What to Do If A Fight Breaks Out
Guidelines – what to do if a fight breaks out – There is no set of laws or court principles that require you to physically intervene or to put yourself at risk if a fight breaks out at school. Red River United urges you to use your own moral code and common sense. You should, however, take all reasonable steps to deter and dissipate a fight, such as:
- Call/page for security
- Send a student to the office
- Yell and scream
- Wave your arms and gesture wildly
- Stomp your feet and clap your hands
- Do anything but stand still!
You run certain risks regardless of how you choose to break up a fight. Red River United wants you to use your best judgment but to also know the risks involved in getting physically involved in a fight.
If you physically get involved to break up a fight you run the risk of:
- Being accused of using excessive force and charged with battery
- Sued by the parents of the students involved in the fight
- Fired
- Physically hurting yourself
If you choose not to get physically involved you can still be sued or fired. Therefore, it is EXTREMELY important that you take all reasonable steps (listed above) to deter and dissipate a fight.
Contact Red River United immediately if you have concerns in this area.
Teacher Tip Of the Week!
This Week’s Teacher Tip
Use “seconds” as a way of getting students to clean up. At the end of the period tell the students that each item left on the floor counts as 30 seconds off their recess. After the first day of 3 minutes off recess we rarely have to stay in more than 30 seconds anymore. They really enjoy picking up their “seconds”.
– Staff Submission
LFT News: Bogus Reform Group Touts Vouchers Again
Bogus reform group touts vouchers again
(Baton Rouge – January 14, 2014) To no one’s surprise, an organization dedicated to promoting school vouchers for private and religious schools is heaping praise on Louisiana’s voucher scheme.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute today released a review of vouchers across the United States, and lauded Louisiana as a “national model when it comes to transparency and accountability.” It marked the second year that Fordham has issued a report supporting Louisiana’s voucher law.
Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan characterized the Fordham Institute as a right wing storefront that exists as a shill for vouchers.
“Obviously, Fordham did not read the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s review of the state voucher program,” Monaghan said. “They would have known that just a handful of the 118 voucher schools reported their performance data to the state.”
In addition, Monaghan said, Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera said that only three of the 118 schools tracked their public dollars separately from private funds, and that one of those overbilled the state by nearly $400,000. That school was subsequently excluded from the voucher program.
“A model for transparency and accountability? It is simply astounding that anyone can hold such a dismal record up as a model,” Monaghan said.
In what it described as a “policy toolkit,” Fordham suggested three objectives that define accountability for voucher schools:
All voucher students should participate in state assessments.
The result of those assessments should be publicly disclosed except when a school has so few voucher students that disclosure would identify individual students.
A “sliding scale” should be used when acting on test results, meaning that “private schools that derive little of their income from vouchers should be largely left alone.”
Despite the legislative auditor’s findings, the Fordham survey concluded that Louisiana has one of four voucher schemes “that have generally gotten these policies right.” Others are in Indiana, Cleveland and Milwaukee.
But Monaghan said that even the metrics suggested by Fordham’s toolkit are flawed.
“Requiring all students who receive vouchers to participate in state assessments is not the same as requiring that these assessments have the same high stakes consequences as they do for public school students,” Monaghan said.
As far as the second recommendation is concerned, Monaghan said that voucher schools have figured out how to game the system by keeping numbers low in certain grades and subjects.
The LFT president said the idea of a “sliding scale” is absurd. “If they’re in for a dime’s worth of state dollars, they should be in for the full dollar of state accountability,” he said.
Holding voucher schools unaccountable just because they have few students is an invitation for abuse and an insult to public education and every classroom teacher, Monaghan said.
– See more at: http://la.aft.org/press/bogus-reform-group-touts-vouchers-again#sthash.iO4uUYYG.dpuf
VIDEO: The Truth about International Education Comparisons
What Does the PISA Report tell us about US Education?
When the OECD releases the PISA report every three years, many people use the ranking to claim public education in the U.S. is failing and push their corporate education reform agenda. But looking at the data, lessons that can be learned from the highest performing countries point in a completely different direction. For more information: http://go.aft.org/pisa #ReclaimIt
ACTION ALERT: Tell Jindal and White they are wrong about teachers!
Tell Jindal and White they are wrong about teachers!
For the second time, a state court has struck down Act 1 of 2012, the so-called “talent act,” because it violates a prohibition on bundling too many objectives in a single law.
Act 1 is a reflection of the governor’s very wrong opinions about teachers.
We strongly believe that the law has harmed teachers. If each of its elements had been introduced as separate laws, we would have opposed all of them.
We wish the lawsuits were not necessary. But until the Jindal administration respects both the rule of law and the teachers who dedicate their lives to the children of Louisiana, we have no choice.
To learn more and send Gov. Jindal and Supt. White a letter, please click here. Tell Gov. Jindal and Supt. White that it’s time to stop the lawsuits and work together in the best interest of all our children and the professionals who work in our schools.
BREAKING NEWS: Act 1 Found Unconstitutional (again)
(Baton Rouge – January 8, 2014) For the second time in less than a year, a Baton Rouge district court judge has ruled Act 1 of 2012, the so-called “talent act,” unconstitutional.
Judge Michael Caldwell first ruled the act unconstitutional last March, agreeing with a lawsuit brought by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. The judge said Act 1 violated a ban on bundling multiple objects into one piece of legislation. But the State Supreme Court remanded the case to the 19th Judicial District, asking Judge Caldwell to reconsider his ruling in light of another decision.
In a carefully worded ruling that acknowledged the Supreme Court’s reservations, Judge Caldwell said that while the high court’s decision had broadened the definition of a bill’s objects, “The object (of the bill) is not apparent to me in several provisions of the act.”
