SCOTUS For Law Students: Student Speech and The Internet

        

SCOTUS for law students: Student speech and the Internet (sponsored by Bloomberg Law)
LINK

Few things are more challenging for the Supreme Court than applying old rules to new technology. The question of whether and under what circumstances public schools may punish Internet communications by students outside of school may soon present that challenge to the Justices.

At their private Conference on January 13, the Justices will consider whether to review two cases pitting student free speech claims against the authority of public school administrators to maintain order and discipline for a safe learning environment; the Court could announce whether it will hear the cases as soon as that afternoon.

For law students, the issues are important in classes on education law, First Amendment, perhaps cyberspace law and juvenile law, and courses studying the inner workings of the Supreme Court – especially those that study the role that conflicting rulings among the federal appeals courts play for the Justices.

If the Justices agree to take up the issue, the outcome will be important not only for school administrators, parents, and students, but also for those practicing education law and, perhaps more broadly, for free speech analysis under the First Amendment.

A decision by the Justices not to grant review, however, may demonstrate that the Justices have passed in light of the difficulty of determining when different federal appeals courts are actually in conflict over an issue. More on this point later.

One factor that may influence the Court’s choice of whether to hear the appeals is that the Justices do not seem fond of cases involving new technology. Just last June, in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, Justice Scalia noted the “challenges of applying the Constitution to ever-advancing technology,” as the Court struck down a California law restricting sale of violent video games to minors. And from time to time, some Justices have appeared to wrestle during oral argument with understanding the mechanics of different technologies.

The two petitions in fact involve three cases. In one petition,Blue Mountain School District v. J.S., school officials are seeking review of two different decisions issued by the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In the first decision, the Third Circuit ruled, by a vote of eight to six, that a middle school in the district improperly suspended an eighth grader for ten days for creating a fake MySpace profile of the principal. The profile – which included profanity and a vulgar message purportedly from the principal – was created on her home computer on the weekend and used a fictional name for the principal but displayed a real photograph of him.

The same petition is also an appeal in the case of Hermitage School District v. Layshock, in which a senior at a Pennsylvania high school was suspended for similar conduct. Using his grandmother’s computer, outside of school, the student created a fictitious profile of the high school principal on MySpace, posting a real photograph and describing the principal in insulting ways and as engaged in a substantial amount of drinking and drugs. The Third Circuit ruled that the school violated the student’s free speech rights.

In the other petition, Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools, a West Virginia high school student asks the Court to review a decision by the Fourth Circuit upholding her suspension for creating a discussion group on MySpace where students posted comments suggesting that a classmate had herpes. The discussion group was created from the student’s home computer after school hours.

The legal issue in all three cases turns on the Supreme Court’s 1969 ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. In that case, the Court ruled that students had a right to free speech in school, such that school officials could not interfere with student expression unless “it is necessary to avoid material and substantial interference with schoolwork or discipline.” In Tinker, the Justices found that there was no disruption from a small group of students wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War.

Fast forward forty years to a new world in which students communicate instantly with methods that did not exist when Tinker was decided — tweets, instant messages, YouTube videos, and social media Internet pages. Add to this mix growing societal concern over bullying; while the problem has existed as long as there have been schools, the impact is more immediate and more potent when the message may be disseminated quickly and widely through the Internet or other electronic means.

What sets the new cases apart from Tinker is that the communication took place outside of school. Should a school be able to discipline a student for communication that took place in the student’s home on the student’s own time? And if so, what legal standard should apply? So far, lower federal courts have wrestled with how to apply the Tinker standard to out-of-school speech. The result is that some student discipline has been upheld, while other punishments have been overturned.

But is this a conflict among the federal appeals courts? Or have the federal courts simply differed on the case-by-case factual question of when out-of-school speech threatens to disrupt, or actually disrupts, school functions? The answer to these questions is critical to whether the Supreme Court may decide to hear the cases. Petitions that present a genuine conflict on the meaning of the law among federal appeals courts are a high priority for review by the Supreme Court: after all, it is the only court that can resolve these conflicts, thereby eliminating the problems that can arise when laws are interpreted inconsistently in different parts of the country. For this reason, however, many petitions assert the existence of a circuit conflict, even when the disagreement among the lower courts is not so obvious or direct. The Justices – and their law clerks who screen the petitions – must therefore ascertain whether a conflict is sufficiently direct and significant to warrant the Court’s scheduling of oral argument to resolve it.

In the Kowalski case, the Fourth Circuit used the Tinker standard but found that the MySpace discussion group did disrupt school functions. By contrast, although the Third Circuit also applied the Tinker standard in both the Layshock and J.S. cases, it found that there was no school disruption attributable to the student speech.

