Blogger Arthur Goldstein lacerates the New York Daily News for its latest assault on teachers.
One teacher was accused of having attended meetings of an organization called NAMBLA (the North American Man-Boy Love Association). Was it true? Who knows? Did he do anything illegal? No investigation.
Goldstein, who recently received the coveted Skinny Award for excellence as a teacher-blogger, wrote:
“The Daily News, no longer content to have its editorial section lecture us on the perfidy of teachers, has now taken to the pages of its “reporting” to do so. In fact, to save time, they appear to be simply writing the same story every day. Teachers are a bunch of perverts, legal expert Campbell Brown says they are right, and that’s pretty much it.
And, of course, paragon of fairness Dennis Walcott says anyone charged with sexual misconduct ought to be terminated. If the puppet of the city’s richest man says you’re guilty, that ought to be good enough for anyone. Right, Daily News?”
(Campbell Brown used to work for CNN. She has written previously about her contempt for teachers unions. Her husband is on the board of Michelle Rhee’s NY-based StudentsFirst.)
I remember when I lived in DC in the early ’90s: a teacher was accused by half a dozen teenagers of inappropriate touching. The man’s name was dragged through the mud. The evidence seemed clear. So many students making the same complaint! But when the teens were interviewed individually by the police, each one recanted and said they agreed to make a false accusation because the teacher was a hard grader.
That is why, in American law, there is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
By the way, the publisher of the New York Daily News is Mort Zuckerman, a good friend of Mayor Bloomberg and a fellow billionaire. Zuckerman is also publisher of U.S. News & World Report, which released the Ed-school bashing report of the National Council on Teacher Quality.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Interesting exchange with the reporter – recommended reading:
http://nyceducator.com/2013/06/another-day-another-trashing-of-teachers.html
Yes, it is an interesting exchange. The “reporter” got hammered. Deservedly so.
Very interesting. The one person made a good point. Why doesn’t Campbell Brown ball for Rhee’s husband’s resignation?
You meant call, but ball was funny. Thanks for the laugh.
Someone needs to contact Campbell ASAP…she is associating with a predator and she could be in danger…well maybe not…she’s well past 16, the preferred age for KJ.
It takes the DOE between 6 and 12 months to “investigate” the accusations, the Report concludes with a “finding” of guilt, the accused, of course, has had no opportunity to defend themselves. Eventually charge may be presented, the Department lawyers frequently “settle” the case because evidence is lacking. Why doesn’t the DOE investigate in timely manner? Becasue they would rather “create” a political issue – an article in the Daily News and TV ads criticizing the union, instead of actually pursueing the case in an expeditious manner.
Politics trumps fairness … what a surprise.
Actually, I’ve seen these agencies take longer than that, sometimes years longer than that, to spew their findings. Their remarkable ineptitude notwithstanding, their attitude is they don’t need to follow any stinking rules. And these are the very people who would like to convict working teachers based solely on their say-so.
So according to Walcott’s reasoning, if anyone can get a child to accuse Walcott of sexual misconduct, regardless of whether there is proof or not, regardless if the child lied, the MERE ACCUSATION should be enough to remove Walcott from his position, and then we can get a real educator in there.
Is anyone else pondering what I pondering?
NCTQ and Zuckerman also connect to Jeb Bush:
How do people like Bloomberg and Zuckerman sleep at night? I guess their egos are so huge they think they are above everyone.
Please someone alert Campbell that she is associating with a predator.
Mr. Johnson Rhee falls into the category of people she is so worried about or are politicians married to sociopaths exempt?
Campbell…..YOU are an opportunistic hypocrite….disassociate with the Rhees and hold them to the same level of scrutiny. Two links for your reading pleasure:
Reposting:
And Campbell is so concerned about sexual predators while she and her hubby hang out with Rhee and Johnson, an admirer of teen girls. He likes to hang our with them late at night.
Click to access Phoenix_Police.source.prod_affiliate.4.pdf
When Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, was under investigation last year for alleged financial misdeeds and inappropriate behavior with female students, he had an important ally behind the scenes.
Michelle Rhee, the nationally known education reformer who is now head of the Washington, D.C., public schools, had several conversations with a federal inspector general in which she made the case for Johnson and the school he ran in Sacramento, according to the inspector general. Rhee, who had served on the board of the school and is now engaged to marry Johnson, said he was “a good guy.”
