A U.S. District Court judge ruled that a special education teacher who was fired for complaining about cheating may sue former Chancellor of Schools Michelle Rhee and his former principal Donald Presswood. The teacher, Bruno Mpoy, complained that the principal directed him to falsify test scores. He refused to do so, and he said he was subjected to harassment and suspended. When he brought his complaints to DCPS administrators and Chancellor Rhee, according to his testimony, he was “investigated, harassed, threatened, and ultimately terminated from his teaching position at the direction of Chancellor Rhee, DCPS, and Mr. Presswood.”
Mpoy originally sought to sue not only Rhee and Presswood, but also Mayor Adrian Fenty and the New Teacher Project. The judge decided that he could sue only Rhee and Presswood, based on claims that his First Amendment rights had been violated, and that the D.C. Whistleblower Law had been violated.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ultimately, it’s going to take a lot of lawsuits to rein in the educational deformers.
It will be interesting to see how she slithers out of this one.
Although she will be able to hire the best lawyers to help her slither through, I hope this teacher is successful with the lawsuit.
Thank you for posting this. All avenues need to be pursued.
This teacher has great courage. Thanks for posting this. I’ll be following.
Walt Gardner wrote about this as a reason that tenure is still needed.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/walt_gardners_reality_check/2012/07/teacher_tenure_is_still_needed.html
Apparently Mr. Mpoy was busted for insubordination, a favorite charge for principals to bring against teachers they don’t like and particularly common for special education teachers to get charged with because we stand up for our students if we are worth our salt. He was really caught by the privates, also a way they get special ed. If he had changed the scores he could have gotten caught in a cheating scandal like what happened in Atlanta and if he did not, he would have been insubordinate.
This is a prime example of why we need tenure. Keep us posted on this one. I hope he has a good union.
It’s not just Special Ed Teachers; “Insubordination” is a favorite charge for getting rid of any tenured teacher who resists this kind of corruption. I hope that Mr. Mpoy becomes a millionaire out of this.
Just read the complaint. Yep! Just as I suspected, the administration created a hostile work environment by turning Mr. Mpoy’s paraprofessional against him. Then she did her job of disrupting the class. CLASSIC! This is how they do special ed. Plus the para had racial problems with working for an African teacher. She could be brought up on charges of racism. I have been through this. It is awful. The worst thing that can happen to a special ed. teacher is to give her/him a hostile para who won’t do as they are asked and is working against the teacher. A bad para is very dangerous to a teacher.
What is even worse is if the para stands up for the teacher instead of helping the principal, then she gets marked down on her evaluation! A racist principal who was trying to get rid of me tried this on my para who had been rated “Distinguished” previously and was considered one of the top severe/profound paras in the system. When she stood up for me she was written up as “Uncooperative” on her evaluation.
May the force be with him.