These outcomes seem to turn on each court’s perception of the facts of the case. But in their petition seeking review of the Third Circuit rulings, the school districts assert that there is a deep division in lower federal courts over whether Tinker is the correct standard for out-of-school speech, and – if so – how it should apply.

A second Supreme Court ruling is also implicated in some of the off-campus speech cases, and the federal courts have wrestled with the application of that decision in much the same way. In Bethel School District v. Fraser, the Justices ruled that school officials could punish speech in school that was vulgar or lewd and inappropriate for the age of students who were listening. Bethel poses the same problem as Tinker: how does it apply to out-of-school speech that is vulgar? Lower courts have come to different conclusions on that question as well.

Even if the differences among the student speech cases are somewhat factual in nature, federal courts and school officials are struggling with these issues and might welcome clarification from the Supreme Court. Circuit conflict or not, sometimes the Supreme Court is the only place to go for clarity on an issue that has enormous practical impact, such as in the day-to-day operations of public schools.

Posted in Blue Mountain School District. v. J.S., Featured, SCOTUS for law students

Recommended Citation: Stephen Wermiel, SCOTUS for law students: Student speech and the Internet (sponsored by Bloomberg Law), SCOTUSblog (Jan. 7, 2012, 4:01 PM), http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/01/scotus-for-law-students-student-speech-and-the-internet-sponsored-by-bloomberg-law/

Actor Matt Damon and His Mother Reject the Friend of Education Award

Matt Damon with his mother, Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, in 2007 after he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Matt Damon and Mother Reject Union's Award

Jan. 5, 2012, 11:25 a.m.

By ANNA M. PHILLIPS, School Book

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7:19 p.m. | Updated The actor Matt Damon and his mother, a professor of education, on Wednesday turned down the opportunity for an award from the country’s largest teachers union after reading an opinion article that the union’s president had co-authored with the founder of Teach for America.

Writing that she was “confused by your collaboration” with Teach for America, Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige said she and her son, Mr. Damon, no longer desired to be nominated for the National Education Association’s Friend of Education Award.

In the opinion piece that Dr. Carlsson-Paige referred to, Dennis Van Roekel, president of the N.E.A., and Wendy Kopp, founder of T.F.A., urged the importance of evaluating and improving teacher training programs across the country. Yet in her e-mail to Mr. Van Roekel, Dr. Carlsson-Paige said she finds this message somewhat disingenuous on the part of T.F.A.

“I am very familiar with TFA and believe that its short-term, minimal training of teachers undermines teacher quality and harms children who too often get an inadequate education with its teachers,” the e-mail states.

Already a celebrity in the entertainment arena, Mr. Damon became one in the education world during a rally in Washington last July, where he publicly opposed the emphasis on standardized testing in public schools and the pressure educators are under to teach to those tests.

“This has been a horrible decade for teachers,” he told the crowd, according to a report by the Washington Post. “The next time you feel down or exhausted . . . please know there are millions of people behind you.”

Dr. Carlsson-Paige is an education teacher at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and founded the university’s Center for Peaceable Schools and Communities, and focuses on the impact of violence on children.

On Thursday, Mr. Van Roekel issued a written response to Dr. Carlsson-Paige’s letter, saying:

“I respect Matt Damon and thank him for his support of public education.”

“I believe NEA should talk to those who support public education, even if we don’t agree on everything, and work together to serve students.

Wendy Kopp and I agree that students will benefit from stronger
recruiting and teacher preparation.

“NEA isn’t going to quit fighting for students and our members, or for stronger teacher preparation. In fact, better teacher preparation is part of our 3-point plan on Leading the Profession that was released last month.”

Dr. Carlsson-Paige’s letter:

From: Nancy Carlsson-Paige
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 20:03:02 -0500
To: Dennis Van Roekel, Paul Toner
Subject: Friend of Education
January 4, 2012

Dear Mr. Van Roekel,

You wrote a lovely letter of appreciation last August to my son Matt Damon after he stood with teachers at the Save Our Schools rally. I was so happy to read your letter and forward it on to Matt.

In October, Paul Toner, President of the MTA, asked if Matt and I would accept the nomination for the Friend of Education Award to be given by the NEA in July, 2012. After some discussion and deliberation, Matt and I decided we would accept the nomination if it became a reality.

Recently, I read the opinion piece you wrote with Wendy Kopp in USA Today and was upset and confused by your collaboration with Teach for America. I am a life long teacher educator. I believe that one of the first things we must do to improve our nation’s schools is to extend, strengthen, and support teacher preparation. I am very familiar with TFA and believe that its short-term, minimal training of teachers undermines teacher quality and harms children who too often get an inadequate education with its teachers.

