Dec 19-Jan 20 Advisor

CONFRONTING

12 CEA ADVISOR DECEMBER 2019 – JANUARY 2020

WHEN YOUR BULLY IS YOUR BOSS How unions can protect teachers from becoming targets

A former high school English teacher once stood before her students and spoke with confidence and ease. Today, without medicine to control her symptoms, the twenty- year veteran educator stutters. The pitch of her voice rises and falls, the pace of her speech is awkward and slow, and her face twists into involuntary grimaces. Speaking into a camera, she describes the prolonged stress she experienced after a school superintendent began a campaign of personal attacks against her—and what ten months of bullying did to her psyche and her career. One morning, in her words, she “broke.” “I got home, and within three hours my head began flying over my right shoulder,” she recalls. “When I walked down the hallways, I would chicken-flap.” Diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, she never returned to the classroom. Breaking point An outspoken advocate for policies that address workplace bullying, the former teacher says her problems began when she exposed school practices that were unfair to certain populations of students. In a report explaining how federal funding would be used to meet the objectives of a program she coordinated, she shed light on the district’s practice of downtracking immigrant students into non-college-prep coursework. “I was honest and ethical,” she says. “As professionally and nonconfrontationally as possible, I exposed as many as 32 different institutionalized forms of discrimination against students.” As a result, she says, the district’s new superintendent began seeking her out and targeting her. He prohibited her from attending school meetings without permission. She was forbidden from speaking at meetings and forced to report back in writing after any meeting she attended. Everything she wrote, she recalls, had to be submitted for approval. After nearly a year of escalating actions against her, the teacher was called into her administration’s office and given the first-ever professional reprimand in her career. It was that morning, in that office, that the beleaguered teacher describes herself as dissociating. “I started rocking back and forth. I basically had a nervous breakdown right there.” The facts about workplace bullies The superintendent who targeted this teacher had been accused of similar behavior in other districts—going after faculty whose knowledge, ethics, or outspokenness might create obstacles for him.

Despite a known history of abuse, he continued to hold leadership positions. “That’s not uncommon,” says CEA UniServ Representative Eric Fisher, who conducts training on how teachers can organize against workplace bullies. “Bullies are seldom punished for their behavior— we’re talking only two percent of the time—and that’s something that unions can actually work to change.” Other troubling facts about workplace bullying that Fisher shares: • Educational settings account for 23 percent of all workplace bullying, second only to healthcare, at 27 percent. “In this area, it’s not just that unions can lead the charge in helping address workplace bullies,” Fisher says, “it’s that they must .” • Most workplace bullying happens in the open (54 percent) or is

with undeniable information. This is one of the most effective ways of removing an administrator who’s a bully.” Fisher cautions, however, against leaving documentation at school or communicating over school email about association business. “Administrators can see those emails.” • Teaching your colleagues alternatives to supporting or enabling the bully • Grieving and arbitrating bullying incidents • Negotiating anti-bullying Association has done just that, writing specific language into teachers’ contracts that prohibits administrators from publicly reprimanding teachers or subjecting them to frequent interaction that results in intimidation or humiliation. “The language, fought for successfully during contract negotiations, has resulted in several positive outcomes for teachers who previously had no way of addressing inappropriate conduct in the workplace,” says CEA UniServ Rep Jim Tessitore. “Perhaps more important than the creation of a formal mechanism to fight bullying is the natural deterrent the language implicitly creates, as school administrators are aware of teachers’ rights to challenge abusive behavior and are less inclined to engage in misconduct, because it may result in an official investigation—something most bullies want to avoid at all costs.” Taking the message home A number of building reps, local presidents, and others have attended Fisher’s workshops and shared stories of administrators with a pattern of publicly putting teachers in the hot seat or on a “shame list” for offenses like using too much paper. “Our board of education approved a budget for paper, but our administrator denied the expenditure and told individual teachers they had to make a case for it,” one participant shared. “Rather than face that kind of scrutiny and humiliation, teachers are instead buying their own paper. It’s not a lack of funding.” A special education teacher who needs paper for IEPs said her name is on a list of high paper users that gets published and disseminated. “In our district, new teachers are purchasing their own supplies for that very reason,” a veteran teacher acknowledged, noting that the allotment of two reams per month does not begin to cover his 26 students. “I want to know how I can help our members who are afraid to advocate for themselves,” said a local president. “My goal is for our union to stand united, be positive, and help every member. I grew up in the town where I now teach and where my child attends school. I always had great teachers, and I’m determined to pay it back.” protections into contracts The Waterbury Teachers

right away. Unions can do things. They have power. If bullying is an issue in your school, draw up an action plan. It’s about worker health and safety. It’s also about dignity in the workplace.” Some ways of organizing against the workplace bully at school include • Measuring the prevalence of bullying and determining who the perpetrators are. “Do a climate survey,” says Fisher. “Solicit parent groups if that’s helpful, but have your ducks in a row before Educational settings account for 23 percent of all workplace bullying, second only to healthcare.

“Documentation is critically important in building a case against a workplace bully. Overwhelm with undeniable information. This is one of the most effective ways of removing an administrator who’s a bully.” CEA UniServ Rep Eric Fisher

overheard (10 percent). • In 40 percent of cases, witnesses do nothing; in 17 percent of cases, they betray or ostracize the target. • Typically the target outperforms others, often even the bully—who does not like to be shown up. • The target is usually the one who quits, transfers, or is fired; that is rarely the case for the perpetrator. • Bullies will often change the rules on the person they’re targeting so that it becomes impossible for them to do their job. Striking back “Administration makes it look like they encourage our suggestions and that teachers have a say, but none of that is driving any change,” said one local union leader at a workshop Fisher presented last summer. “That’s why we are

you approach parents, your board of education, or other outside individuals or groups.” CEA Training and Organizational Development Specialist Joe Zawawi notes that CEA staff are available to come out and work with teachers in your district to have conversations with every teacher in every building, even if bullying is not an issue. “Having these one-on-one conversations provides a detailed picture of what teachers love about teaching, what challenges they face in the classroom, and what they need to meet those challenges. We’ve been doing this around the state, and the response has been tremendous,” Zawawi says. • Identifying and validating the targets of bullies (who are often isolated) and bringing them into the fold • Documenting with dates, times, places, emails, and details. “Documentation is critically important in building a case against a workplace bully,” says Fisher, and here, too, is where a union’s collective strength can make the difference. “Overwhelm

organizing and standing up for ourselves and each other.” Indeed, says Fisher, “If you are being bullied, talk to your union representatives