Monday, January 04, 2010

David Pakter Interview in Financial Times of London


Financial Times of London


'I've been in detention for years - and I'm a teacher'

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First Person: David Pakter reveals how he must wait in

New York's so-called rubber rooms to clear his name


As told to Cian Traynor in London


Published: January 2 2010 00:42 | Last updated: January 2 2010 00:42
David Pakter
David Pakter Photo: Pascal Perich

When I began teaching in New York City 37 years ago, if you were reported for serious misconduct, you were sent to a Board of Education office until the matter was resolved. But as the system grew, removing teachers from the classroom became standard for even the most trivial offence. The board’s offices got so crowded they began leasing buildings around the city to use as “reassignment centres”, nicknamed “rubber rooms”.

As many as 800 to 1,000 teachers are in rubber rooms on any given day; it’s an academic Guantánamo Bay. Many go stir-crazy. Brooklyn’s Chapel Street rubber room is huge but so crowded that people are almost falling out of the windows.

When I was first sent to one of these rubber rooms, it took me six months to establish what the complaints were. Meanwhile, like everyone else, I turned up every day, kept the same hours and received my salary. But there was nothing to do except wait. It’s known as constructive termination.
In the worst rubber rooms, there are people who’ve been there for up to five years.

When I started teaching in New York City, I worked at a school that was one of the jewels in the crown of the school system. As the years went by, the curriculum was whittled down. We taught four languages when I started, but gradually it became just another fifth-rate school. Eventually, Spanish was the only foreign language taught – in a school where most kids are Hispanic.

I began teaching medical illustration as part of my art course and tried to attract the most gifted kids. I wanted to fill in the gaps and eventually I was teaching them about opera, ballet, philosophy and astronomy. I devoted the last 10 minutes of each day to French – I bought the books myself.

Word got around and other students wanted to learn French. Parents were calling the school. It was an unworkable situation and I was ordered to stick to the medical illustration.
Somehow I’d gone from winning a teacher-of-the-year award to being a thorn in the side of the school.
One of the other things I argued about was music provision – all schools must have one music teacher by law.

In 2004, the term had just started when I saw a woman setting up a music room. I assumed that my complaining had paid off, but the class was for the adjacent primary school – they were expanding into our building.
I couldn’t believe it. I filmed the class, with the teacher’s permission, to document the fact that kids from another school were being taught a subject in the place where our own students were denied it. The next day I was handed a letter telling me “pending an investigation following an allegation made against you, you are to report to a temporary reassignment centre until further notice”.

I finally discovered that the reasons for my being sent to the rubber room were “fundraising activities and collection of money from students”. The allegation was thrown out, but the board of education has a right to send you for a psychiatric exam regardless. It took me a year to force the city to agree to an impartial medical arbitration. I was vindicated but by then everything I had built was torn apart. There was no one to take my place and, from what I’ve heard, some of my pupils never fulfilled their promise.

I was sent to a new school as a day-to-day substitute but soon they pulled me out again. It took a year before I found out what the new charges were: bringing plants to school without permission and giving watches I had designed myself to students on the honour roll – which constituted promotion of a private business. But the kids wouldn’t have been able to afford to buy them themselves.

I’ve been assigned to a rubber room in Harlem for the past two years – with no available drinking water, no natural light, no plants and poor ventilation – just waiting to clear my name.
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Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010.

"FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times.
© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2010.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4f8c4a1c-ef66-11de-86c4-00144feab49a.html

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David Pakter has filed Lawsuits in the United States Federal Court,

( United States District Court, Southern District of New York )

-against-

The New York City Department of Education, naming 15 Defendants

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Mr. Pakter is represented in the Federal Court by

Dr. Joy Hochstadt, Esq.

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Mr. Pakter is also represented in New York State 3020-a Hearings by NYSUT Attorney,

Christopher M. Callagy, Esq.

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Further information related to story in the Financial Times


http://www.uft.org/news/teacher/top/axed/

http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2008/12/david-pakter-nyc-teacher-and.html

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2008/07/nyc-chancellor-joel-klein-esqs-dirty.html

http://underassault.blogspot.com/2009/11/raw-experience-into-words.html

http://www.endteacherabuse.org/Pakter.html

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is outrageous that this man, a qualified caring instructor , should be withheld from the classroom. How many students in the city have been denied new curriculum because the original school he was in was embarrassed that they had allowed another school to use their limited space? As far as giving out watches, many teachers in all grade levels give out rewards to motivate students. Mr.Pakter deserves to be removed from the rubber room and exonerated. I hope he wins his lawsuit.

abused teach in Philly said...

This is happening in Philadelphia,Pa too. The governor is aware of it, the Mayor, City Council, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and the list goes on and on.......NO ONE will address the issue. I am speaking about this 1st hand as it happened to me and I spoke to all the aforementioned people and got NO RESULTS. And something a lot worse than just being forced to sit in a room a happened too! I am thrilled that David found an attorney willing to speak up about this situation and take it "out of the closet!" Thanks Dr. Joy!

Shir said...

Mr. Pakter was my illustration teacher from 1985-1989. There is no better teacher. Shame on those who are making his life miserable and keeping him out of the classroom. This is a great disservice not just to Mr. Pakter, but to all the students who will never have him as a teacher. Just awful!!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Pakter was my teacher and I do own of his watches! (Class of 2005). I withness firsthand what passion looked like. As a result, I went on to be an architect. I can honestly say that being one of his pupil in his Medical Illustration class was a blessing which 12 years later, I still get goosebumps knowing I was once a student in that class. Thank you, Mr. Pakter.