In your letter to Matt in August, you wrote about a first-grade teacher who was retiring because she wouldn’t teach to a script. You said that teaching to the test strips teachers of their professionalism. Yet it is the best-trained, most knowledgeable teachers who can offer the most meaningful, excellent education in this test-driven climate. It’s the under-prepared teachers who are most often teaching to tests and using scripts because they don’t have the knowledge base to do otherwise.

I have decided that because of your collaboration with TFA, it would not be wise for me or for Matt to be nominated for the Friend of Education Award. I regret this turn of events.

Nancy Carlsson-Paige
Professor Emerita
Lesley University

Anna M. Phillips is a member of the SchoolBook staff. Follow her on Twitter @annamphillips.

Principals From Hell: Reginald Landeau, MS 216, and His Reign of Terror

Principal Reginald Landeau didn’t turn off his unauthorized hot plate and burned down his office

Queens principal burns office, staff

MS 216’s Reginald Landeau — ‘the worst’ — ignores contract and rules by fear

BY MICHAEL HIRSCH | PUBLISHED MARCH 10, 2011

LINK

Parents attending open school night at MS 216 in Fresh Meadows, Queens, on Feb. 17 got a primer on their school’s principal, whom the teachers call “insufferable” and “vindictive.”
That evening, chapter leaders from other schools in District 26 and several of the school’s embattled staff — despite fears of reprisals — joined District Representative Mary Vaccaro in leafleting parents with fliers containing home truths about Principal Reginald Landeau Jr.

Parents read in the flier about the school’s failure to provide state-mandated special education services, the lack of safety, the “decline of a well-rounded education,” and poor staff morale.
“We can’t do our jobs or serve your children with this principal in charge,” one teacher told a parent of a 7th-grader.

District 26 chapter leaders armed with leaflets detailing the failings of the MS 216 principal wait for parents to arrive on open school night.

The following day, Landeau put letters in two teachers’ files. Staffers call it payback for the leafleting.
“It’s a constant struggle to get him to respect us and our contract and how children should be treated,” said Chapter Leader Rachel Montagano, an 8th-grade social studies teacher.

Because of the threat of retaliation from Landeau, no other MS 216 staffer is identified in this article.
Landeau (pronounced land-OH), an alumnus of the first Leadership Academy graduating class, has ruled the school for seven years.

An Educational Leadership magazine article about him claimed that “his first order of business was to systematically restructure the school in a way that benefited everyone.”

UFT District 26 Representative Mary Vaccaro tells a parent about the staff’s issues with Principal Landeau.

“Whoever wrote that never visited this school,” one veteran teacher said.
The staffers question Landeau’s sense of student needs and priorities. Even as he was dismantling the school’s reading and Academic Intervention Services programs, he brought in a dance program. As one staffer darkly put it, “students may struggle with reading or math, but they will be dancing their way to a jobless future.”

The school of some 1,300 is served by only two guidance counselors after a third retired and was not replaced, another staffer complained.

After a 30-year special education teacher was given an unusually unruly group of students, Landeau blamed her for being incapable of controlling her class. As punishment, the teacher said, Landeau removed her smartboard. “But it was the smartboard that was helpful in motivating the children,” she said.

Staffers paint a picture of a school leader who takes no responsibility for his actions.
During the 2009-2010 school year, several staff members reported, Landeau neglected to turn off a hot plate — itself unauthorized — in his inner office, which sparked a fire that left the room charred and unusable. Landeau soon redecorated and refurbished the inner office at school expense, including, as one staff member attested, “repainting it over the course of six months at least three times to get the color ‘just right.’”

Meanwhile the main office, which sustained smoke damage, was never cleaned or repaired, staff said. The office staff was left exposed to fumes from the fire’s residue as well as sweltering heat because the air conditioners,  damaged by the smoke, were not replaced.

Staffers said Landeau never formally advised parents or staff of the incident.
Landeau is also no fan of the UFT. “At every opportunity, he will bash the union and violate the teachers’ contract,” one staffer said.

After losing a past grievance in which he maintained that teachers were required to attend common planning meetings during their preparation period, he returned to the proscribed practice this year once the arbitrator’s jurisdiction had expired, District Representative Vaccaro said.

Montagano, the chapter leader, said Landeau had postings for per-session positions hand-delivered to certain selected teachers in disregard of the contract.

 “Consultation team meetings go unattended, because nobody will sit down with him,” Vaccaro said. “Why? Because they’re afraid.”

The school generates the district’s highest number of U-ratings, based on what one teacher called “incessant walk-through observations,” though teachers say they do not receive quality professional development.

Meanwhile, every parent interviewed by the New York Teacher at open school night praised the teachers and blamed the administration for what they thought was an insufficiently rigorous curriculum and for being, as one called it, “remote.”

