The Washington Teacher Faces Reprisal From DC's Departing Principal & Instructional Superintendent

Being the author of The Washington Teacher blog has its advantages and disadvantages. For as many advantages as you can imagine, there are just as many disadvantages especially in the workplace. As I once testified before the DC City Council, DC Public Schools have historically been a punitive place in which to work. Even today, fear of retaliation is still rampant in our schools. Due to this it is understandable why many teachers and related school personnel often look the other way when illegal or inappropriate misconduct or ethical violations occur especially when it involves school administrators. Failure to adhere to this ‘honor amongst thieves mentality’, will likely leave you ostracized, intimidated, threatened, excessed, placed on a 90-day plan, and sometimes with the worst school assignment or even fired .

Blogging about DC’s departing principals landed me a special visit on Wednesday afternoon from DC’s Instructional superintendent- Barbara Adderley. A little after 3 p.m., an announcement was made on our school loud speaker that I should meet our departing principal at Garfield elementary school in her office. I quickly obliged this request to go to the principal’s second floor office to meet with her under what I thought was a work-related matter. To my surprise, there was a woman sitting in one of the chairs in the principal’s office who indicated in response to my inquiry that she did not know where the principal was. I thought to myself that it was odd that the principal had left this lady in her office unattended.

I followed up by going to the main level to locate the principal. When I did, I questioned if she wanted to meet with me and was told yes by her. She motioned me back to her office and promptly closed the door with the unknown woman still sitting in her office. I am clear this meeting was held due to my writing the "DC Principal Shuffle". Initially, the principal began what appeared to me to be a question and answer session about my blog. She queried whether my blog was somehow affiliated with The Washington Post and was unaware of the name of my blog. At one point, Adderley chimed in: Do you know who I am? I responded a resounding No because for me this was the first time meeting her this school year. Adderley took over the meeting seemingly with the non-verbal approval of the school administrator. Questions came in rapid succession from Dr. Adderley and she seemed particularly curious about how I had written a piece especially since as she stated I had not confirmed the accuracy of my story with either her or Garfield’s departing principal. When I would not name my sources for the story , Adderley suggested that the only other person who could have informed me was Chancellor Rhee. Rheely, I thought to myself, how interesting?

In my view, this meeting quickly deteriorated and seemed to be more of a
browbeating and intimidation session of which I was at first an unsuspecting participant. When I realized that I had become entangled in this kangaroo court somehow, I quickly announced to both administrators that I would not continue this discussion without a representative. After all I added that our principal had her own representative in Dr. Adderley. Adderley looked perplexed and made it clear that as the administrator she would have the final say whether the meeting ended or not. My response was emphatic that while I may not control whether the meeting ended, I would not be speaking any further on this issue and in essence- she would be talking to herself. Of course, she ended the meeting subsequent to this.

This meeting reminded me of a similar meeting called by Chancellor Rhee only last school year on March 6th in which I was summoned to the Chancellor’s office under what I was advised was a work related matter. Of course, I made the choice to take two representatives with me. I believe that this meeting was called due to my political activism, outspokenness in the media, participation at a city council hearing and at a rally to protest school closures. Later I captured this experience in an article titled: “ Political Activism Gets a Thumbs Down From Chancellor Rhee “ in the online publication of The Mail’s March 9, 2008 issue @ www.dcwatch.com

Both of these personal experiences within DC Schools got me to thinking that these acts by Adderley and Rhee constitute what is known as an abuse of power. As much as I hate to say it, this is the reality in our schools. This reality is the reason we have some employees who choose to please their bosses even at the expense of our students while others choose to do what is right at the risk of displeasure from their boss and the possibility of facing consequences and repercussions as a result. Someone like Adderley who makes the choice to abuse his or her power, makes me question, Is this the type of manager we want to lead us in this new era of reform? You tell me? (posted by The Washington Teacher).