Posted on 09/29/2012 4:42:20 AM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
Forget zero tolerance. Bay City Public School teachers for years could be caught repeatedly under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol without being fired.
Teachers in possession or under the influence of illegal drugs could be caught three times before they lost their job, and they got five strikes if they were drunk on school grounds before being fired. A school district official said the language in the union contract that protects teachers for those instances "was incorporated into the teacher Master Agreement in 1997."
Those protections also were included in the Bay City Education Association teacher’s contract that was agreed to in January in section 16.1300 "Controlled Substances" on page 92. That contract expired June 30 and negotiations on a new contract are ongoing.
Students weren’t given as many chances. The code of conduct for middle school and high school students states that if they are found to be under the influence or in possession of illegal drugs, they get a 5-day suspension or a 3-day suspension with counseling on the first offense.
A teacher caught selling drugs in class would get a 3-day suspension without pay with mandatory counseling, but wouldn’t be fired unless the teacher did it a second time.
"They must have had been high to approve that contract because no sober person would agree to that kind of policy," said Leon Drolet, chairman of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance.
Make that, “All together now...”
need mug shots of who approved this
How many times do the get to set the building on fire before they are fired?
A kid sharing a cough drop gets suspended.
That's the ticket. The union can ask for anything it wants. It's the job of of management to push back.
-— . It’s the job of of management to push back -—
This highlights the problem with unionizing civil servants, that even FDR recognized. There’s no there, there. The “management” has no incentive to control costs.
And the power of the “customers” (parents and taxpayers) is badly attenuated.
As Milton Friedman said, diffused costs minimizes taxpayer and parental motivation, while concentrated benefits makes unions highly motivated.
Unfortunately the public school system hasn't been this way for some time. I am old enough to remember the days when local school boards were made up of people who were not chosen, supported and financed by the unions, but I'm getting up there in years. No, the job of management in public schools today is:
a. making sure the unions are taken care of
b. the state (and now, federal) political officers are appeased
c. the bureaucracy is maintained and furthered, contingent on (a) and (b).
When my dad began his teaching career in the late 1950s, the administrations answered to the boards, the boards answered to the taxpayers, and the taxpayers watched every dime along with the character of every hire. I don't recall any of these "provincial, uptight skinflints" hating their children or wanting to destroy "the future," but that is generally the virtually unanswerable - due to current media tactics - matched set of charges leveled at anyone who wants sanity returned to public education.
Mr. niteowl77
this has got to be satire. They need Gov. Walker from Wisconsin to bust this group up entirely. Then fire them all, set new work rules and then start looking for COMPENTENT teachers. Institure a reward system for the teachers who are doing the job and keeping their nose clean. I can’t believe there is a school board that would actually allow what is being stated in the article.
SHAMEFUL!!!!!!!!!
If I was caught at work drunk, I could be released that day. They would escort me off the company’s property within the hour. No questions asked. I wouldn’t blame them either. I guess pursued the wrong type of career.
That's Outrageous! It should be 7 Times at least /HugeSarc
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