Miguel Carrasco, the uncle of a 6th-grader, said, “I don’t think Landeau knows how to — or wants to — do outreach.”

Among those leafleting outside the school that evening was Susan Singer, chapter leader and kindergarten teacher at PS 162.

Happy enough with her own long-serving principal, Singer worries that when her principal retires, “we’re terrified we’ll get someone as terrible as Reggie. He’s the worst, most abusive principal in the district. We hear it all the time. No other principal in northern Queens gets that level of criticism.”

Kudos To Peter Lamphere's Team, Reversing His U-Rating From Bronx Science, But The Teacher Evaluation Process Must Change

Peter Lamphere

 

Monday, December 12, 2011

Congratulations to Peter Lamphere

A judge has overturned Peter Lamphere's 2009 Unsatisfactory rating.  Peter was chapter leader at Bronx High School of Science.  This is positive news for sure.  We salute the people at Bronx Science who have been standing up for their rights in the face of great adversity.

The story was covered by Gotham.[see below -Betsy Combier]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date:  Monday, December 12, 2011   
Contact:  Peter Lamphere, peter.lamphere@gmail.com

Judge Overturns Arbitrary Unsatisfactory Rating for Bronx Science Teacher

In an oral bench decision Wednesday, December 7th, New York State Supreme Court Justice Paul Feinman granted the petition to overturn a 2009 Unsatisfactory rating for Peter Lamphere, former math teacher and UFT chapter leader at the Bronx High School of Science.  The decision is a small step in restoring some of the damage done to the careers of numerous teachers at the prestigious Bronx school, where a deteriorating relationship between Principal Valerie Reidy and faculty has dramatically increased staff turnover accompanied by a decline in the school's national ranking (New York Magazine, December 12, 2011, New York Times, September 15, 2011, Daily News, March 29, 2011, attached).   

The decision rejects the Department of Education's attempt to ignore scrutiny of Principal Reidy's administrative actions. The DOE disregarded a fact finding ruling by an independent arbitrator last April upholding claims of harassment by 20 math teachers at the school, including Lamphere (New York Times, April 28, 2010). Even after Valerie Reidy abandoned the 2009 Unsatisfactory rating by refusing to contest Lamphere's administrative appeal, the DOE arbitrarily upheld the rating. 

"This is an alert to the Department of Education that they need to examine more closely what's happening at Bronx Science," was Lamphere's first response to the news.  "It's outrageous that they have chosen to look the other way while the school adminstration at Bronx Science has undermined the learning environment at what should be one of the crown jewels of the city's educational system."

Lynne Winderbaum, former UFT High School District Representative, commented: "It is a shame that teachers have to use the court system to get fairness. But justice will be done whenever the abusive tactics of principals such as Valerie Reidy are exposed to an unbiased hearing.

Mark Kagan, who voluntary transferred from Bronx Science as part of the exodus of 40% of the Social Studies faculty this year, added, "It was understood at Bronx Science that Valerie Reidy used U-ratings and denials of tenure for non-pedagogical reasons. I'm glad to see that the court saw this clearly. But it's too bad for the students that Peter and other good teachers were forced out of Bronx Science."

Former Bronx Science teacher Mark Sadok said, "I am delighted to hear the news, as it not only vindicates Lamphere, but also paves the way for a return to teaching for those of us whose dismissals were based on observations that violated the UFT-DOE contract." 

Megan Behrent, of the activist group Teachers' Unite, pointed out how this case "exposes the way teacher evaluations are used for political rather than professional reasons and how the 'the bad teacher' narrative provides cover for retaliation against activists. It also shows why tenure is so important. Without tenure, this victory would never have happened as Lamphere would have been dismissed without any due process at all."

Brian Jones, activist with the Grassroots Education Movement, stated that "Peter Lamphere is a dedicated and highly intelligent educator; and yes, he's also a union activist. Unfortunately the national campaign to scapegoat and punish teachers has meant that the former fact mattered less than the latter. I'm glad to see that Peter received some small measure of justice. Let's hope that this reversal reverberates through the halls of power and gives our highest officials reason for pause.

Jonathan Halabi, chapter leader of neighboring High School for American Studies, commented that "This unjustified U-rating should have been overturned much earlier.  Today's decision shows that the DOE's current internal hearings and appeals are unfair and rigged against the employee. New Action/UFT remains deeply concerned by the problem of abusive administrators.  A victory, especially by a chapter leader who had been targeted for abuse, is a victory for all of us. "

Another arbitrary U-rating for Lamphere, from 2008, remains the subject of another case before Judge Paul Wooten, with a decision expected soon. But, regardless of the outcome of this individual case, the recommendations of the independent arbitrator's 2010 fact-finding report will still not have been implemented, and the struggle to replace the current administration at Bronx Science with one that can work together with Bronx Science teachers to rebuild a positive environment and a commitment to educational excellence has a long way to go.

