CAT Tracks for October 31, 2003 TRIGGER HAPPY DISTRICT

Okay...I waited and hoped...hoped that false accusations against a long-time teacher would be resolved quickly, without fanfare. Unfortunately, certain individuals have seen fit to slander the good name and reputation of this teacher. They have turned an innocent incident of joking with a student into an alleged threat of bodily harm. Nothing is further from the truth.

The Association would ask that you not "aid and abet" this wrong...do NOT join in on this gossip. The Association would caution you that if whoever is behind this attack is successful, they will probably start looking for another target...and the new target might be you! How would you like people to react if you were the one wrongly accused? Join in on the gossip? Add a few titillating details of their own? I don't think so!

The following edition of CAT Tracks was written on Monday night...the evening of the "suspension with pay pending an investigation." However, it was withheld for fear that it would prompt speculation and gossip. Since the rumors are already flying...

Watch your back..."Big Brother is Watching"...and ready to pounce for the slightest, silliest reason!

First it was a 33-year secretary/bookkeeper who was suspended without pay for "abandoning her job" by daring to be hospitalized during Christmas vacation. Upon "further review"...following a 3-month "investigation", she was dismissed for allegedly not paperclipping forms and omitting dates. That case is set for federal court next August and will cost a financially strapped District - at a minimum - thousands of dollars of legal fees.

Next it was a principal...two months removed from retirement...who was suspended without pay for daring to set graduation on a day other than the oft criticized Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. That was the suspension, dismissal, rehiring circus act that closed this past school year.

Then, during this past summer, it was the secretary who was recalled from a RIF, only to be scheduled for a dismissal hearing...but wasn't.

Now, Cairo School District Number One has seen fit to suspend a long-time teacher. His crime?...Doing what he and others have done for years...having the unmitigated gall to joke with a student. In an "out of context" case run amok, the teacher is accused of threatening bodily harm...a charge that is completely untrue.

Unfortunately, these incidents are continuing evidence of a Board of Education that is quick to pull the trigger on employees for the most trivial of reasons.

Therefore...BEWARE! Watch your back!!! This is NOT a good environment in which to teach, but it is the one in which we find ourselves.

The CAT is here to support you...that's what you pay dues for. Hopefully, you will not be targeted, but...if you are, notify your union representative immediately and assistance will be forthcoming.