Dawn Neely-Randall was taking a class training her to recognize bullying. Suddenly she realized she was the victim of bullying–by the state of Ohio. She plans to sue the state and welcomes others to join her.
She writes:
Neely-Randall vs. State of Ohio
Peer Discriminatory Harassment:
This past week, as I was completing an online training module assigned by the Ohio Department of Education via a required harassment/bullying video (so we could know the state laws within the classroom context), the definition of harassment given included to 1) have an intent to harm; 2) be directed at a specific target; and 3) involve repeated incidents. I learned that legally, harassment focuses on how the behavior affects the victim.
As a teacher in the State of Ohio, I suddenly realized that I am being harassed by the Ohio Department of Education’s own legal definition as well as from legislators who are passing harmful laws to hurt me as well as many harmful laws that hurt my students, which totally, unequivocally knock the wind right out of me.
The state is asking teachers to educate and test students in ways that many of us do not feel are morally correct or developmentally appropriate. For instance, very shortly, some districts will test 3rd graders (a test they must pass in order to pass third grade; another form of harassment) for three hours straight. So, eight year olds will sit at a computer for THREE HOURS STRAIGHT taking a high-stakes (high-pressure situation) English Language Arts test so they can pass third-grade, even though, they are only beginning their second quarter of third-grade. Harassment, much?
In addition, “preliminary” raw data were finally released by the state from PARCC. A woman could have conceived, grown, and birthed a baby in less time than it took for students to have received their scores from the state based on their LAST year’s testing. Oh, wait. Students STILL have not received their scores and the school’s “grade card” is not due out until at least the end of January. Yet, the media are already reporting these raw, preliminary numbers, which, in effect, label teachers and schools. Districts in poverty zip codes are looking like failures whereas schools in more affluent zip codes look like they have better teachers. The scores also do not account for if a student made tremendous growth from the time he/she walked into the classroom and instead, labeled the child as “Basic” or “Limited” aka, failures. Labels hurt. Labels don’t go away. Labels on children are a form of harassment.
Our Ohio Department of Education is a mess. State superintendents do not stick around long. Even when I called the ODE to ask about the new AIR tests, the person answering the phone asked me, “Is that spelled A-I-R?” Um, yes, yes it is. It seems that everyone there should know PARCC and AIR by now; especially at the state level.
The charter scrubbing scandal is also a mess. Urban public schools are constantly being told they are FAILING and being threatened with state takeover while the Ohio Department of Education falsified charter information not only to the citizens of the state, but also to the United States Department of Education, and continued to label schools and did nothing to press charges against the person(s) falsifying the data, even though teachers in another state are IN JAIL for doing the same thing.
And on and on and on and on. (I haven’t even mentioned the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System where it took me eight hours to write one lesson plan and a process in which teachers are labeled at the state level based in large part on test scores.)
Bottom line: I feel harassed by the Ohio Department of Education. I feel abused. I feel heartsick with what they are asking us to do in education and the hoops they are requiring us to put our students through. When a special ed student pulls out every eyelash during testing, that’s a problem. When a fifth-grade student breaks down blubbering during a high-states test, that’s a problem. When a child on an Individualized Instruction Plan calls the State of Ohio HIMSELF (with his parents’ help) THREE times because he feels so convinced about how wrongly he is being treated and the Ohio Department of Education does not have the decency to return his message, that’s a problem.
And during the high school years, in which it should be a student’s glory days and life preparation time, they are putting students, who are already being slammed by society, under tremendous stress and pressure by making teenagers the guinea pigs for their constant shifting of requirements for graduation.
Yes, I feel harassed and finally, I’m going to do something about it.
I will be looking for an attorney to represent me in a lawsuit against anyone harming the children, and thus, me, on my watch.
If you, too, feel harassed, please feel free to send me a note. (I’ve already heard from several people.)
If you know of an attorney, legislator, anyone who can help me to get this process off the ground, I’d really appreciate it.
I will be calling my union for help first. However, this is not on behalf of my amazing school or my supportive superintendent. This is on behalf of me, myself, and I. The state has crossed the line many times in the past few years, but their Peer Discriminatory Harassment online module taught me that I, too, am a victim of abuse. I will use their words in this lawsuit, not mine.
On behalf of teachers all across the state, I’m not going to let them blacken my reputation or bruise me any longer. Feel free to join me.
Stay tuned.