 

Additional Contacts: 

Mark Sadok - msadok@verizon.net

Lynne Winderbaum – lynwindy@hotmail.com

Megan Behrent - ebehrent@gmail.com

After ruling, ex-Bronx Science teacher will lose poor evaluation

by Philissa Cramer, at 2:28 pmLINK

A teacher who received an unsatisfactory rating at the Bronx High School of Science will have that rating removed from his record after a judge ruled that it was assigned unfairly.

Peter Lamphere had gone to court to appeal an unsatisfactory rating he received when he was the union chapter leader at Bronx Science, where there are deep tensions between administrators and teachers.

Lamphere and other teachers said they had been targeted after speaking out against administrative policies. In February, Lamphere described his experience in the Community section:

In the fall of 2007, the math department welcomed a new assistant principal, Rosemarie Jahoda. Soon, however, we found that the newer teachers in the department were being subjected to a level of scrutiny and paperwork that was excessive. As soon as I spoke up about the issue, which was my responsibility as a member of a UFT consultation committee that met with the principal, I immediately began receiving unjustified disciplinary letters.  These were quickly followed by groundless unsatisfactory lesson observation reports. I had had a spotless teaching record for my entire previous career, including at Bronx Science.

Last week, responding to a lawsuit filed by the state teachers union, Judge Paul Feinman granted Lamphere’s petition to have the U-rating overturned. (Feinman is the same judge who denied the UFT’s bid to halt school closures and co-locations last summer.) According to the petition, which was filed in July, the city had upheld the U-rating even after Bronx Science Principal Valerie Reidy declined to contest Lamphere’s appeal.

The decision means that once the city and union reach an agreement, called a judgment, Lamphere is likely to have the U-rating turned into a satisfactory one. Because salary increases are frozen when a teacher gets a U-rating, he is also likely to get the extra pay he would have received had he not received the U-rating in the first place.

In a statement today, Lamphere said the ruling should push the city to step in at Bronx Science.

“This is an alert to the Department of Education that they need to examine more closely what’s happening at Bronx Science,” Lamphere said. “It’s outrageous that they have chosen to look the other way while the school administration at Bronx Science has undermined the learning environment at what should be one of the crown jewels of the city’s educational system.”

Other teachers said the decision speaks to a broader need for continued protections for teachers, something Lamphere himself argued in a second Community section column this summer.

“Without tenure, this victory would never have happened as Lamphere would have been dismissed without any due process at all,” said Megan Behrent, a teacher who is active in the UFT, said in a statement.

Lamphere is awaiting judgment in a second case, over harassment because of his union activity at Bronx Science.

November 10, 2011

Teacher rating system must change

By Paul Hogan, Riverdale Press

LINK

I have been a special Education teacher for 27 years and I am an elected UFT delegate.
The case of Bronx Science English teacher Geoffrey Nutter, who was rated unsatisfactory then — presumably —  dismissed,  brings up at least two issues independent of the question of whether or not Mr. Nutter’s pedagogy was adequate.

Firstly, what possible explanation can be made for the 17-month delay in adjudicating Mr. Nutter’s appeal? Does not the delay and the sudden release of a decision within one week of the publication of the original Riverdale Press article point to an education bureaucracy that is, at best, dangerously sclerotic and/or, as is much more likely the case, a moral and ethical swamp? The complacency with which the DOE issued its decision on the heels of the Press article on the Nutter appeal (after 17 months of doing nothing with it) would be laughable were it not so sad. Apparently, there are recesses of New York City government that are so far beyond the threat of oversight and accountability that the inhabitants therein don’t even consider how their shenanigans might look to the general public. So what’s actually going on in there? Perhaps we really don’t want to know.

Secondly, what kind of a system blacklists an individual for life on the strength of what comes down to one person’s (in this case a notoriously mercurial and vindictive school principal) highly speculative, deeply subjective judgment?

A not so well-guarded secret: principals (not all, but many) U-rate teachers for all kinds of reasons separate and distinct from the teachers’ pedagogical acumen:  personality clash; bias based on race, sexuality or ethnicity; political   or policy differences; a desire to make room on staff for a friend, friend of a friend, relative of a friend, etc. and, of course, money. (A veteran teacher costs an individual school twice what a brand new hire costs. U-Rate and dismiss a veteran? Ka-CHING! Lots of new money freed-up for whatever.)

Naturally, this is unacknowledged and unacknowledgeable. Rather, fault must be found with the particular teacher’s classroom practice; his/her “pacing” is off; he/she can’t find and produce an obscure rubric, issued months ago, fast enough when asked; his/her style of questioning is faulty; he/she must begin each question with the words “To what extent...”; he/she must never restate students’ questions before answering them.
Good grief.

