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Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism University of Southern California
Southern California

LAUSD Urges Teacher Misconduct Policy Review

LAUSD superintendent opens union talks over 20-year-old misconduct clause.

The  L.A. Unified School District superintendent, John Deasy, instructed his negotiating team on Wednesday to push teachers' unions to eliminate a four-year-time-limit on teacher misconduct files.

LAUSD superintendent John Deasy is pushing unions to get rid of limit on teacher misconduct files. (Photo courtesy ATVN)
LAUSD superintendent John Deasy is pushing unions to get rid of limit on teacher misconduct files. (Photo courtesy ATVN)

Currently, teachers who are accused of misconduct that does not result in disciplinary action removed from files after four years. The clause dates to the early 1990’s when LAUSD agreed to it in exchange for teachers taking a pay cut, according to Deasy. 

“In the interests of affording greater protections to our students, I have instructed the Los Angeles Unified School District’s negotiating team to enter discussions immediately with teacher’s union to change or eliminate this practice,” Deasy said.  

The clause in teacher’s contracts may explain why the district had no record of earlier allegations of misconduct by former Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt, who has been charged with 23 counts of lewd acts with children, according to a report by the L.A. Times. 

Deasy said that in response to the recent string of allegations, he ordered an investigation into the district’s system of reporting alleged misconduct by teachers. He said that probe led to the discovery of the contract clause. 

President Warren Fletcher of United Teachers Los Angeles said in a statement that he would be open to a discussion. 

“As teachers we are always open to discussing ways to assure our children are safe," Fletcher said. 

COMMENTS

From Roque Burio Jr. Here is another song on the delay of teacher dismissal caused by the Paper monster LAUSD. Oh, come on. The law on crimes is easily and speedily enforced. Criminal justice system is accurate and fast in California. However the LAUSD will not report to the District Attorney the commission of crimes for it likes to use these crimes of teachers as bargains for obtaining additional funding and for paying its favorite private lawyers pursuing more an administrative case instead of criminal one.
If a teacher commits misconduct which could be crime then let the Criminal Justice System takes over, and if the teacher is guilty, he is convicted in less than a month and he can therefore immediately be dismissed from teaching. LAUSD causes the delay for some ulterior reasons or in short for money.

The excuse of "discovering" a contract clause is just that: an excuse! If they didn't know it was there it goes to prove they weren't following it. Just like they weren't following the part of the Ed Code that explicitly requires the superintendent - no one else - to report allegations of child abuse to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing within thirty days.

Why do we need to extend a deadline when teachers accused of wrong doing should face consequences immediately for misconduct? Yet again teachers will. Be demonized and stained because of administrative incompetence and Mr. Deasy's mercenary agenda which ha nothing to do with the safety and academic success of students. His efforts are motivated by a dire urge to cut costs by de professionalizing teachers. He's puckically staed that after five years in the trenches a teacher is no us to HIM! He sites burn out, a condition facillitated by the overcrowding, poor leadership and hostile workplace fostered by LAUSD's contemp for teachers. High attrition saves them vast sums of cash on healthcare, pay and pensions. Still, it's not enough. The superintendent would prefer to install TFA temps, who would be given forgiveness on student loans and nominal wages for a stint in school before moving on to lucrative careers in the private sector. While this may be inspired from a business angle, I think we need to ask ourselves when education became a business and if that's how we want to approach the enlightenment of our disenfranchised youth,
Should greedy philanthropists like Gats and Broad ve allowed to exploit them? Should we support their efforts to undermine the traditions we know are essential to creating campus culture , connecting community to school and inherently connected to academic freedom which implements the basic paradigms for critical thinking therefore Democracy? We are moving towards test factories that are so impersonal lessons will be delivered by low paid techs relying on scripted lessons that cost millions like the dubious test packets that Scholatic scams us with at $ 10 each and never revises or amends to address issues like cultural bias, tedium and margin of error for use in teacher evaluations that is sonhighnitbrendersbthem useless. Of course Mr. Deasy get 150k for his work as a consultant. That with his salery of $250+ annually from Lausd strikes me as a conflict of interest. Recent comportment at the helm of this Miramonte scandal calls into question hos competence and integrity. His staff should be arrested for remaking the law to use credentials as leverage in unseemly bargains with perverts. One child we know of was raped as a direct result of the staff relations' machinations.how about we turn some of that scrutiny on our leaders instead of taking their word that teachers are what ails our schools. Without a doubt, we have to get rid of the riff raff in classrooms but most of them are cronies to the riff raff in charge. So we see innocent teachers, whistleblowers and veterans victimized by the real source of our problems.

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