Thanks,
Dawn Neely-Randall
dneelyrandall@gmail.com
Suggestion: Read all of the fine print in your contract.
Especially the part that states “. . . will do any and all other duties as required by the administration.”
Teachers for the most part, when it comes to contracts and their own needs are SUCKAS. (and I was one also, teachers are to damn trusting that no one will not look after them)
I hope she wins her case!
Your bravery is inspiring. I don’t live in Ohio, but if you started a Kickstarter or crowdsourcing effort to pay the attorney(s), I would donate what I can. I know the feeling. My family was bullied out of a charter school because we asked the wrong questions, like “why can’t we have a PTA”? and other subversive questions. I saw the various forms of psychological abuse of children and families by cold-blooded “reform” profiteers who have their agenda to push.
Thank you so much for pushing back.
Dawn, you might look into the pros and cons of a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all public education teachers in Ohio. Good luck. I hope you are successful in stopping the (appropriate choice of word) bullying.
Oh, I love this! It takes brave people like Dawn to bring about change. I am rooting for her!
I dread the release of test scores here, because we get a box of scores in the local newspaper with no context. Then we get local principals who have to explain this complex system in a one paragraph quote, which 80% of people won’t read anyway, because the scores are the thing.
We were told repeatedly that Common Core testing would be different, but it isn’t. It’s 100% about the scores- there’s no “context” or nuance” to any of this stuff. The kids produce the numbers and then the numbers are presented as The Truth.
Why do the adults keep telling children they’re “more than a score” when they so obviously are NOT more than a score? If they WERE “more than a score” the entire focus of the Obama/Kasich administrations wouldn’t be on test scores. They’ve probably figured it out. They’re not idiots.
I am behind you! Well said and unfortunately, necessary. Thank you for your courage in speaking out and taking action!
Meanwhile, the charter corruption and capture in this state gets worse.
“A heavily lobbied plan that could undo recent charter-school reform could surface this holiday season in an unrelated education bill.
“It’s one of those bills that I hear is going to have a whole bunch of Christmas tree ornaments on it. This might be one of them,” Sen. Peggy Lehner, a Kettering Republican, said of the plan, which would boost charter school grades.
The legislation Lehner suspects might carry the plan, Senate Bill 3, currently proposes to deregulate mostly wealthy schools with good grades but, theoretically, could give them worse grades under the proposed change.
Some of the state’s poorest-performing charter schools could receive higher grades. Working for the change is Neil Clark, one of the most influential lobbyists in the state, who is working for Ohio’s largest charter organization, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow.”
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/pro-charter-groups-renew-push-to-change-ohio-s-school-grading-system-1.642787#.VlR9N_9hGiQ.twitter
sigh… classic bullying by Federal Bullies
Public school parents and teachers should demand some of the people we’re paying in Columbus spend some time and energy on public schools.
They have spent the last 11 months working on “the charter sector”. It might be time that someone down there did something to benefit the public schools that 93% of Ohio children attend.
I know public schools are currently unfashionable in ed reform circles, but this is ridiculous.
“spend time on public schools” Does time in court to defend against law suits, rising out of campaign-donation led school decisions, count?
Standing and cheering for you in Indiana! May this ignite the firestorm to end this madness.
To quote the famous labor organizer, Mother Jones: “Don’t complain. Organize.” You need a new governor (2018) and in the interim you can elect school board members both to the state school board and your local school board … and a new General Assembly (State Representatives and State Senators) in both 2016 and 2018. Meanwhile, write a concise op-ed piece or letter to the editor with salient points to your local newspaper. The success that was experienced just this past year in bringing to light the sordid state of Ohio’s charter school industry — and getting a Republican majority legislature to act — is indicative of what powerful organizing can achieve. We didn’t get into the mess we are in overnight and getting out of it requires the hard work of educating and changing public opinion. You have an excellent union working for you in the Ohio Education Association.
Thank you Dawn, for your courage and for sticking up for all of us public school teachers who are being bullied by Kasich’s crew. Try Neil Baasten in Canton–he is an outstanding attorney who has successfully defended many Ohio educators.
Bold, proactive move. Hope she’ll get good legal representation. Please keep us informed. This is kind of novel. Hope it works out. Would like to see the online training module that provoked the reaction. Do you have to be an Ohio teacher to use it? If a link is available for anyone to see I’d love to investigate.