Another not-so-well-guarded secret: classroom teaching is an exceedingly complicated business and there is no such thing as “perfect” classroom instruction. Mistakes are invariably part of this complicated process.

Additionally, there are many legitimate approaches to the transmission of knowledge. Whatever methodology may be temporarily  (and it is ALWAYS temporarily) in vogue within a given district or system ought not to preclude the employment of other methodologies and techniques.

We are living through a dark age in American education. (Many parallels to the McCarthy era, seems to me.) The public, with encouragement from our ruling economic and political elite, has taken its eye off the ball. It seeks to blame public school teachers as a class for the deficiencies of urban public education as a whole. In fact, teachers have little to say over what and how they teach. Mr. Nutter’s experience is case-in-point. In another era, Bronx Science would be pursuing accomplished professionals who had their own ideas about teaching and learning and about life itself. The school would be begging them to stay. In this dark and dull age, by resorting to the blacklist, by enshrining mediocrity, dishonesty and conformity, our urban school policymakers seem to have lost their way.  

Post-Mussolini, some wise pundit said, “It’s not enough to have the trains run on time; you have to know where they’re going.” In the case of modern urban education, our policy makers seem to have let the train jump the track altogether.

October 12, 2011 | 4 comments

Teacher’s grievance against Science goes unaddressed

By Nikki Dowling, Riverdale Press

LINK

Seventeen months ago, Geoffrey Nutter asked the Department of Education to reverse unsatisfactory ratings he had been given by embattled Bronx Science High School principal Valerie Reidy. He’s still waiting for an answer.

Mr. Nutter’s resume reads like the biography of a well-known writer.

The author of three poetry books, Mr. Nutter has won multiple awards for his work, including the University of Iowa’s 1993 Academy of American Poets Prize, presented by then-Poet Laureate Mark Strand. He has been published in numerous anthologies, including The Best American Poetry, and currently works as an adjunct poetry professor at New York University. He will begin teaching a class at Columbia University this spring. Before he begins, he expects to submit his fourth book to his publisher and travel to France, where he will read from one of his collections at the International School of Paris.

Yet the 43-year-old could not seem to satisfy administrators at the Bronx High School of Science, where he taught English from 2008 to 2009 and received three unsatisfactory evaluations.

He is one of at least seven Bronx Science teachers who told The Press they left the school because of what they see as Principal Valerie Reidy’s tactics of retribution, unfair and unannounced evaluations and abusive criticisms.

First, a group of teachers from the math department who in May 2008 filed a complaint with the Department of Education alleging that Assistant Principal Rosemary Jahoda harassed them. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein rejected fact finder Carol Wittenberg’s conclusion that Ms. Jahoda harassed certain teachers. Then, eight of the school’s 20 social studies teachers chose not to return this year.

Mr. Nutter’s situation is not unique. And his careful notes, records and appeal to the Department of Education to reverse his unsatisfactory ratings illuminate the complaints of many others.

Mr. Nutter received his first unsatisfactory evaluation a month after he began teaching at Science, on Oct. 3, 2008. He said he was never told he would be evaluated — a violation of the teachers’ union contract, according to United Federation of Teachers spokesman Peter Kadushin.

In a phone interview last week, Ms. Reidy did not deny the allegation.
“The UFT is concerned about that,” Ms. Reidy said of her practice of not informing teachers, but added that school staffers have a pre-observation conference where they meet with administrators to formulate goals and plan for their lesson, which should prepare them for what is to come.

“We don’t want to see a dog-and-pony show, we want to see what the kids see,” Ms. Reidy said.

Mr. Kadushin said pre- and post-observation meetings are part of evaluations, but actual observations, “have to be announced.”

Mr. Nutter got negative ratings for lax grading policies and failing to ask his students thought-provoking questions about readings.

But he said Ms. Reidy asked him to begin all questions with “To what extent,” a phrase that became a running joke at the school because it was used so often. He said he was also told not to clarify or rephrase students’ answers by repeating them, a practice that he thought showed he was listening carefully.

After each evaluation, Mr. Nutter said he met with the principal and the head of the English department and received a “storm of criticism” which left him “in a state of shock.”
Ms. Reidy agrees that the conferences got “very heated” and in Mr. Nutter’s last observation report from April 2009 wrote, “You clearly failed to understand that this was a conference to assess your teaching ability not my leadership ability. Your demeanor and comments were inappropriate and insubordinate.”

Ms. Reidy said teachers who put in the time and effort required find the conferences worthwhile. She said Mr. Nutter didn’t read or grade some of his students’ work and was ill-prepared and unfocused — allegations Mr. Nutter denies.

