Students Disrespected? What About the Teachers?!

Deasy Should Take it Easy on the Teachers

He's also gained a reputation for outspokenness and a brisk decision-making style some have criticized as heavy-handed. Earlier this year, for instance, Deasy ordered a substitute teacher fired after finding students doing busy work.

"I'm intolerant when it comes to students being disrespected," he said in an interview sandwiched between school visits and meetings. "I do what I think is right and everyone has the right to criticize. You appreciate the critics, but you wouldn't get up in the morning if you listened to them."

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/la-schools-superintendent-shakes-district-154331577.html )

Mr. John Deasy, superintendent of the second largest school district in the country, let out another doozy of a comment in a recent interview, excerpted here.

"I'm intolerant when it comes to students being disrespected," he crowed.

Students disrespected? What about the teachers, like Ms. Patrena Shankling, a substitute teacher sand-bagged with a class without any suitable lesson plans? Substitute teachers are treated lower than school janitors, sometimes, and even the secretaries -- and even those classified staff can expect better treatment because they are on-site staff who do not have to corral of group of students who are tribally attached to another teacher.

Nothing "disrespects students in the long term like an administrators who manifests a culture of disrespect toward teachers, especially the guest educators who are making the most of a growing intolerable situation.

If Mr. Deasy wants to end the chronic disrespect toward students, he could start by ending the zip-code prison system that forces students to go to the local school because like the proverbial mountain, it happens to "be there".

The Miramonte scandal would have never happened, or at least would have not deepened into the perverse crisis that it had become, if the students and the parents enjoyed the basic right of assembling in a school of their choice instead of the den of iniquity which most people have to suffer with.

If Deasy really respects students, he would shut down half the Ivory Tower bureaucracy at 333 South Beaudry, where millions of taxpayer dollars are siphoned away without ever touching the classroom.

Respect for students? How about putting an end to the endless standardized tests which test and evaluating nothing but the incremental excellence of basic skills in schools where students are still  passed along even though they cannot read at grade level?

If Deasy really cares about students, he would cease micromanaging schools in other cities besides Los Angeles. Set Rancho Palos Verdes, Lomita, South Gate, and Huntington Park free. They would be better served joining with local school districts which are buckling under less bureaucracy.

How many students in LA Unified cannot even spell "R-E-S-P-E-C-T"? Aretha Franklin definitely could, and she got money and fame for the privilege. When Deasy commands enough respect to regard the reputation of the teacher and the role of the parents -- both  their rights and accountability to raise their kids -- then he can brag about protecting the respect of students.

He could start by modeling respect and deference for local community leaders. He could praise the 110% effort of teachers who are expected to do so much more with so much less, and have been cast as the buggaboo of public education.

Teachers need protection. Teachers deserve respect. Teachers crave support, and so far the LAUSD superintendent has yet to deliver on railing the troops from San Pedro to the Valley with charm and grace which recognizes the push of the overwhelmed faculty and support-staff.

Respect the teachers, Mr. Deasy, and respect for the students will certainly follow.