Strange things happen in Los Angeles. Maybe all that nonstop good weather rattles people.
High school science teacher Greg Schiller was suspended after an administrator concluded that science projects made by two of his students were dangerous.
Schiller has now been allowed to return to his classroom.
“Both projects overseen by teacher Greg Schiller were capable of launching small objects. A staff member at the downtown Cortines School of Visual & Performing Arts had raised concerns about one of them. Both are common in science fairs.
“I am very excited to be back with my students and help them prepare for the Advanced Placement tests, which are a week away,” Schiller said Thursday. “We have a lot of work ahead of ourselves.”
Schiller teaches AP Biology and AP Psychology. He also coaches the fencing team, which had to miss a major competition due to his suspension.
Has anyone considered checking the credentials of the administrator who removed him?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You can bet that it wasn’t really for the science projects.
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You hit the nerve, Jon.
“In addition, Schiller was the teachers union representative on campus and had been dealing with disagreements with administrators over updating the employment agreement under which the faculty works.”
So, yes, I would not only like to know the identity of the “staff member” who was so alarmed that a small object might be propelled a few feet, i would like to see that person prosecuted.
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Well, maybe not, maybe so. There is enough politically-driven administrative payback/vendetta nonsense in public schools for you to be right, but also enough truly stupid principals and pedagogues (and parents, politicians, pundits, pupils, professors, and publishers) out there for me to be willing to give credence to just about any outrage, upon review of the particulars.
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Alliterative Michael,
Please add Projectile Police to your list of the truly stupid ‘P”s.
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What else can you expect with a job assignment to teach AP science in the Cortines School of Visual & Performing Arts?
Not entirely kidding,
Many specialized high schools in the arts are directed by performing artists (less commonly visual artists) who have little or no knowledge of the spectrum of subjects the schools are required to offer and what good teaching looks like in those subjects.
My city has a similar school with “an artistic director” and governance structure not entirely under the control of the school board.
The whistle-blower on this activity was probably super-concerned about risk management, not education.
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Are you saying that performing arts high schools don’t care about academics? The alternative being that they only care about creativity over test scores? I would hate to think that because here in NYC we have such schools, and administrators have to be certified and licensed by the State.
As for the whistle blower’s “super concern”, I don’t think so because there are specific guidelines for science fair projects and a good science teacher would know that even if another staff member did not. Wouldn’t any staff member go question the science teacher first??? School politics seems more like the motive to me and as a former UFT rep, you see who cares more about their own standing with a principal than their rights under the contract.
And why did it lead to a 2-month suspension when this project falls under the guidelines? I think the fact that this teacher was also a union leader had more to do with this suspension rather than an artistic director’s lack of knowledge.
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Eli Broad has coveted this school since before it even opened. Until he controls it, his minions are determined to destroy every vestige of success. Deasy refuses to fund it.
After the current bozo was installed this year as principal, Broad coughed up a little “charity” money to keep it afloat until the deed can be turned over to him.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/14/local/la-me-arts-high-20130715
Parents, students and teachers need to fight this administration to keep their school. You need to Google for more links yourself. They’re there.
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The principals of the school have been transient, and it may be because of Broad’s meddling. The latest principal is a NYC transplant, according to what I was reading last summer. She is a notorious reformer who was recruited to whip the school in shape. The kids have refused to call the school RC HS. They call it #9 because they had been promised they could help choose a name with staff then BOE pres. Garcia swooped in as she does and unilaterally dubbed it Cortines Arts HS.
This school is one of ( actually 4 if you include Roybals LC which was built on the same toxic site Belmont the most expensive HS built and never used) Taj Mahal HS that Eli Broad built in another bond measure heist that added billions more his fortune . Arts in LAUSD are constantly cut so #9 is not realizing it’s purpose. Designed by a famed architect fromGermany, who ultimately was stiffed by Eli Broad — #9 is an ironic monument to the unchecked corruption in schools and city politics under the influence of plutocrats. What is so galling is that Broad has repeatedly threatened to take the school over because of enrollment issues as well as the administrators who keep coming and going. How can he steal tax payers’ money, endangers students, beat investigations the people demanded ( as Deasy did with ipads thanks to a DA with more ambition than integriity) and lay a claim on this school? It is unnerving how much we have surrendered to this despicable despot. He is after real estate , power and dangerous young minds . The kids at #9 have had enough . They are are the reason Schiller was returned. His parents, both retired teachers were alo diligent and determined in getting him back to work. I think they wisely hired an attorney to go on the offensive. So take note LAUSD teachers. Youre not safe, but you can become formidable if you are a quick study.
www,hemlockontherocks.com
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The job of every administrator is the District is at risk if anyone dares defy the policies of John Deasy. Fear is running this outfit. Deasy’s policies are clear – get rid of high paid, older teachers and those who are associated with United Teachers Los Angeles. I’m glad Mr. Schiller is back. Now let’s get the hundreds of other innocent teachers back in their classrooms.