Retired English teacher Helen Kellert, who worked at Science from 1989 to 2009 called Mr. Nutter “brilliant, conscientious [and] dedicated.” She said intellectual teachers who were less focused on structure were often penalized.

“A U from Bronx Science became a badge of honor for one’s intellectual integrity,” she said.
But others contend that Ms. Reidy has been targeted because she’s a woman.

After The Times reported that numerous social studies teachers left the school prior to this school year, Ms. Reidy met with students to explain their departures were for numerous reasons and took questions from students.

First-year social studies teacher Jon Cruz, who has coached the school’s debate team for seven years, said when his class discussed the meeting and recent media reports, students made a connection between their unit on gender and politics and Ms. Reidy’s situation.
“I definitely think it has a lot to do with Valerie’s gender,” Mr. Cruz said, adding, “There’s a double standard that’s given to female leaders as opposed to male leaders.”

He said many of the schools’ problems have been resolved and he wanted to look forward.
“Every new decision that is made by the principal is greeted with … a deep suspicion no matter what I think because of things that happened a while ago,” he said.

Principal From Hell: Darlene Miller, Museum School, DWI

Darlene Miller, Principal of the Museum School in New York City, was arrested on December 17, 2011, for crashing her car into a police vehicle and smelling of alcohol. She refused a Breathalyzer test, thus suspending her driver's license, and did not report the incident and her arrest in a timely fashion to the DOE. Let's see if she gets away with this.

Of course Teddy Smith and I, among others (see teacher complaint below) knew that she was bad news several years ago, when she or someone who works for her went to the all-night US Post Office at 33rd and 8th Avenue in Manhattan, and mailed Teddy his "Just Cause for termination" letter although he never met her or spoke with her, and was in the Manhattan Rubber Room before she became Principal of the Museum School. Makes you wonder what information she had before she signed the "Just Cause" papers that put Teddy in his second 3020-a Hearing, which I gladly attended, if only to hear the secret tapes he made of the investigator, Michael Humphries, yelling that he wanted Teddy's tapes from the school. It obviously didnt occur to Humphries that if he was yelling at Teddy to give him tape recordings he secretly taped, that he, Humphries, would be taped secretly as well. Arbitrator Bonnie Weinstock played the tape of Humphries after he testified at Teddy's 3020-a, showing that Humphries lied under oath at the hearing. I have the transcript.

Administrative Trials Unit Director Theresa Europe

I also have the transcript of ATU Director Theresa Europe testifying about how she heard from Teddy's former lawyer, David Kearney, Esq., that Teddy was threatening to "kill" Arbitrator Jack Tillem, and Europe didnt call the police, but called her friend, Richard Condon, to "investigate".

Arbitrator Weinstock and Victor Muallem, working together, couldnt find David Kearney, so the hearing concluded without his appearance (so he could not be cross examined), but he did submit an affidavit. Weinstock was convinced by Muallem that Teddy was a potential "killer", and terminated Teddy, without getting Kearney in to explain. According to the NYC Bar Association, David Kearney still is listed as working at 317 Madison Avenue, the offices of Neal Brickman, but is delinquent in renewing his license since 2007. According to Victor Muallem, Kearney is 'somewhere' in Malaysia.

NYC MUSEUM SCHOOL

Teacher: Darlene Miller

LINK

A bad Principal, for a bad school

Teacher Complaint About: Nyc Museum School - Darlene Miller

New York, NEW YORK
Author: Undisclosed
Grade: 11

Occur date: Sep 20 2009
Post date: Oct 24 2010, 09:21:10 AM

Teacher Complaint: Darlene Miller - Nyc Museum School

Look, all of this started when I was in the 9th grade. Turns out, one skittish teacher started a rumor about how I was a threat to the school, while having no real grounds, sice I didn't really do anything.
Of course, they said that I did, but the claims were so bogus. People stated that I played videogames all night, which was the reason why I had a lateness problem, (I really had sleeping problems and came in so late that it was at the end of the day, there is no proof of anything otherwise), and stated that I was voilent, because of cheep doodlings I had in my notebooks of stick figures fighting, and spewing poorly drawn blood. This was in the 9th grade. I stopped at the 10th grade, but they still used it against me. 

The guidance counselor tried to force me into therapy. She recommended Saint Vincents. My mother refused and signed me up for Jewish Board, Youth Counseling league. She had to pay for it out of pocket. Why didn't my mom sign up for the free stuff? Because sometime after, Saint Vincent SHUT DOWN. It was all over the news, remember?

