Shades of McCarthyism. The principal of a small high school in Brooklyn is under investigation after someone tipped off the Department of Education’s Office of Special Investigations that she might be a Communist.
“It was early March when a representative from the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Special Investigations sat down with Jill Bloomberg, the longtime principal of Park Slope Collegiate in Brooklyn, a combined middle and high school, to inform her that she was under investigation.
“The representative told Ms. Bloomberg that she could not tell her the nature of any allegations, nor who had made them, but said that she would need to interview Ms. Bloomberg’s staff.
“Then one of her assistant principals, who had met with an investigator, revealed to her exactly what the allegation was, one that seemed a throwback to another era: Communist organizing.
“I think I just said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. This is something O.S.I. investigates?’” Ms. Bloomberg said, using an abbreviation for the Office of Special Investigations. “I mean, what decade are we living in?”
But after the initial shock, she said she realized she had been waiting for something like this to happen for a long time.
“Over the years, Ms. Bloomberg has become one of the most outspoken and visible critics of New York City’s public schools, regularly castigating the Education Department’s leadership at forums and in the news media. Most of her criticism is aimed at actions that she says perpetuate a segregated and unequal educational system and that penalize black and Latino students. Through the years, she has helped organize protests and assemblies to push for integration and equal resources and treatment for her almost entirely black and Latino student body.
“Last Friday, Ms. Bloomberg filed a lawsuit against the school system saying it violated her rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects an individual’s civil rights and the right to free speech under the First Amendment. Ms. Bloomberg was seeking an injunction to stop the investigation until her lawsuit is resolved.”
Do employees of the New York City Department of Education have freedom of speech?
More on this subject: See here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Welcome to the world of Agent Orange, the malignant narcissist in the White House, that lost the popular vote by almost 3 million.
What’s next?
How long will this list grow?
Given the current trend, they will probably lower the minimum wage so that more people end up in poverty.
If more people are classified “in poverty”, then the 1% can have more control.
Thanks, LLOYD. This country is a HUGE MESS. I am embarrassed for this country.
Agent Orange is just a symptom of how wrecked this country is. Sorry, but politicians have no clue. They are just PALTERERS lining their own pockets and are go-fers for the billionaires.
So what did Obama say to Bernie?
Except this Principal is being persecuted by a “liberal,” Democratic administration, not by Trump.
Liberal and neo-liberal are not the same. neo-liberal is a cancer. Liberal is a progressive movement to improve the quality of life. Neo-liberals believe in lies to get what they want and what they want does not improve the quality of life for most of us, just them.
One is about freedoms, the other one is about freedom to exploit.
liberals = more freedom to live life as we want with protections against all the other groups
neo-liberals = total legal exploitation
neo-conservatives = less freedom, more prisons and total legal exploitation
fundamentalist Christians = Freedom or no freedom as defined by who decides what the Bible says. For instance, the Koch brothers, The DeVos clan, or the Walton family.
libertarians = total freedom to do whatever we want to anyone and anything and only the wealthy that belong to ALEC can afford the level of security to protect them, their wealth, and their families.
Racists, and Agent Orange who supports every other group but liberals = only whites rule and everyone else including all women lose the right to vote while laws that protect children are eliminated.
Amazing. Someone should ask the person making the complaint if they even know what a communist is. Oh brother! Reminds me of a great piece of dialogue from “A Confederacy of Dunces”:
“’What you think about somebody wants peace, Claude?’
‘That sounds like a communiss to me.’
Mrs. Reilly’s worst fears were realized.”
GregB–“Dunces” is SUCH a great book–everyone–please read it– we all need the many laughs it provides.
Also, the title describes the age in which we are living.
Thanks, GregB!
“Are you now or have you ever been a teacher?”
Wait, what?!?
What statute makes sympathy for capitalism, communism, socialism, democratic socialism, etc. illegal?
If Paladino’s comments didn’t make him unfit, what possible threshold, relative to public comments, can be applied to anyone working for the public?
This is the rule at issue:
Click to access D130.pdf
The statute appears to apply to statements or activities related to political campaigns &/or elected officials. It’s not clear from the information above whether her statements or actions fit in that category. The statute makes no mention of the appropriateness of any particular school of thought.
The allegation isn’t that she was engaging in an inappropriate school of thought. It’s that she was recruiting students to participate in a political party.
If that’s the case, then it was against the rules (which on the face seem reasonable), & theoretically her recruiting for an organization such as Young Republicans would have yielded the same result. The first paragraph in the blog entry above suggests that the investigation is motivated specifically by the presumed nature of her political views, as opposed to partisan political actions tied to her position at the school, two very different issues.
That suggestion is incorrect, at least according to the DOE’s papers in federal court.
Thank you for clarifying. That certainly changes the tone of the whole thing.
Thanks for the link.
An investigation in search of a rule infraction?
That’s pretty much what these investigations always are.
This one seems a bit more tenuous than others.
Is N.Y. substantially different than the rest of the country, where a speculative party, labeled communist, has never appeared on a ballot?
Would it be a violation to inform students about travel to the Women’s March in DC? Is that “recruiting” them to go the rally? I suspect this is someone quite angry at the principal for another reason.
Would be a violation to inform parents and students they can lobby to get more funding but just for your school and it would come from the budgets of other schools? Would it be a violation to pay for buses and make parents feel uncomfortable if they don’t come with their children?
The second seems far more of a violation to me, but I suspect that charter school principals don’t have to follow any rules except “get good test scores with whatever kids can get them and anything else you do won’t be questioned”.
By the way, this principal has done so much right. She took over a school that middle class parents shunned for a long time and happily taught the mostly low income children who attended. As more affluent students started coming, the school was about to become a school with more affluent students than low-income. Instead of saying “well that will make my job easier because now test scores will be high”, she said “how can I make sure we serve low-income parents?” And she made sure the preferences in the admissions process gave priority to students coming from primarily low-income elementary schools. Bravo to her.
Notice that it is not a “violation” when charters in NYC recruit and direct students to attend political rallies to demand more charters. Not for themselves–they are already enrolled. But for the financial benefit of the charter corporation.
Flerp, the NYT article says the Ed Dept made TWO accusations: the 1st that Bloomberg is a member of the Progressive Labor Party, the 2nd that she recruited students for its activities. (She denies both). The 1st accusation sounds completely out of line & a violation of civil rights.
The DOE hasn’t made that accusation. The Times was referring to a DOE letter that summarized the complaint that it was investigating. The complaint was that Jill Bloomberg and two teachers . . . are members of a communist organization known as the Progressive Labor Party, that they are actively recruiting students into the organization during school hours, and that they invite students to participate in the organization’s activities, including marches for communism.” The DOE is investigating that complaint to see if Bloomberg engaged in conduct that violated the DOE rule against staff involvement on behalf of a political organization during school hours.
FLERP!
Does the DOE rule apply to charters enlisting students and parents to participate in marches and demonstrations seeking more money for the charter corporations?
That’s a good question. It may not.
Thanks for the NYT citation.
Is there a parallel investigation into Michelle Rhee’s possible involvement in the political activities of the Copperhead Party? (satire).
Elizabeth Warren and Jill Bloomberg were admonished but, still they persisted. Ms. Bloomberg sets an example in democracy for her students. if you don’t fight for democracy, you lose it.
The richest 0.1% are running scared.
Don’t conflate this event with federal policy. This is how the NYC chancellor, Carmen Farina, operates with full backing from our supposed liberal mayor, Bill De Blasio. Carmen has a history of revenge against anyone who dares to question her policies going back to when she was a principal. It’s time for her to go,
Thanks, RL. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this story. Among my colleagues (I’m a teacher in a Manhattan high school) Chancellor Farina has a reputation for being a kiss-up, kick-down administrator.
And you’re right: it is time for her and (as below) mayoral control to go.
Sadly, incidents like this provide anti-public school “reformers” with justification. It doesn’t even matter which side of this issue they take. It’s equally useful to them to say either, “Public schools are against free speech!” or “Public school teachers are Communists!”
This is also a reason why we must end mayoral control of schools. In the suburbs of NYC, parents’ voices are heard through the elected school board process. Mayoral control marginalizes constituents’ voices in policy decisions. Carmen merely pays lip service to parent involvement as long as parents stay in their place (attending open houses and fluff PR events), Woe to those parents who want a say in how their child is educated. Just ask the parents who have been fighting to remove the destructive principal of Central Park East I Elementary School.