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The administrator should be required to watch the movie “October Sky” about The childhood of NASA rocket scientist Homer Hickam. Science Education in the 1950s, the way it was meant to be. And a good lesson on why we still need unions.
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That is one of my favorite movies. The book is really good also.
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The way LAUSD runs things, we outside will NEVER know the full story of what happened.
The District insists that a gag order be placed on all individuals involved in an internal investigation. Mr. Schiller was instructed to NOT talk about his situation with ANYONE. During his entire ordeal, we have no clue what was said to him, nor how the entire investigation was carried out or who was responsible and said/did what. Not even the teacher himself has the right to know what were the discussions in LAUSD’s Star Chamber.
Mr. Schiller may want to not say another word about anything because there is enormous pressure on teachers to not fight back and “trust” the District. This of course is his prerogative but there are many other teachers caught up in the LA jail system who have not had the intense scrutiny on their own individual plights that Mr. Schiller received. The outcome for the school’s union rep, Mr. Schiller, might be very different if his own parents and his students and community didn’t make such a fuss on his behalf creating intense public scorn and ridicule onto LAUSD.
“Due Process” for teachers is under attack throughout the country. Any teacher in a similar situation should actually follow Mr. Schiller’s example and find ways to send smoke signals out to the community for assistance. Most should not wait for the District to render its verdict made in the shadows. The entire LAUSD “investigation” mechanism works in the dark, relying on secrecy to promote doubt and terror.
Is there a political component to who gets scrutinized and how?
LAUSD Inc has been run as a highly politicized organization ever since Supt. Deasy has come into office. It is an administration that goes after dissent as quickly and harshly as possible. Teachers have learned through their administrators what is expected of them and how they have to behave. The entire movement towards “thin contracts” and the threat of reconstitution hangs over the schools and most teachers are worried about keeping their jobs. One doesn’t have to look far to find examples of teachers who have rocked the boat and have paid some price for their voice.
I’m glad Mr. Schiller is back where he belongs.
As far as LAUSD is concerned, the case is closed. It would be illuminating for someone to read the entire locked file and see how everything about Mr. Schiller’s situation came about from the very, very start.
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So much intrigue. I thought LAUSD was operating to educate children. How does keeping a teacher out of the classroom help any students. It is all so insane!
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““I am very excited to be back with my students and help them prepare for the Advanced Placement tests, which are a week away,” Schiller said Thursday.
Yep, test prep time.
Gotta get that good data!
Screw AP classes, they’re part of the data driven infection that has been taking over the teaching and learning processes.
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Sigh. AP used to be the only actual national program for gifted and talented high school students, and it used to be taught by a mix of subject-driven teachers and senior old farts.
The “old” AP saved both my own sons from despair in high school. One took physics, calculus, and coding and is an assistant professor now. The other took refuge from the testing mania in English composition and lit courses, with a fighter-teacher who wouldn’t sell out. He’s in SAG-AFTRA and he plays Museum Guard #1 in John Travolta’s upcoming movie, The Forger.
I get the feeling Schiller isn’t betraying his AP students to the data monster, and my immediate response is to welcome my brother back to his classroom and his students.
The School of the Arts should belong to all the children of LA, and it needs to be worthy of them, and so does every elementary and middle school that feeds it.
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The AP exams have been bastardized from their original intent. Now schools are rated by the number of AP exams offered and the number of students who take them. Nothing in the rating is about how they actually score on the exam.
Could it be the hefty fee that the students have to pay for the privilege of taking an AP exam which drives this phenomena?
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Pearson @pearson · Apr 6
Students can learn to solve problems, get instant feedback, be assessed when computers are partners.
You-all have to start reading Pearson’s twitter.
I love “be assessed”. By their partner. The computer 🙂
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These people are sick
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“CELEBRATING ‘COLLEGE AND CAREER’: Preparing students for college and career has become an Obama administration mantra — and now the catch phrase has its own party! ACT is hosting a “National Gala on College and Career Readiness” in June.
Over cocktails and dinner at a swanky D.C. hotel, guests will “celebrate achievement and highlight the importance of college and career readiness.” The keynote speaker: Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of George W. Bush. She taught briefly at a charter school and has contributed pieces on education reform to NBC.”