She would need to call it something else, though, right? “Bullying” is not “illegal,” is it? What is the cause of action?
The training module we use is called Public School Works, and you need to log in with a password and your school-assigned username. It’s pretty straightforward. Definitions, policies, etc. Then you take an online “test” to be sure you read the information. You can take it as many times as needed until you pass. It’s the same module every year. Just a hoop to jump.
Yes, you are definitely a scapegoat as an Ohio teacher……no doubt about it. I had several job shadowers the past two weeks in my classroom. I told all of these awesome young people the truth. Do not ever go into this abusive profession. I would not allow my own children to be abused in this manner, and I do not want them to be abused either. All of them decided against teaching as a profession. I will not “cover” for the abuse of this profession. I will get my life back next year. I dearly love my students…and I love to teach…but it is just not enough anymore. No one has the right to treat another human being the way teachers and students are treated in the state of Ohio. No one. Not even you, John Kasich,….It has been wonderful watching you fall flat on your face in your quest for the presidency….what goes around comes around….every single time…..Maybe you did need the support of Ohio teachers after all….
My heart is gladdened every time I hear about Kasich and Christie cratering in the polls, not to mention Scott Walker’s recent exit from the presidential race. Everything they say is verbal fertilizer.
I hope your movement catches the attention of ambitious attorneys and like-minded teachers next door in Indiana (where I live). I’m sick and tired of every GOP jerk in the statehouse thinking he knows how effective I am as a teacher when he won’t get out from behind his/her desk in the statehouse to come into my classroom.
Good luck to you, and if you can figure out a way to fund it with donations through online funding, I’d like to do my part. I hope Dr. Ravitch will tell us how to help out in this forum.
Bilgewater,
The post includes Dawn’s email. Reach out and see what help she needs.
There might be a case for the state creating a hostile environment that encourages everyone from the top down to resort to bullying because (as I was told), “Nothing matters but the scores,” and “What are we waiting for–the little red school house to turn blue?” War metaphors are also often used: “Take the hill!” Good luck to you, and please keep us posted.
you need Erin Brokovitch!!
That really is not a bad idea… she is really compassionate about things in this nature and she is a fighter,,, without doubt…
You go girls. We are STRONG. None of these people at the state level have ever been in an urban school. They have no idea. I do more paperwork per day than teaching.
Joyce, that’s the goal – to keep teachers removed from students so everyone appears to fail under the oppressive system. You’re all in the training to turnover your jobs to computers.
A similar recognition came over me when I was completing those same modules about bullying. I thought, “How can we continue to endure bullying behaviors from our principal? She fit the definition of a bully to a ‘T’.” Several other teachers were suddenly likewise “enlightened” by those modules. We had wondered what in the world was going on. The morale in our building was depressingly low. The teachers were always walking on eggs. We weren’t allowed to talk to each other. We didn’t know who to trust. We knew a lot of pressure was coming from the Ohio Dept of Ed. But, we felt our hands were tied. Finally, after 10 long years, we as well as a large number of parents petitioned the superintendent and school board, and she was forced to retire or to be fired, although our district would never want the truth to hit the papers. In any case, in Ohio, we became victims of a system that was a bully machine.
Then, to realize the duplicitous nature of ODE and the conflicts of interest that were throughout the Kasich administration insofar as the charter school epidemic in Ohio, it has been a nightmare to deal with.
As you stated in your letter, we teachers felt (knew) we were forced to do things that were quite simply developmentally inappropriate for children and were against our teacher morality. It is simply a shame that this has gone so far. Even worse, it hasn’t stopped with the new changes.
What an underhanded way to try to strip teachers of their careers. Ohio has become a nightmare. Many teachers have stood together and have found ways to deal with all the demands, doing as much for chikdren as possible. However, the stress has taken its toll.
So proud of you! Unfortunately, my district is wealthy with one or two small pockets of low income housing. My building has the trailer park where many of the trailers are getting condemned. Our building is constantly harassed due to our scores being the lowest in the district.
Our principal is trying to fix us by having more and more meetings: at risk, Lucy Calkins writing, reading with the gifted teacher, regular staff meeting, and now, a committee meeting too fix our scores (every classroom teacher must me on one them and attend the meetings) . If you have IEP meetings, there goes another planning time. We have 30 minutes before school and 50 minutes a day. Every night, I lay on the floor grading and doing paperwork and my children have a mom who is home, but not present. The worry and torment I feel is all consuming, I am on my sixteenth year of teaching and cannot afford to leave my district.
