You can’t imagine what it’s like to walk into school every morning and know you are going to be attacked. To face harassment day after day is devastating.
I had a spotless 12-year record. The harassment began when I was elected chapter leader in November 2010. Fortunately, the union was at my side from the beginning. District 21 Representative Judy Gerowitz not only educated me about our rights under the contract, but she also gave me the courage to be strong not only for myself but for my members at PS 90 in Coney Island. By standing together, we were able to support each other, stand up for our rights and prove the bad things that were going on at our school.
In 2012, 14 staff members, including me, collectively filed a Step 1 grievance about Principal Greta Hawkins’ excessive demands to format lesson plans. Instead of holding a single hearing, which is typical in such cases, Principal Hawkins called each of us, one by one, into her office and aggressively asked if we knew what we were doing by filing a grievance. A year later, an arbitrator ordered her to stop harassing union members who were exercising their contractual rights.
My personal vindication came in April 2015, when an arbitrator reversed the Ineffective rating Hawkins had given me because it was due to harassment and animus and was in no way related to my professional performance as a teacher. The arbitrator minced no words when she said I was a teacher the principal disliked and had no respect for. She ordered a new, fair rating.
It was the first time that a principal’s rating was overturned by the independent panel that reviews teacher ratings that the union suspects are based on principal harassment. The UFT fought so hard for that appeals process as essential to a fair teacher evaluation system.
My case illustrates why it is so important that teachers are protected by due process and supported by a strong union.
Vicky Giasemis is now a teacher at PS 100 in Brooklyn.
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