The contract and the governing statues probably define the limits of free speech for this teacher.
This is not a joke to me because I entered teaching in the McCarthy era, had to sign a loyalty oath and declare I had never belonged to a very long list of communist or communist sympathizing organizations.
Next up, under the Trump/Republican version of the Religious Freedom Act teachers can refuse to teach students who identify as LGBT, principals can refuse to hire an atheist, and so on.
Well, gee, when I began teaching, I had to sign a “loyalty oath” that I was not now a communist nor had I ever been! Not too long after that, I became a “card-carrying” member of the ACLU (a la Dukakis in 1988 election) and have remained “loyal” to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights!
VAM or Vietnam; it’s still garbage in, garbage out.
Accusations of (essentially) political disloyalty with no evidence is the last refuge of scoundrels. I hope the Mayor has the political courage to denounce this throwback to old Joe (aka, Mac, the knife) and the HUAC (House UnAmerican Activities Committee) witch hunts of the 1950s? It’s the very place and thinking that gave Tricky Dick Nixon his first taste of fame. Maybe we could give Congressman Nunes a second chance at his 15 minutes ??? JVK
Sounds about right, kill the messenger and not the problem. Corrupt system smashing down anybody that disagrees with the BS. Look at the NY system and you’ll agree with her. What they’re doing to her goes back to the McCarthy era, but look what’s in the WH, same low IQ racists as back then.
“Do employees of the New York City Department of Education have freedom of speech?”
We know that public employees don’t have freedom of speech. The first amendment applies only to the extent that they cannot be imprisoned for what they say. But they can be fired for “hurting the reputation of their employers”.
This rule of limited speech applies equally to postal workers, school teachers, and to university professors. At my university we are told every semester not to talk about politics with students, and during the elections, we were told that we are forbidden to wear any kind of election badge.
Now that profs can carry guns on our campus, we cannot post “gun free zone” fliers.
Chicago did the same thing with one of their principals, Troy Laraviere. He was never told what the charges were placed against him until the day before his ‘hearing’. And the district did a witch hunt investigation to gather the evidence.
We lived around the corner from John Jay for a dozen yrs, back when it was a zoned hs, 99% kids of color, virtually shunned by the locals, who all found magnets or privates for their kids.
Full disclosure: sure, we would have shunned it too, had we stayed. We left reluctantly during the crack epidemic, w/kids approaching school age. The zoned primaries were good, but the local midsch playground was plastered w/used needles & crack vials every morning– we knew we couldn’t afford private midsch for 3 kids. We might have been able to swing the rather good multi-ethnic local Catholic school, but hubby the cradle-Cath said no way.
Anyway our first reaction was, in what world does the NYC Ed move a selective 99% white hs for local upper-mid-class whites under the same roof as the 99% black population they’ve been shunning all these yrs (happened 7 yrs ago)– & only then (adding insult to injury) fix up the long-neglected phys plant?
Answer: only in NYC public schools, long the most segregated in the country. Back in our NYC days you could pretend otherwise, while local whites disappeared from nbhd schools as kids approached 8th gr– or just chalk it up to residential segregation. These days I guess in your face is SOP.
Real estate money from an area newly targeted for gentrification? A Black activist described his opinion about the intentional practice of keeping Blacks on the move so that they can’t build property equity in rising income areas.
That already happened there mid-’70’s-‘mid-’80’s. During White Flight rush to Queens & suburbs, a good chunk of wkg/ mid-class whites stayed on in Pk Slope, & Haitian immigrants bought up & shored up poorer sections. So when we moved in it was a stable multi-ethnic nbhd w/this gentrification thing happening in one or two spots & just never stopping. Certainly the Haitians (& other Caribbean & Afro-Amer families who did the same in sections of Crown Hts & Bed-Stuy) were able to stay on & reap equity from all that work. But the targeted sort of gentrification that went on while we were there ripped out whole blocks of middle class families at a time.
None of that explains why John Jay HS was virtually all-black/some hispanic mostly-poor kids, in the ’70’s, surrounded by mixed classes/ethnics. I think the roots/ methods of segregated NYC schools must go back further & involve many factors.
It is 2017 and yet we still hear words like “accused” when communism is brought into the conversation. It is a political belief: that’s it. I would much rather see people being “accused” of being Republicans.