Early into my first year, I was pulled out of class for writing a paper stating something like "If I could control the law, mushrooms wouldn't be illegal..." [joke is coming,]"...so I could eat the, grow to the size of a house and have 1UPS. Also, Master Balls would be cheap."
This is a gamer joke. Mario eats mushrooms to grow into Super Mario, 
1UP mushrooms give the players extra lives.
Master Balls are a type of advanced capsule in the "Pokemon" videogames, a type of Pokeball, which allows the player fight and caputure weakened wild Pokemon, a Master Ball skips the fighting part, as it can capture any Pokemon under any condtion, without fail.
And extremely rare item, you only get one in the whole game.
A little later, teachers started comlpaining about my cheap drawing of agressive stick figures, but dark studen-made anti-smoking posters were put up in the hallways and left alone. (One showed Hitler thinking of stick figure jews in fear and bleeding saying, "I should have killed them with cigarettes".)

Later, The dean suspended me for typing into a computer "I hate everybody and I want to kill them". First of all, I didn't. There was no saved proof of this file. Second, even though a lot of kids said I did this, all interpeted it differently that what I really put down.
(I think I asked in this some-what-of-a-poem, something along the lines of "How would you feel if you attended your own funeral?" There was no indication of me in this poem, of any indication of hate.)
Also, this happened at the begining of the year. I got suspended in the MIDDLE of the year, out of the blue, without being told. Drawn your own conclusions.

While the majority of teachers found blame with me in one way of the other, Miller stands out because she is the PRINCIPAL, and did harm to me too.
FIRST, she accused me of putting students in danger when I did NOTHING.
SECOND, she told my mother that she could expell me, which under the Department of Ed, is illegal. She also stated that I wasn't a productive student. And told me the school's reputation was at stake.
THIRD, she denied it.
FOURTH, she said that I screamed and cursed at her, not true. Put me through a lie detector.
FIFTH, I have an education lawyer, and several other people from city authorities were involved. Miller still kept lying at everything.
All agreed that she a more of less of a bonehead.

By the this time, I was in the tenth grade, and Miller basicly had changed me from "dangerous kid" to "spoiled brat who skips school".

In reality, this is about how she did not like my work (mostly from the 9th grade), and kept it on record and tried to use it even when I was in the 10th grade, which she can't.
At every point that they could, I was offered a transfer.

Oh, and Miller, (Principal), Skirianos, (Dean), Masnick (guidance counselor, if you are reading this, kindly do not take this the wrong way; you are fools who are a waste of time and energy.
Try to pursue this, piss off.
In other words: STUPID actions look STUPID.

DISCLAMER:
This is a report to a website where people report faulty teachers.
This is not a form of cyberbulling, and not here to upset people, rather, this is here to warn others. There is NOTHING you can pin down upon me, as I did no wrong or harm. Sending this file to my new school shows how much you want to use this to get me in trouble. However, I do not care who you show this to. This is the internet. PEOPLE MAY VIEW THIS BY THE TRUCKLOAD.

Yours truly,
Not telling, you should know by now who this is from.

NYC MUSEUM SCHOOL - SCHOOL INFORMATION:

Address: 333 W 17TH ST - New York, NEW YORK Phone: 212-675-6206

Museum School Principal Darlene Miller

NYC Museum School principal Darlene Miller arrested on DUI charges

Posted in December 29th, 2011

'DWI' Principal
Top HS chief rams police car cops

By YOAV GONEN, Education Reporter, NYPOST

Last Updated:7:10 AM, December 29, 2011

LINK

The principal of a top-performing Manhattan high school was charged with drunken driving after plowing her car into a stopped police cruiser — narrowly missing a cop, authorities said.

Darlene Miller, principal of the NYC Museum School in Chelsea, is facing a Rockland County court hearing on Jan. 9 on a charge of driving while intoxicated.

Cops said Miller — who has a reputation for strictness — was driving north on Route 9W toward the Tappan Zee Bridge two Saturdays ago when she smashed her Hyundai into the back of the cruiser — which had just pulled over another driver.

Miller, 64, refused to submit to tests of her blood-alcohol level, but smelled of alcohol and had impaired speech and coordination, according to the officer’s deposition.

She appeared to be driving toward her Dobbs Ferry home at the time of the 9:30 p.m. accident.

“Her vehicle was so heavily damaged, it came to rest on the barrier near the entrance of the freeway,” South Nyack Police Chief Robert Van Cura said. “She admitted she had something to drink before she drove the car — but not how much.”

Miller, who earned $151,000 in 2010, did not respond to a call or e-mail seeking comment.

She has no prior convictions, according to cops, but the Breathalyzer refusal results in an automatic license suspension.

Education officials said Miller did not follow protocol in reporting the arrest and they are considering appropriate action.

While Miller’s school boasted a 98 percent graduation rate last year and has received nothing but high marks from the city, online reviews by her own teachers have been less glowing.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com