Untenured Teacher Pushes Back Against Principal’s Mistreatment

NEW YORK CITY, November 21—One of the Progressive Labor Party’s chants says, “What do we do when under attack? Stand up, fight back!” At a New York City high school where students and teachers are constantly harassed by the administration, a young, untenured teacher did just that. She also struck a blow against sexism.
When the principal observed this teacher, she had a lesson with PowerPoint slides and had to open her lesson plan on her laptop. The principle was upset that she didn’t have a printed copy of her lesson plan, and he put a letter in her file chastising her. This violates the union contract, which states that administrators may only criticize the lesson, not the format of the lesson plan. Even the Chancellor’s weekly newsletter to principals warns them not to use a school handbook to amend the contract. Attacking little things like the format of a lesson plan is one way the administration keeps new teachers intimidated and prevents them from speaking up against bad practices at the school.
Here, as at many NYC schools, students and teachers face many problems. Too many administrators have never taught, almost all the classes are overcrowded, and we have a principal who pick on untenured teachers over nonsense.
Veteran and
New Teachers, Unite
The attacks are constant, but many teachers have fought back. Unfortunately, it’s mostly been the veteran teachers, who have tenure (job protection). Untenured teachers are told they have no rights and can be fired at any time, for any reason. As a result, it’s mainly veteran teachers who stand up to the administration, while those without tenure are advised to keep their heads down and be “team players”.
When this woman teacher began asking co-workers for help, she received conflicting advice. Some men, who historically fought back in the school,  said to do nothing and be a “team player” because that’s what the principal likes. This reflected a degree of sexism – that a woman shouldn’t stand up to mistreatment from a male principal. However, some female teachers and one male teacher, known for being a member of Progressive Labor Party, encouraged her to fight and not quietly accept the disciplinary letter.
Despite being untenured, she wrote a short rebuttal accompanied by evidence about the principal’s wrongdoing. These daily fights over lesson plans and the general harassment by bosses at work are important because they are part of the steeling of the working class that’s necessary for struggles that lay ahead. In particular, this struggle was a small blow against intimidation and sexist ideas at work.  
There are many more struggles occurring in this school that are all geared toward fighting back against an administration that pays lip service to wanting to help the students while attacking teachers and our ability to teach them. The dedication of teachers toward their students has motivated them to attend PTA meetings and build closer ties with parents. This act of defiance is an example of building fightback on the job and forging the unity of men and women necessary to fight capitalism.