Rahm Suspends Teacher For Fighting Injustice by Jake Jacobs
Originally posted at: https://truthagainstthemachine.com/index.php/2017/04/13/rahm-suspends-teacher-fighting-injustice/
A day before spring break, Chicago teacher Sarah Chambers was fired without being given an explanation.
An email from the Chicago Board of Education said she was being suspended and due for a hearing without a date given.
Sarah has spent all eight years of her special education teaching career at The Saucedo Academy, a magnet school serving low-income students.
Searching for answers, Sarah found out from the city’s Labor Relations Chief Joe Moriarty that her firing was related to the current PARCC tests (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), essentially the Illinois name for Common Core. But she still doesn’t know what the supposed infraction is.
Described as “high achieving”, Saucedo has a tradition of student and teacher activism, including a 2014 boycott of the phasing-out, “pointless” ISAT exams which most teachers and about 50% of students refused to take part in.
This made the school a target of Mayor Rahm Emanuel who appoints all Chicago Public School (CPS) school board members through “mayoral control”. CPS sent in interrogators who threatened the jobs and licenses of those teachers who refused to administer the ISAT test. But because of press coverage and major public scrutiny, the teachers were ultimately not sanctioned.
The upcoming dismissal hearing for Sarah seems to be a renewed attack in the ongoing campaign against Chicago teachers by administration officials.
“This attack isn’t about PARCC, it’s a witch hunt to try to silence Badass Teachers Association: Rahm Suspends Teacher For Fighting Injustice by Jake Jacobs:
