You don’t appreciate the strength of a union until you really need it. I found out just how valuable a union is when the UFT fought the fight for my school when I was the chapter leader at the East River Academy on Rikers Island.
I began teaching at Rikers Island in 2011. The first couple of years were good: The Department of Corrections worked well with the Department of Education if we had any problems with students. There were consequences for bad behavior. I personally never felt unsafe. When there were fights between students, which happened maybe at most once a week, officers were trained to pull the kids apart and restore order to the classroom and students involved were held responsible for their actions.
In the fall of 2015, the rules changed and officers were no longer allowed to put their hands on kids and there were no longer any consequences for bad behavior. Officers were only allowed to use pepper spray instead. That’s when all the problems started. Officers would just shoot pepper spray at students, and it was a highly concentrated spray and it affected everyone in the vicinity. It burned your eyes and lungs. I had a really bad reaction to it. I would get heart palpitations when exposed to it, which is a really scary thing to experience. Some teachers would develop skin rashes, burning eyes and throat, and those who had asthma could suffer an asthma attack. Kids would get violently ill and throw up in the classroom. The residue was on the desks, walls and doorknobs. It would stay on your clothes. After spraying, everyone was expected to return to teaching. There was very little cleanup done and very poor ventilation to clear the air.
By Thanksgiving, we realized there was a serious problem. There were far too many fights happening and way too much pepper spray being used. It was my first year as the chapter leader. My UFT district representative got the union to start tracking the incidents. The UFT filed a complaint with the Department of Labor, which started proceedings to hold the Department of Corrections accountable. Jail is a unique facility and not subject to a lot of rules and regulations like other companies would be, but the Department of Labor pushed. The UFT contacted the City Council and it became involved. The union had a paper trail and statistics to back up what was going on.
The union along with the DOE and the Department of Corrections worked to implement changes such as a point system so kids could earn points for good behavior. The Department of Corrections agreed to give face masks to the teachers and give them the opportunity to go outside for fresh air after an incident. We also got wipes to get our rooms properly cleaned and better ventilation. Incidents started to drop, and conditions did improve.
It was daunting at times to go up against a big organization like the Department of Corrections, but I felt 100 percent supported by my union, so I never wavered. I told my members, “There’s strength in numbers.”
Suzanne Ribeiro is now a teacher at Bronx HS for Visual Arts. She taught at East River Academy on Rikers Island from 2011 to 2017.
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