Sunday, May 15, 2011

For LA Teacher Librarians, brutal interrogations are used to justify firings… « Teacher Reality

For LA Teacher Librarians, brutal interrogations are used to justify firings… « Teacher Reality

For LA Teacher Librarians, brutal interrogations are used to justify firings…

The following is an unbelievable account of some of the brutal interrogations being conducted of Teacher Librarians in LAUSD who have been targeted for layoffs…

Monday, May 9, 2011

by Mizz Murphy at http://mizzmurphy.blogspot.com/2011/05/settle-in-its-long-one.html?spref=tw

Settle in. It’s a long one.

In the basement of the California Mart building in downtown Los Angeles, one can find a series of bright, cavernous rooms buzzing with the sound of the fluorescent panels that hang from a ceiling of exposed ducts and wiring. In the back of one of these rooms sits three long tables decorated with black table skirts along with perhaps a dozen rows of hard, plastic chairs. The room is exceptionally cold. Footsteps can be heard echoing each time someone makes his way to the restroom or to take a phone call. This is the setting for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s hearings for educators who have received a Reduction in Force notice. In other words, this is where teachers come to defend their qualifications in front of a judge in the hopes that someone in the legal system will understand what the students of this city really need. From what I’ve seen in the last two days, that just doesn’t seem likely.

A bit of a disclaimer, before I dig in. I am not a reporter. I am a teacher, a librarian, and a writer. This account i