Rhee’s position had little effect on the inspector general, Gerald Walpin, who filed a criminal referral to the U.S. attorney on Johnson, a self-described friend and supporter of President Obama. But both the Sacramento police and federal attorneys declined to pursue charges. Walpin, who protested the prosecutors’ handling of the case, was ultimately fired by the Obama White House in June. [LA Times]
– See more at: http://rokdrop.com/2009/11/23/michelle-rhee-linked-to-kevin-johnson-sex-scandal-cover-up/#sthash.giFjQkUb.dpuf
Disgusting
To clarify, Johnson and Rhee are now married. Her daughters live with her ex-husband. Make of that what you will.
I can’t fathom these attacks on teachers. My child completed first grade yesterday and half the students were in tears when they said goodbye to teacher. She’s a terrific instructor and an incredibly compassionate person. We are grateful for all that she did for our child this past year.
Thanks for your kind words. For working teachers, they mean a lot. The only thanks that mean more than that are the ones that come directly from your kids. We know who we’re working for, and we know who appreciates us. We also know who doesn’t, because we have this nasty habit of reading the news. Too late to break that habit now, I guess.
The only “things”–my typing surprises me sometimes.
This story also highlights the danger and inanity of having student surveys count as a significant part of teacher evaluations, one of the many reforms pushed by Gates.
Here’s the story Diane refers to:
Just after 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 16, gym teacher Ronald Heller was called to his principal’s office. He was shown written statements from several sixth-grade students saying they’d seen him in the girls’ locker room, hugging one girl in her bra and panties, slapping another on her behind and calling yet another “hot sexy mama.”
The wind went out of him.
“I did not do this,” Heller, 54, said. “This is a lie.”
He looked at the names–six girls and a boy. Only two were in his class. The rest he didn’t even know.
………
Heller’s attorney had him take a lie detector test March 8. Heller and his attorney, Paul F. Kemp, said it showed he had never called anyone a “hot sexy mama,” much less fondled anyone.
By Friday, March 10, it was over. All seven students had owned up to the lie. And the school system was beginning the paperwork so he could return to school.
He wants to make sure the girls don’t.
“They come,” he said, “I leave.”
The girl wants the world to know she’s not a bad person: “What I did was wrong. I can’t change what happened. I just want to get back to normal, get back to my life and everybody to forget about it.”
As punishment while she’s suspended, the girl has to do the dishes and clean up around the house more. She found out through a neighbor that she’s lost her part in the school play.
She doesn’t quite understand that she’s been arrested–she wasn’t taken away in handcuffs, like on TV. On the way to the police station, she asked her father, “Am I supposed to smile for this picture?’ “
http://articles.latimes.com/2000/mar/26/news/mn-12749
He returned to the school.
The false accusers did not.
He retired at the end of the year.
Another false accusation story:
His reputation sullied, teacher commits suicide
False accusation leads to tragedy in Virginia city
By Timothy Dwyer, Washington Post | February 15, 2004
ROANOKE, Va. — The two-lane bridge that Ron Mayfield Jr. came to on the morning of his death stands almost 200 feet above the flowing waters where his father took him fishing as a boy and where, years later, he spent hours with his own son, casting for catfish and perch.
He made two final calls on his cellphone, gasping out a farewell to his wife and dialing 911 without saying a word. Then he lay the phone beside the road and straddled the knee-high metal bridge railing.
At an hour when the school day was just getting started 6 miles away at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Mayfield leaned sideways and let go, falling into the river.
The note he left tucked in the Bible, on the front seat of the car he left properly parked in the rest area by the bridge, began this way:
“I am so sorry for what I have done, but there is no way I could carry on, absolutely no way.”
The apology was for taking his own life. He had no need to apologize for what drove him to his death, because Mayfield knew it was untrue.
A student at Woodrow Wilson told authorities that he had been assaulted by Mayfield, 55, who taught English to nonnative speakers. Mayfield denied it, but his word, his reputation, and his spotless record were not enough. He had been suspended, and police were called in to investigate.
What Mayfield did not know as he mounted the bridge that morning was that police had cleared him of wrongdoing.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/02/15/his_reputation_sullied_teacher_commits_suicide/
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.