hard to find. Go to http://www.nydailynews.com/, type in "Rubber Room" and they come up.

They were yet, two MORE articles that talked about how much money this system cost. And, of course, the paper claims to have gotten volumes of emails which basically called for the teachers to be drawn and quartered.

What everyone forgets is, no one in that room is proven guilty. If you've been proven guilty, you've either received a fine, suspension or termination. If you've been proven innocent, you will be placed back in your school.

Suppose we applied this to our general legal system -- would we shoot all detainees? I realize that some of our prisons, like Abu Ghraib, make it seem that way. But, I thought the consensus in this country was not to destroy the Constitution entirely.

In my very, very nebbishy consternation, I wrote a letter to the author of both articles. Depending on what she does, I'll print it here in a few days.

At this moment, however, I wish to remind all who read this that
1) No teacher chooses to be accused of anything
2) An accusation does not equal guilt
and, a very sad
3) Many of the accusers -- students, parents and principals -- have motives for their actions which have little to do with what has actually occurred. I met a teacher who was accused by a parent of possibly giving an answer to a test to another student in that paren't class. Nobody corroborated the parent's story. The teacher spent the year in that confinement cell waiting for it to be determined that she could be released. What do you suppose the accusing parent got out of it? His/her son didn't have this tough teacher for the rest of the year. Now, there's an ugly way to keep your grades up.

Think back: imagine you were given the chance to get a teacher you hated pulled from the classroom in one, fell swoop. No more awful assignments. No more boredom. No more criticism. It's tempting, isn't it? Maybe you wouldn't do it, but you know someone who might. The way you might not destroy the teacher's desk, car or room, but students have done. And now they can take it one step further. They NEVER have to see that teacher again, if they plan it right....

Furthermore, it is a fact that our current DOE actively creates disincentives for keeping senior staff. Before this administration, the DOE supplemented school budgets so that they could retain older, more experienced and YES more costly teachers. Don't teachers have a right to be paid for their experience? Regardless of what you think on that question, with this administration the DOE no longer does this. So, you can get two younger teachers for the price of one older teacher. I don't know, Walmart is one of the most popular stores in this country. What do you think the principal's are shopping for in teachers these days, as a result? As you would expect, the average new teacher doesn't last three years -- just the way the average bottom priced item at Walmart doesn't.


Be well, everyone.