Vergara suit wrong to blame teachers for inequities
By Randi Weingarten & Joshua Pechthalt7:10 P.M.APRIL 30, 2014
In 2013, Christine McLaughlin, who teaches eighth-grade English at Blair High School, was named Pasadena Teacher of the Year. In the video that was made for the award ceremony, a student said, “My favorite thing about Miss McLaughlin is how determined she is to make sure we learn something new every day.”
On back-to-school night a few years ago, there was a drive-by shooting 50 yards behind Anthony Mize’s classroom at Maclay Middle School. So Anthony redoubled his efforts to help his seventh- and eighth-grade students feel empowered and safe.
Though she had several opportunities to transfer to wealthier schools over her 28 years as a fifth-grade teacher, Dawna Watty has remained at Ruby Bridges Elementary School. She likes the diverse community there. “I learn from them. They learn from me. We’re a family,” she says.
These three teachers have never received negative evaluations or complaints from parents or students. And yet each has been named as an “ineffective” teacher in the Vergara v. California trial that wrapped up recently in a Los Angeles courtroom. Something doesn’t add up.
The plaintiffs’ case feeds off the frustration many parents and students feel about the inequities that have become inherent in public education, and it tries to pin the blame for those inequities on teachers — like Christine, Anthony and Dawna.
The parents and students in California’s public schools know that the true trials students face are multifaceted. Some students are poor. Some live in violent neighborhoods. Some are just learning English.
Faced with obstacles like these, the Vergara lawyers opted to blame those closest to kids, instead of addressing the bigger social and economic issues that impact a student’s success. Rather than help teachers, the lawyers seek to diminish these teachers’ flexibility and strip their ability to take risks, to be creative and to be great advocates for students. And the Silicon Valley tycoons behind the Vergara trial are using the courts to drive a wedge between parents and teachers.
If the backers of the trial wanted to help students, they would be Vergara suit wrong to blame teachers for inequities | UTSanDiego.com:
