School Supplies

Question their purpose at your peril.

One of these guns is not like the other. One is real, and the other is not. They were found in a search of a high school student’s bedroom. You have to wonder—would the kid be bringing the real or fake one in for show and tell? Amazingly, when a UFT chapter leader saw fit to ask what the school was going to do to protect students and staff from the already-charged student, he was targeted for a privacy violation.

The student’s name, though, was already fully available to the public, as he’d been charged by the Queens DA. Still, revealing things that are public knowledge is evidently frowned upon by the DOE. A teacher showing concern when everyone in his building could be facing imminent danger, in the considered opinion of the DOE, deserves to be fired.

It’s my understanding that lawyer-client confidentiality, like doctor-patient confidentiality, can be legally broken to prevent death or significant harm. At least one of those guns could cause either or both. Either could traumatize or terrify someone. To the DOE, though, student privacy is sacrosanct, even when it’s public record, and if school students or employees risk being murdered in order to protect it.

Working for the DOE is always an adventure. One day I was teaching a sixth ENL class that was assigned to me. I hadn’t asked for it, but agreed to teach it. Eventually they replaced me with a PE teacher, and I’d see him teaching with a whistle around his neck. Maybe he did a good job. Who knows? It clearly was of no importance to admin.

Admin was disappointed in me that year. I’d been uncooperative. One day a kid walked into my sixth class. I’d never seen this kid before. I told him to get out. The kid did not care for this particular directive. He declared, in front of the whole room, that he was going to come back and blow my head off with a 45.

I made it my business to find out who the kid was. I don’t recall how I managed that, but I did. After having done so, I wrote up the incident and gave it to the dean’s office. Days later, I was called into the special education office. They told me they’d called the kid’s home and there was nothing further they could do.

This response did not please me. I said he threatened my life in front of 30 witnesses. If nothing was done, kids might assume that sort of behavior was okay. They told me the student was brain damaged. I wasn’t sure exactly what that signified, but It did not reassure me. I was shocked there were virtually no consequences for this behavior.

Admin, though, decided to take action. They immediately replaced me with the PE teacher. While he wanted the job more than I did, having actually applied for it, I wasn’t confident he could do my job any better than I could do his. Perhaps he was the type who didn’t get all bent out of shape over having his life threatened. Maybe he was more macho than I am. Regardless, it was ridiculous.

Far worse, though, is what’s happening to Forest Hills HS UFT Chapter Leader Adam Bergstein. I learned about it via intrepid journalist Sue Edelman, who has left the NY Post and started her own Substack:

A veteran Queens teacher who sounded the alarm about a 17-year-old student waving a gun on Instagram with the threatening words “Somebody gotta go down”could lose his job over charges that he violated the teen’s privacy.

Holy crap. It’s one thing when they make you sit, over and over, through insipid webinars reminding you not to broadcast personal student info. It’s quite another when you stand up and say we have someone threatening our very lives, everyone knows about it already, and what the hell are you going to do about it?

What the DOE, in its infinite wisdom, wants to do about it is fire Adam. Perhaps they want to set an example. Let’s show those teachers to shut the hell up rather than stand up and defend their lives, or those of their students. In fact, it’s Adam’s job to represent Forest Hills staff. Were he not to question this, he’d be negligent in his duties.

In the DOE, it appears, top employees are entitled to be negligent in their duties.

They revel in it. As chapter leader, I once took a job as LAB coordinator because that was the only way I could score a much-needed office in our overcrowded school. LAB coordinator was a pretty tedious, miserable job. Once, after a DOE screw up, I called them. The person I’d called said there was nothing to be done about it, and further threatened me with disciplinary action and pinning said screw-up on me.

I was shocked by this, but a supervisor with whom I worked said it was an everyday occurrence. It made me glad I never pursued a supervisory career. I’ve had many differences with union leadership, but so far none of them have threatened to fire me. Not yet, anyway.

Being a teacher, in many ways, means being a problem-solver. You have to anticipate things that might happen in the classroom, and if they’re negative, you need to preclude them. If you can’t do that, you need to deal after the fact. Precluding is always better.

For example, I really, really hate to have students removed from the classroom. Doing that kind of says, in front of every teenager I face, that I cannot deal with whatever the kid was doing. That said, I distinctly recall a female student who was on the verge of beating the crap out of a male student. I sent her to my AP’s office, and no one beat the crap out of anyone. That was a successful intervention.

Regardless, even if she had beat the crap out of him, she was not carrying a gun. Nor was she threatening to kill anyone. It’s unacceptable that the DOE would actively discourage us from protecting the lives of our students and colleagues.

It’s particularly egregious that they’re targeting Adam Bergstein. Perhaps they still hold a grudge that Adam helped lead staff to topple a former principal who was less than supportive. But that, again, is his job.

I’ve known Adam for years. He’s not afraid to take principled stands, whether in support of his school, or in support of Amy Arundell. He’ll stand up to the DOE, or union bosses, or anyone failing to do their jobs. It’s tough being chapter leader, and you have to be willing to take a stand if you want to do the job right.

Adam worked for years as a UFT pension consultant. I’d been through several retirement consultations and remained unsure of what the hell I was supposed to do when I got online. Adam invited me to his house, I brought my laptop, and he walked me through everything. This is the kind of person we need more of.

DOE big shots bring their own ideas. Make the PE teacher teach ENL. Make the ENL teacher teach PE. Anyone who decides to make schools safer must be fired immediately, with extreme prejudice.

With that, we’re officially through the looking glass.

Most pedagogues who face 3020a charges, or potential dismissal, end up not being fired, but rather fined a few thousand bucks. It’s hard to imagine an arbitrator who’d want to take flak over firing someone for the offense of trying to protect people’s lives.

In this case, even a fine would be a gross injustice. To my mind, Adam would merit consequences only if he had NOT done what he did. Looking out for members and students ought to be par for the course for anyone. While many of us can be too nervous or fearful for that, doing what Adam did is precisely what a good chapter leader does. If he deserves anything, it’s a raise and a promotion.