Teachers union pushes anti-Rhee protests
By: Leah Fabel
Examiner Staff Writer
October 9, 2009
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| The Washington Teachers Union holds a "Rally for Respect" with teachers, parents, and students at Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington. |
The Washington Teachers Union filled downtown's Freedom Plaza on Thursday with more than 1,000 teachers and labor union faithful as they struggled to capture public opinion following Chancellor Michelle Rhee's recent round of firings.
"No matter how many times Mayor Fenty talks about bad teachers, we know it's a lie," shouted WTU President George Parker from a stage filled with local and national union leaders. "We know you are good teachers."
Parker's protest came one day after the union filed a lawsuit in the District's Superior Court claiming that last week's firing of nearly 400 school employees under the pretext of a budget shortfall was an "attempt to sidestep [the teachers contract]," and to fire veteran teachers while taking away their union grievance process. Rhee defends the cuts as part of an effort to balance the number of teachers with the number of students. Since 1990, DCPS enrollment has declined by 44 percent to about 45,300 this year. One motive for laying off teachers was to bring their numbers in line with the smaller student body, Rhee said. The protest and the lawsuit, which asks for jobs to be reinstated until the court determines if the firing process was fair, cap more than two weeks of growing anger and confusion over impending layoffs. Protesters carried signs with slogans like "No Rhee-spect" and "Rhee-diculous," while shouting chants like "One, two, three, four, escort Rhee right out the door." The embattled chancellor, who has worked unapologetically to give principals the power to fire bad teachers, attempted to calm the outrage on Wednesday with an explanation of the cuts on the DCPS Web site. She wrote that veteran teachers lost positions in numbers consistent with their representation among all employees, and that the newest teachers were more likely to lose their job. That didn't hold true for Eladia Parrilla, however. The 12-year special education teacher lost her job at Northeast's Thurgood Marshall Elementary. "And please note that I am certified," she said, as opposed to a Marshall colleague in her first year of teaching. While a high percentage of certified teachers has become a marker of school systems' success, many reformers of Rhee's ilk believe that certification is not always a foolproof measure. Jim Leonard, a 38-year veteran currently teaching U.S. history and government at Wilson Senior High, voiced more concern with the firing process than its results. At Wilson, he said, the two teachers let go had been placed there after losing jobs elsewhere, and that neither was assigned yet to a teaching position. "There's no doubt there were teachers in this district that needed to be let go," Leonard said. "But the way it was handled was not up front and honest."
