Monday, January 25, 2010

Rhee says laid-off teachers in D.C. abused kids

Washington Post Staff
Writer Saturday, January 23, 2010

Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee told a national business magazine that some of the 266 teachers laid off in October's budget reductions had sex with children or had hit them, a claim immediately and angrily challenged Friday by leaders of the Washington Teachers Union.

Rhee's comments appear in the February issue of Fast Company, a magazine aimed at young entrepreneurs and change-minded corporate executives. In a brief item, Rhee addressed the union allegation that she contrived the budget crunch to circumvent seniority rules and rid the system of older teachers.

"I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school. Why wouldn't we take those things into consideration?" she said.

Rhee declined to provide specific numbers Friday or details to substantiate her remarks about sexual misconduct and teachers striking students. Neither did she respond when asked by e-mail why such teachers were allowed to remain in the school system before the Oct. 2 job cuts. D.C. police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said late Friday that she was researching the matter. The Washington Post
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

For WTU Members

The Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) is here to serve our members, and we encourage you to visit this blog often.

Join US!

As a new teacher in DCPS, you are automatically a member of the WTU bargaining unit as an agency fee member; however, we would like to invite you to become a full WTU member. The WTU bargaining unit consists of two categories of members: agency fee members and full union members. As an agency fee member your biweekly deduction is $28.22 and the biweekly deduction for full union membership is $33.20; a difference of only $4.98 per pay period.

As a full dues paying member of the WTU, you are entitled to representation from our highly qualified field representatives, Professional Development and Educational Research & Dissemination courses, and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Plus benefits such as $1,000,000 liability policy and $15,000 accidental death insurance. Full dues paying members also obtain voting rights to participate in local school elections, the approval of the WTU contract, and the upcoming general election of union officers. As teachers who will have the responsibility for supervising children throughout the day, we strongly encourage all teachers to become full union members to take advantage of the $1,000,000 liability insurance coverage to protect your financial assets against possible lawsuits.

To obtain an application for Full Membership, click here.

WTU E-Portal Disclaimer

This WTU E-Portal was created and is maintained to facilitate a free exchange of ideas. The WTU E-Portal contains input from a large variety of individuals and sources which may or may not be connected with the WTU. The WTU does not necessarily agree or adopt the content or opinion of any posting on this site as its position on any subject. Further, the WTU does not necessarily agree or adopt the content or opinion of other Web sites linked from, or identified in, the WTU E-Portal. All claims otherwise would violate the spirit and purpose of the WTU E-Portal. For further information, please review the Terms of Use for the WTU E-Portal.

You are strongly urged to use and frequently update an anti-virus program. The WTU cannot and does not warrant any site linked from, or identified in, the WTU E-Portal is security tested or risk free.