If it’s a “national gala” that means we’re all invited, right? 🙂
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Where’s the pail? I need it now.
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LA is known for suspending g their teachers for nonsense. There was a phenomenal music teacher from Buffalo, NY and we heard that she was removed from the classroom and I know these are not isolated incidents.
To what purpose? Is it to flex administrative muscles to keep the faculty cowering and afraid to rebut questionable policies? Is it to flaunt their power in the face of the unions? (And where do the unions stand in all this mess?)
From any reasonable point of view, this whole incident is just plain wrong.
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It doesn’t take this long to conduct an investigation but at LAUSD, no one knows what the other is doing. Lots of contradictory and inane policies and procedures conducted by know nothing administrators. The process could be streamlined an should be for all employees and not just teachers. Congrads to Greg and watch your back brother.
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I would warn folks on this blog to be careful making judgments about personnel actions without knowing all the details. This teacher may well have been in the right, and that they were reinstated obviously proves that. I stand strongly behind the fight against much of the reforms of today’s status quo, but you risk losing credibility with knee jerk support for teachers under investigation in personnel actions. All admin decisions on personnel can’t be judged from a distance on a blog.
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RetiredTnSupt, this case absolutely demonstrates there’s something rotten going on LA, and your miserable knee-jerk repudiation of administrative accountability for bogus prosecutions demonstrates the kind of superintendent you were.
“…you risk losing credibility with knee jerk support for teachers under investigation in personnel actions…” is classic concern troll language.
We’ll worry about our own credibility, thank you very much.
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This case may have been a bad example for my post, but there is a large segment on this blog, like you, it seems, with the attitude that the teacher is always right and the administrator is in the wrong when trying to change practice without knowing all the facts. I learned through years as a personnel director to be very careful before judging a teacher or administrator without carefully and objectively investigating. We have no right to judge the actions of either this teacher or the administrator who suspended him. … And, by the way, I was a strong advocate for great teachers all my career and well known for my support of academic freedom and creativity in the classroom. Surely someone out there understands what I am trying to say. Quit labeling everyone who has a different opinion but supports the general beliefs on this blog a troll.
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Retired Tn Supt, you’ve now gone on to make a completely unfounded accusation against me:
“there is a large segment on this blog, like you, it seems, with the attitude that the teacher is always right and the administrator is in the wrong.”
I said no such thing, and implied no such thing, and you have no evidence whatsoever to make such a charge. So, in this case you are in the wrong, and post is right there, and so is yours.
Unlike your bogus attack, this is actual evidence that you’ve been accustomed to the prerogatives of a bully. Again, what this case demonstrates conclusively is that there has been unfounded prosecution of a teacher in LAUSD. Your effort to deflect attention from that point is transparent.
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Dear Retired Tn Supt:
I appreciate ANY intelligent administrator or supervisor who can see the Bigger Picture in Education. If you are a supporter of academic freedom and creativity in the classroom, then the system needs more such minds as yours. You are a friend.
We also need MORE of you to speak out when challenges to both occur. Public schools need to be places where kids learn about courage through the actions of those charged with exposing kids to this wonderful, but complex, world.
When administrators and superintendents turn a blind eye to situations that are so clearly wrong or have a nasty political component, they ARE the reason that a teacher starts to fear to use creativity and their academic freedom rights and obligations as part of their methodologies.. Administrators become derelict in their own responsibility and teachers are correct to lose respect for their higher up’s integrity.
My observation is that many of the arrogant “Take-Charge-And-Do-It-MY-Way” Superintendents use their powers to make examples of teachers who don’t fall in line. They have too much stake in their own interests and pedagogical philosophy to be anything but ruthless. I am encouraged that the kids and community of this teacher took a stand. That is part of THEIR education as well that is MORE than school and methinks they learned tremendously from their actions and results that went far beyond their classroom experiences.
In my mind, that is what TRUE education is all about.
You’re right that every individual case is different; knee-jerk reactions out of ignorance may indeed be mistaken. But if the same types of cases repeat themselves over and over again, then there is something systemically wrong in a district and needs to be scrutinized.
Thanks again for your intelligent voice and input.
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While there might be more to the story, we are basing our opinions, not only on this story, but from other information we have received about the LA school district.
And why do so many of us, including chrmtchr, take the side against administration? It’s simply because, as teachers, we have seen too many examples of our principals and superintendents abusing their power, in the name of education, to go after the ones who are doing the grunt work of the schools – actually teaching the kids. The fact that this teacher was a union rep is a clue that this disciplinary action might have been retaliatory (and I have seen actions such as this before).
