Posted on 04/16/2010 11:08:30 AM PDT by Ben Mugged
New York City and its teachers' unions have reached a deal to put an end to a bizarre and Kafkaesque system in which suspended teachers are placed in holding centres, dubbed "rubber rooms", doing nothing on full pay in some cases for as long as 10 years.
The rubber rooms — so nicknamed after the padded cells of old-style mental hospitals — have become a symbol of the unacceptable face of the city's education system, which is the largest in the US. Around 600 teachers are currently occupying the temporary reassignment centres, as they are officially known, in locations across the city, including a trailer site in Washington Heights.
~snip~ What the occupants all have in common is that they are waiting for the charges against them to be filed and then adjudicated, a state of limbo that often lasts for two or three years and occasionally much longer.
In some cases, teachers have been known to wait for three years before they are told what they are alleged to have done wrong.
~snip~ The head of the main union, the United Federation of Teachers, Michael Mulgrew, said: "The rubber rooms are a symptom of a disciplinary process that has not worked for anyone — not the kids, not the schools, and not the teachers."
Present occupants of the centres will have to wait until September until the new system comes into effect, but when it does those with minor cases will be given non-teaching jobs inside schools. Anyone facing criminal charges will be sent home without pay, and if sexual or financial misconduct is alleged they will be allowed to stay at home on full pay.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
This whole situation is crappy for both the teachers and the taxpayers. Instances shoudl be investigated right away and if found not to have merit, reinstate the teacher immediately. No more than 2 weeks tops. I place most of the blame on the unions and the idiots who caved in to their demands that make it nearly impossible to fire the teachers in the first place.
Wow! Did I read that right?
It sounds like, if you HAVE to get in trouble, make it about sex or money.
That way, you still get paid!
600 in one city!! With NYC and state budgets deep in the red.
And they claim Home-Schoolers are out of our minds........
Suspended with pay.
At least make it like detention. No websurfing. No moonlighting.
Yeah but they are still paying Union dues.
One teacher became a millionaire operating his properties from a rubber room.
One teacher became a millionaire operating his properties from a rubber room.”
Sex or financial charges??
Huh?
Sexual or financial misconduct are not criminal?
I believe that he said inappropriate comments to female students and he gets to spend years in one of these rooms.
In Glenn Beck’s “Arguing With Idiots” there is a flow chart diagram of what it takes to get a NYC School System teacher fired. If you need a good LOL, take a look at it next time you’re in the bookstore.
What a waste of taxpayers’ money. They should be getting earning their pay. They should be indoctrinating the kids to hate America, the productive, Christians, anything normal and decent, etc. After all that’s what they are paid to do.
They will all be reassigned WITH CONTINUED PAY except now they’ll have a make work job.
“And they claim Home-Schoolers are out of our minds”
Great observation!
“Huh? Sexual or financial misconduct are not criminal?”
Just like politicians. But there are no rubber rooms for politicians.
I once knew a guy who was HR Manager of a manufacturing plant in Michigan. His company had set up a Rubber Room with games, VCR’s, televisions, books and magazines, etc.
He explained that it was actually cheaper to have injured employees come to work, clock in and screw around all day than to have them collect Workers Comp under Michigan rules.
Keep the rubber rooms.
Lock the door on time - nobody in after start of day(no pay)
No internet. In fact, install blocking equipment for wireless computer and cellphone. Have a secretary take incoming messages only.
Sack lunch only no leaving the building until end of work day. If you leave early, you lose the full day’s pay.
Cases will be ‘fast-tracked’ at the request of the offending teachers in most cases.
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