So proud of you!
Lee Ann Hogan
Olentangy Local Schools
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
There has been a systematic and very deliberate program to “educate” our children, and to deliberately dumb them down. Common core is the most recent obvious example. This has been well documented by very well researched books, one of which is called “the deliberate dumbing down of America”. I suggest every teacher and parent read this and the other books and make sure you show this to your lawyers!
I’d like to join you in this endeavor. We are seeing this in North Carolina as well and we are a non-union state. I’d love to sue for not only all the points you have made but for low-teacher morale, pay, lack of support, resources (such as technology, and textbooks) as well as professional development opportunities. No one should be evaluated based on test scores.. I teach low-income students and my admin shouts data, data, data and the question is when do we have time to teach? My students want to learn but we are testing and retesting all the time.
Dawn, I am very proud of you. I would love to see someone do the same thing here in AZ. I know our children are being over-tested, charters are getting the most from our state government, and teachers are being treated awful. Perhaps your lawsuit will start a fire storm in other states as some have suggested. I hope it does. I really admire you for all you are doing. Thank you.
Would love to join your cause! As a parent to a now Sophmore in the Elyria School System I too am feeling bullied by our State as well as my Son!
We are told if my son does not take the test even though he is taking the courses he needs to take to get the credits to graduate, unless he takes this test which by the way he is taking has nothing to do what he is learning and what they test on that test was College questions geared toward a Freshman in College from what my son told me. He will not graduate even though he has done the required courses passed his 9th grade year recieved those credits now that he has took that “Bully Test” as I called it he has to retake the Algrebra test again cause if you do not recieve a 3 or 4 you have to retake! Now he while struggling through Geomotry he has to go back and take a refresher study to retake the Algrebra test!!! Cause the BULLIES to be, it took them nearly a year to get our results back!! All his notes and Algrebra stuff from last year are gone!!! They need to QUIT BULLYING our Teachers let them teach the required courses to promote and prepare the high school students to graduate, QUIT BULLYING the Students and let them get on with their studies and finals and be prepare to get their credits to graduate, and the really NEED TO QUIT BULLYING the Parents as well as Threatening them, if they do not want their child subject to a nervous break down and they refuse to let them take the test their child will not graduate even if they have ALL REQUIRED CREDITS!!!! I am with you please add my name to the Group Action Lawsuit!!! IT IS BULLYING!!!
You may already know Mary Obrien from Upper Arlington, mom of at least 5 sons who is the biggest activist of anti tests. Fair test website was a great resourse for me .My kids have now graduated from college but they did not participate in high stakes tests until high school. I nominated myself to review test questions for the tests and did for several years.The tests are driven by political ideas not educational ones, if you are always changing because the wind blows education suffers. You can always design tests that fail 50% by adjusting a score, it is stupid to believe this makes children smarter, it does more damage than anything else. It makes people more compliant to be controlled by political whims than to think about if this is in anyway benifits the education of our children. If all children improve by 20% the scores are also adjusted, teaching test taking is helpful at a certain age, but it doesn’t replace actual learning. This high stakes testing has hurt for my childrens entire school experince, they are now 25 and 22 , it’s never too late to change this. Hold the politicians responsible for accountability instead of the children.
Reblogged this on Retired Ruth and commented:
A frustrated teacher shares some insights…
We are behind you!!!! This has to stop!
I have 4 kids in Ohio schools and what is happening is criminal!
I’m an older teacher and for the last four years I’ve been bullied by administrators on a regular basis. They’d love to replace me with someone who doesn’t know as much about IEPs and other legal issues. It happen all the time.
The same is going on with Rafe Esquith, America’s most acclaimed teacher. It’s important that we fight. We know what’s best for our students.
This is so important! I would love to file a lawsuit in Indiana against the state for laundering $$$ from public schools to testing companies, bull shit charter scams, outside educational research companies who dole out meaningless “data” with graphs and charts that literally make no sense, and that useless evaluation system called RISE. It’s all a complete scam and it wouldn’t be difficult to dig up evidence. Rock on Ohio!
America needs to wake up to the disastrous road education in America has taken. The profession will suffer a national shortage of teachers. The profession has become a national disaster and we will reap what we have sown!
Where is the follow up on this lawsuit 3 years later?