No, we don’t know all the details, but we have lived through these same circumstances in school districts across the US, so I think our standings are valid.
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I suggest you check out the bigger scandal unraveling at LAUSD right now.
http://www.hemlockontherocks.com
This district protects child beaters and perverts while jailing, displacing and permanatly laying off veteran teachers who have decades of unstained service . LAUSD has fired thousands of teachers in recent years for the most absurd reasons. I am one of them and for the last 3 years I have been an activist and advocate for teacher casualties. I am an expert, some say, and I do radio shows, run a blog that employs citizen reporters and offers a commons for all teachers. We work with NYC teachers who have provided a kind of road map for us, though even they were not as wantonly defamed as we have been. There are a few guilty teachers in teacher jail. We figure out who they are quickly because they don’t get meetings, hearings, evaluations in their cubicles… In other words they do unspeakable things and are never reported to police or CTC while innocent teachers have to defend themselves constantly ; though they may be accused of illegal acts, LAUSD rarely reports ANY teachers to police. This is all about teacher cleansing and concealing the real crimes. I appreciate your obvious logic and expertise, but in LA everything is tortally upside down and backwards. You cannot imagine the devestation these innocent teachers are facing. The guilty ones languish with pay and eventually return to duty. The innocent are unemployable, emotionally broken. They commit suicude. They become homeless. They sink into illness, often madness. I tremble typing this when I consider the horrors unleashed upon myself and my colleagues. I was done in because I blew the whistle on an abusive teacher. I lost my house, a thriving career I adored, healthcare amd hope . All I have left is my whistle and its a lot more than LAUSD realized until it was too late . They still come after me. I have had FBI agents at my door. By the time they left, they were apologizing and taking notes for real about the pension schemes, district defecit and pervert protection policy. I have madejournalists, oarents and colleagues into believers.
I can prove that LAUSD is lawless, abusive, dangerous and more. Perhaps you can tell me where to take our concerns because presently, the city and feds are turning a blind eye because they are in on the reform scams. I hold out hope our governor will intervene but something tells me he can’t until the public is fully advised of this current corrupt to its common core system .
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Rene – your woeful tale is heart wretching. You are in my prayers. I don’t think even God could fix this situation.
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As usual, when both aspects of a situation are presented, in this case teacher action vs administrator response, a more complete picture of the deeply rooted problems emerges. Our current climate of blame-placing pits the very people who should be working together to improve education for students in an untenable hostility. This is exactly what those seeking to destroy public education for their own profit hope to achieve. Suspicions on both sides have escalated to the point that knee-jerk reactions sap the very energy needed to drive school success. Another case of adults behaving badly while kids watch.
The question we should ask is who benefits in these conflicts? When we jump to conclusions no one does. As a former teacher, I appreciate the outrage over Mr. Schiller’s “seemingly” unfair suspension. As also a former administrator, I know of cases where the information that circulated about a disciplinary action did not address the complexities of the decisions due to the very confidentiality issues protecting the teacher. Shouldn’t we, therefore, use caution when “damning” anyone. Isn’t that what true education would coach?
That said, I’m mad as &*%# about the bashing we’re all taking and how that drives even the best of us to turn against one another.
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If there are secret charges against the teacher which are the true cause of the suspension, they HAVE to be made public, willis 737.
You can’t take legal suspend a teacher on a charge you aren’t willing to state in public. Your presumption that any teacher attacked by the administration may also actually be guilty of dark, secret crimes is filthy and poisonous.
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Quite right. Thanks for your level headed statement . I am just sorry others like chemtchr don’t understand what I am trying to convey, and among some really hard core union folks, there is no getting through. They are no different than the arrogant reformers like Rhee, Huffman, Gates, Coleman etc. They see things their way only and make judgments too quickly through the union viewpoint that if an administrator did it, it must be teacher bashing. Changing these mindsets on both sides is critical to the resolution of this crisis in education.
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“They are no different than the arrogant reformers like Rhee, Huffman, Gates, Coleman etc.”
Hmmm. It took a parent petition drive and a credible threat of a school walkout to get Greg Schiller back into his classroom where he belongs, and a couple of folks have gotten together to somehow work that up into their usual anti-union screed.
I understand exactly what you’ve been trying to convey, but the teflon has worn off your ugly attacks. I feel very safe defending a fellow teacher from politically motivated attacks, and encourage others to support union safeguards against unjustified persecution.
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