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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Sub Sues School District...

From the Daily Democrat Online:
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_6770628

"...A Sacramento substitute teacher filed a federal complaint Friday against the Woodland Joint Unified School District for allegedly violating his civil rights without due process after certain schools within the district placed him on a secret "do not call" list which prevented him from obtaining employment."

"...
Ross said he discovered his name had been placed on a secret do-not-call list that essentially removes a substitute teacher's name from the job selection pool. Each school maintains their own list, Ross said."

"...Ross spoke with the director of Lee Middle School's summer program at the time. The school stopped offering him work after the summer of 2006 and was told his name was on the list but was not told why or what he could do about it."

"...To this day I haven't heard from anybody. No one has told me anything except two things: I am on the list and I am not an employee and they can do whatever what they want," Ross said."

"...Mike Stevens, assistant superintendent of human resources for the Woodland Joint Unified School District, said the district does maintain a "site exclusion list" for substitute teachers and it is not as much a secret as it is confidential.

"You just don't go and blanket this stuff out," said Stevens, who added that the district maintains the list in confidence to protect the teacher's reputation [emphasis added] so they will be able to find work elsewhere."

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When the a school district doesn't tell the person targeted that they are black listed, they aren't protecting anyone except themselves and I doubt that the list is all that confidential among school secretaries at different schools in the same district.

Hank Hill had it right when he says: "They won't fire you Peggy, they'll just stop calling!"

6 comments:

Unknown said...

You know, I had thought of the "do not call" list as something everyone was pretty much aware of. If you do not perform to how you are not expected to, or if you upset someone in the administration, you are pretty much on the top of that list!

With that said, I didn't see anything about this person's job performance. In Las Vegas, NV, you are on that list if you are caught just "babysitting", mistreat the students verbally, or have said something totally wrong and inappropriate to certain people. No one ever has to tell you why you are not being asked to come back. There is no federal law on that!

Kind of interesting, though, as I am wondering what placed this particular substitute on that list!

KauaiMark said...

"...There is no federal law on that!"

If your doctor stopped taking your appts without telling you why, wouldn't you expect them to tell you if asked?

We shouldn't need a law to exercise common courtesy.

The Vegas Art Guy said...

When I went through orientation the district made it very clear that schools could place you on a do not call list. I can imagine though that word will get around, even though it's not supposed to go past that one school and sub services. Best to mind you p's and q's. Getting black listed is no fun. I'd also like to know what this teacher did to end up in the dog house. Any new updates?

Why did this happen said...

I have question I live in AZ. My husband was wrongfully accused of sexual assault. I want to sue the school district because they did nothing to prevent it. I mean they did not provide an aid or something.

Anonymous said...

Here is the issue, subs are teachers to. Regardless of the title we simply endure the same responsibilities as others who have a more permanent title. A sub can do anything to smiling more than they should, being more understanding or simply just known as the cool sub. It doesnt have to be anything negative to get you on the block list. As a personal example it could be just the one day your chose to leave on time, be a second late or simply do what was asked and nothing more. The sad part is we dont have rights but I feel as though as long as you pay state and federal taxes there should be something put into place to buffer the decision so that your voice can be heard to.

Ruthie Madison said...

I had similar thing happened to me. I tried to call or log in to my eschool school solution account but got a message in red saying my account has been locked. So I called the number and go "Invalid" No one told me this would happen. They just did it. I had worked through Kings County Office of Education. I had no idea there was a do not call list, I just thought they removed me from the list. I took action and notified the Credential Analyst. She said she would check into it. Several days later they explained to me that I have removed from the list because school districts had filed complaints against me. I have more against them. A couple of the charges against me didn't even happen. It was my local school district and I can tell you that I had purposefully set me up to fail. They assign me hard classes, twice the teacher failed to provide a lesson plan and yet I was accused of not following it! (One time, the teacher helper whomever she was) came and said the teacher had emailed the lesson plan. She took time away from me as she had to open her email on the computer. I had no time to look at the lesson plan. By the time it was ready, class began. Another time, the office failed to tell me it was a rainy day schedule (same school) and so the kids come in because that what they are suppose to do when it rains (It was lunch time). I worked for another school district and they never had a complaint against me. A couple months later they send me a notice saying they have reasonable assurance and want to know if I want to work for them as a sub.