Richard Segerblom is an experienced Las Vegas attorney specializing in worker litigation and elected to the Assembly last November. Richard has handled numerous cases representing teachers against the Clark County School District.
Richard gave the following answers in a September 2005 interview with Business Las Vegas regarding the mistreatment of teachers by school districts in Nevada.
And the school district, in particular, you'd think where everyone is a school teacher or used to be a school teacher they would treat people with professionalism and worry about their careers and it's just the opposite. The teachers in this state (have) nothing going for them; it's terrible how they treat them.
Why? I don't know. I analogize it to the way schools deal with kids. If I'm a teacher and there's a kid in my class that acts up, I'm taught to make sure that kid backs down no matter what. The same thing happens with the principal with the teacher or the administrator with the principal.
If you dare to stand up or talk back, they just are unbending, and they just push you down and crush you. And they'll spend $1 million doing it, which is very bizarre. That's just the mentality out there.
Win or lose, they've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove that they're right, where in none of these cases is anyone right. There's always gray, somebody made a mistake, whatever.
You can read the entire interview by clicking here.
Is Segerblom correct?
Do teachers fear standing up and expressing their concerns for fear of retribution?
Have you experienced mistreatment, harassment or seen other teachers go through it?
Does the teachers' association do enough to protect teachers from mistreatment?
Is this a factor in teacher retention?
Do teachers leave for other districts or retire early because of it?
What can or should be done about it?
Comments (1)
I am a teacher of 43 years who retired in January although I had planned to teach until June. I started to be harassed by my principal at the end of the prior year. He saw me privately to tell me that, after an announcement at the faculty meeting that I had missed, be received messages from twelve of my colleagues that they did not want to work on a teacher-team with me the following year. When I questioned other teachers who had attended the meeting, no-one remembered him soliciting information about next year's team make-ups. In fact, at that time we knew our school would be dropping a lot of teachers due to decreasing enrollment and no-one yet knew who would be coming back to the building.
After only a few weeks of the new school year, the principal e-mailed me on a Friday afternoon. He wanted me to come to his office on Monday during my conference period. He said complaints from students and parents were "piling up on a daily basis." I should come prepared with a plan to alter my teaching practices. He was not available at the appointed time. He was not available at lunch. He was not available after school. The next day I received a angry e-mail reminding me of the meeting he had demanded, and told me to see him after school. But he wasn't there! So I left a note with his secretary that I would be in my room until 4:00. He came in close to that time. He began by assuring me that this meeting was not evaluative, but that I needed to do something about all the complaints. I told him that I was retiring in June, so I wasn't concerned about his evaluation. I was concerned about the complaints...what were they about? All the rest of the meeting consisted of his memories of when his parents retired from teaching. He never again brought up any complaints. Obviously, he was satisfied that I would be leaving.
Later...when he told us in a faculty meeting that "We will not teach spelling in this school any more." and that "the purpose of this school is to teach kids to work in groups to solve a problem." I gave up and put in for retirement. I teach middle-school kids who spell went "whent" and does "dose". I teach individuals who have serious needs...not groups.
Do I feel that I have been harassed? Yes. Do I feel that I have pushed into retirement before my time? Yes. Why did he want me to suspect my friends with whom I have taught for years? Why did he want me to believe that my students and their parents didn't like me? I will probably never know.
Posted by Miss Kitty | February 1, 2007 5:38 PM