This is typical under the Bloomberg Reign of Terror. A friend of mine was put into the Rubber Room on the basis of simply repeating a filthy phrase uttered by one of their students, to make sure they heard it correctly, as they have a hearing problem. They were later released due to a lack of anything to really charge them with.
I was given this year 5 classes of students which quite obviously have a much higher than normal percentage of troublemakers and dysfunctional students. When they do something which merits calling for a dean to come up, the assistant principal of security instead comes up. After hearing me tell of Roberto hitting LaKeisha, he then polls the class right in front of me, “Well, did Roberto hit LaKeisha?” The kids always side with their own, and say, “No, she’s lyin’, Roberto didn’t hit no LaKeisha.” Upon which he invariably turns to me and says, “See? It never happened!” So, the kids are learning that lying is OK and gets results. Great education. They take it further in the NYC schools, as per Bloomberg’s “50 Ways to Fire Your Teachers” handbook (it really exists). If you’re over 50, you’re too expensive and you know your rights. You’re dangerous to the Bloomberg machine, so you must go. Therefore, not only are you deliberately assigned problematic classes, the students therein are actively encouraged to write statements against you. To them, it’s great fun getting some revenge on a teacher who has the nerve to ask them to be quiet, put away their cellphone, or pay attention instead of talking. They never connect consequences, like your little game could get your teacher fired. They will actually tell you, “I’m gonna get you fired!” and then proceed to write up statements for the assistant principal of security about things that never happened or things you never said. And of course, these statements are well-coached by Mr. Security.
Meanwhile, the kids are running wild in the halls and classrooms, and teachers are afraid to say or do anything.
This is the horror which is going on now during Bloomberg’s Reign of Terror for dedicated conscientious teachers like me. You actually shake like a leaf upon entering your building in the morning, not knowing what NEW letter you will find in your mail slot alleging of some terrible thing you did which “made the student feel nervous or afraid”.
It is sad that it has become so common for children to falsely accuse people in authority. I seem to recall that several women in Salem were accused of being witches by girls in town that just didn’t like them. So it isn’t new behavior, but it is more prevalent and harder to put behind you.
Now that the technology exists, I wouldn’t have a problem with digital audio and video recordings of everything that happens in a classroom. Parents could access it to verify their kids are behaving and learning in classrooms, but it would also be a record for teachers to defend themselves with against false accusations. The kids would learn that they can’t get away with lying.
As a teacher, how would you feel about every minute of your classroom being recorded from several angles and archived forever ? You’d be opening yourself up to criticism by admin and parents of how you do your job.
Outside the classroom, it’s tempting to record every minute of your own life on audio and video for your own protection. Timestamping every frame of video would account for every second of every day and be an alibi if wrongly accused of a crime. Unfortunately it is currently a violation of wiretap laws to record anybody without their express permission. Cops actually arrest people trying to video their own traffic stop, for example.
That’s is not a school. It is an asylum for deranged individuals and an indoctrination center for budding Fascists. A person would have to be a fool to return there voluntarily and expose themselves to that type of duress for absolutely no return.