Therefore, Judge Caldwell said, Act 1 violates the multiple object clause and is “unconstitutional in its entirety.”
“The judge basically affirmed what we said from the very beginning,” LFT President Steve Monaghan said after the verdict. “Facts are facts. This was a sprawling piece of legislation that was duck taped together. It was hastily done and we took it to court as we promised to do. As we said from day one, we came to court out of respect for the constitution.”
The act was one of the bills that Gov. Bobby Jindal touted as his education reform agenda in 2012. It amended and reenacted nine statutes and enacted two entirely new statutes. It tied teacher salaries, tenure, promotions and termination to a new evaluation system. It changed the way school boards contract with superintendents, altered the general powers of school boards, delegated new authority to principals and superintendents and mandated different reduction-in-force policies.
An attorney for the state told reporters that Judge Caldwell’s decision will be appealed directly to the Supreme Court.
The law will remain in effect until the high court makes a final decision. Sections of the act dealing with teacher evaluations, tenure, promotions and salaries are unfair and unworkable, the LFT president said.
“No matter how this case is ultimately decided, the legislature will have to revisit the whole concept of education reform,” Monaghan said. “We hope they will not try to pass the repugnant sections of this act as individual pieces of legislation.”
At a press conference following the verdict, Jindal said that he is willing to work with anyone to provide excellent teachers for Louisiana’s classrooms.
“That is our goal as well,” Monaghan said. “We are ready to talk to the governor at any time about reforms that will truly improve education and create a better future for the children of Louisiana.”
Another of the governor’s education bills, Act 2 of 2012, has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because it unlawfully diverted public education funds to private, religious and corporate education providers.
– Louisiana Federation of Teachers
Commitment vs. Servitude- Workshop on January 18, 2014
Commitment vs. Servitude
Do you know the difference?
Come hear from an expert: Ronald Key
Workshop for ALL school employees
Saturday, January 18
9:00 – 12:00 PM
Red River United Office
1726 Line Avenue, Shreveport, LA 71101
Space is limited to the first 50 people to RSVP
RSVP HERE
318-424-4579
redriverunited@redriverunited.org
Reducing stress in a stressful world
Balancing life and career obligations
Establishing effective coping mechanisms
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room – workplace politics!
This class is ideal for ALL school employees who have a passion for public education and are looking to reconnect with their passion for LIFE.
Please come wearing comfortable clothing.
RSVP to 318-424-4579 or redriverunited@redriverunited.org
We welcome members and potential members to come and enjoy this FREE workshop.
Nominate your AFT Everyday Hero!
Nominate your AFT Everyday Hero, and you will be entered to win $250 for your good deed too!
We know that AFT members are heroes who are reclaiming the promise every day, and we want to hear about them!
Do you know an AFT member who has made a difference in his or her workplace? Someone who has had a profound and positive impact on the community? Someone whose extraordinary contribution in his or her field of work, or to the lives of others, has been heroic?
Nominate this person today, and you will be entered to win a $250 American Express gift card. We will identify semifinalists from each of our constituencies: teachers, PSRPs, early childhood educators, higher education faculty, public employees, healthcare professionals and retirees. Each finalist will be honored at the 2014 AFT convention in Los Angeles.
You have until Jan. 31, 2014, to nominate an Everyday Hero. Use this brief nomination form. Nominate as many people as you like, but nominees must be AFT members.
Nominations will be accepted until January 31, 2014.
LFT had warned state about voucher accountability
Audit slamming voucher schools is no surprise, LFT president says
(Baton Rouge – December 17, 2013) A legislative auditor’s report criticizing state oversight of the controversial school voucher scheme was foreseen by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers more than a year ago, Federation President Steve Monaghan said today.
“I do not hate to say we told them so because we did just that,” Monaghan said. “The state education board and department of education had ample warning that their accountability standards were inadequate.”
Monaghan was responding to a report by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera saying that the state does not properly monitor the use of public funds or the academic standards of private and religious schools that accept state vouchers.
“We realized in July of 2012 that rules adopted by BESE couldn’t pass muster, and requested a public hearing in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act,” Monaghan said. “In October, BESE finally agreed to the hearing as required by law. But sadly, that hearing was a mockery. We were limited to just 10 minutes to present more than a dozen specific, constructive recommendations to make vouchers more accountable to parents and taxpayers.”
Other groups that had come to the hearing prepared to offer suggestions were given just two minutes each to testify, Monaghan said.
Instead of giving serious attention to the deficiencies in BESE’s voucher rules, Monaghan said, the hearing degenerated into a pep rally for vouchers. Numerous supporters were allowed to praise the voucher program without even mentioning the subject of the hearing, which was Bulletin 133 (Criteria for School Participation in the Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program).
Almost immediately after that faux hearing, Monaghan recalled, the Louisiana Department of Education released a statement praising those who had attended the meeting in support of vouchers, even though the purpose of the meeting was not to debate educational philosophy.
“This sent a very clear signal,” Monaghan said. “The mission of the department of education was to champion vouchers and privatization by any means necessary, and that’s why more than a year later we have audit report stating the obvious, and what we had attempted to fix in October 2012.”
In light of this audit report and BESE’s refusal to consider reasonable accountability for the $40 million-plus voucher program, Monaghan said, it will be up to the State Legislature to pass appropriate legislation requiring proper oversight in order to protect students, parents, and taxpayers.
– See more at: http://la.aft.org/press/lft-had-warned-state-about-voucher-accountability#sthash.Vwf0rYvn.dpuf