UNIVERSITIES ARE ACCOMPLICES IN ABUSING TEACHERS

The following is an email forwarded from Horwitz to the president of National Louis Unversity on October 15th of 2002. So far Horwitz has received no answer. We will publish an answer in this spot if one ever arrives. We are not holding our breath based on experience with those in power who believe teacher abuse is their privilege and that their financial interest is not threatened by the rights of any teacher. So why bother to respond?

Subj: If you dare to dream, we will help you make that dream a reality
Date: 10/15/2002
To: CMcCray@nl.edu

Dear President of National Louis University
and self described LifelongDreamer,

I am a 1992 graduate of your Masters in Reading program, and I left your school with a dream that I could make a difference in children's lives. I had absolutely marvelous professors and was prepared to not only use my natural talents, but make a serious impact in the area of reading with what I was taught. I accomplished this, totally unaware that this is not what our administrators want from their employees. My dream turned into a nightmare because of TEACHER ABUSE. It is time National Louis University wake up and see, or admit, what is going on in education.

Once I discovered the horrors, I attempted to take a proactive path toward education reform by applying for your doctoral program in Curriculum and Social Inquiry. According to your representation of your program, ("This program serves the needs of those people who are interested in influencing teachers and school communities. Students are encouraged to see their work as combining theory and practice, and themselves as activists, effecting change within the school and beyond." ), it sounded like a perfect avenue. However, your committee turned me down because, according to Pat Hulsebosch, I mentioned I might want to work within the government to help reform schools and because "my situation was too negative", in spite of my 4.0 grade point average from your school, my undergraduate degree with honors from University of Illinois, Champaign, and my well above average scores on the GRE, which included an extremely high score in logic and analysis, which exceeded the score of an average scientist.

Your university advertised a program to use "beyond" the schools, but were opposed to the possible governmental role for which I aspired to qualify as a result of this degree. You advertised activism, but wanted someone who had no negative issues with schools. Why would anyone who was happy with status quo become an activist? In addition, I never discussed my "situation" with the committee - that I had filed an EEOC charge against my district for abuse. Therefore, the only parties they could have discussed anything with had to be the perpetrators of this abuse. And they were satisfied to listen to only one side and make that decision. This speaks volumes about what fuels your decision making - financial interests over ideals for our schools.

That was in the spring of 1998. The school district proceeded to abuse me and subsequently terminated me in the spring of 1999. Since National Louis closed a door that I had believed could have been mutually beneficial, I began working toward starting a grass roots activist group and today we are launching our web site at EndTeacherAbuse.org. It really is morally reprehensible to put innocent teachers out into the sinister environments existing within many of our schools, not prepare them, and then prevent a teacher from trying to do anything about it while your university serves as a leader in the teacher training world.

To make matters worse, one of your faculty, Kathryn Tooredman, was paid to serve as an alleged conflict resolution facilitator between my administrators and myself. It is time she become informed about what is going on also, as conflict resolution is useless when abuse of power allows administrators to use it to further abuse a teacher. I suggest that you order a copy of Breaking the Silence, by Joseph and Jo Blase, two highly esteemed Education professors from the University of Georgia, who believe they have an ethical obligation to be honest with teachers as they start their careers. Then you can really give teachers that dream you promise. Right now there are more nightmares than dreams in this field. And they are extremely serious nightmares.

A press release went out today, that I am pasting in this email. I have written you personally because your denotation of "lifelong dreamer" caught my eye. You need to visit our new web site and read the teacher stories and then order a copy of the book aforementioned. Otherwise, it is impossible to present yourself as a lifelong dreamer unless what you mean is that you refuse to wake up.

Dedicated to children I remain,

Karen Horwitz, President, National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse

PRESS RELEASE 10/15/02

ABUSED TEACHERS SPEAK OUT ON NEWLY LAUNCHED WEB SITE

Hundreds of teachers, concerned parents and taxpayers have come together as whistleblowers to stop what they consider to be the fundamental reason reform is not happening in our schools - teacher abuse. This step marks the first time that teachers have come together to speak out on what they consider to be the most powerful method of maintaining a corrupt educational system.

After years of preparation and organization, the National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse (NAPTA) has formed to expose the reason for malfeasance in the nation's schools. Its members also believe that teacher abuse is the reason behind the country's teacher shortage, low morale and under qualified professionals.

Teachers have experienced harassment of unimaginable proportions forcing them to stop their work and to disrupt the proper functioning of the educational system. In the face of personal and professional risk, these teachers have spoken out and have been retaliated against for doing so. To make the public aware of this practice, why it exists, and how it results in a dysfunctional system, teachers from around the country today have launched a web site, EndTeacherAbuse.org. The site is designed to pull back the curtains of deceit behind which educational administrations operate so that real reform can begin.

The web site includes allegations of teacher abuse written by this group of brave teachers who found the courage to come forth with their stories that include:

• a teacher in California who was bullied by his administrators after he attempted to advocate on behalf of his minority students by informing his superiors that the school was not complying with federal laws, which the district continued to ignore. The teacher was forced to file a charge with the US Office of Civil Rights on the students' behalf and was retaliated against so harshly by the administration that he is currently on disability diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.



• an award-winning teacher from Idaho who was terminated because he wrote a letter to the local newspaper about improving academic issues at his school. It was forwarded to his administration, which abruptly terminated him on trumped-up charges of "dominating staff meetings" and for his classroom ball coming back with "blacktop smudges" after recess. Following a dismissal hearing, which he lost, the record of this termination hearing mysteriously disappeared, depriving him of the opportunity for a due process appeal. He has been forced to withdraw retirement money early in order for he and his family to survive.



• a special education teacher from Illinois, who alerted her district to noncompliance of special education laws, which they ignored. She then filed a charge with the US Office of Civil Rights and was terminated from her teaching position on false charges of child abuse after having more than a dozen years of excellent evaluations.



• a teacher from Louisiana who was transferred from a gifted class to supervising detention students because she spoke to a reporter and made a statement that she felt it was the public's right to know how the board had spent over a million dollars to buy out a contract of a superintendent. She was subsequently terminated on trumped-up charges.

The backlash teachers suffer from administrative officials for standing up for their students and parents amounts to abuse, and it has teachers terrified about speaking out about the problems within the educational system. Instead, it allows sugarcoated information to be filtered through public relations jargon and excuses that are bolstered by administrative officials as well as union leaders who cover up administrations' downright corruption, according to NAPTA representatives.

Karen Horwitz, a teacher who says she suffered abuse in Chicago's north suburbs and took her case to federal court, is the cofounder and president of NAPTA. "The public believes our dysfunctional education system merely needs reform, when it needs major overhauling and even legal interventions," Horwitz said. "With the same social protection afforded motherhood and apple pie, with tax dollars guaranteed to flow, and with the advantage of being the only institution other than prisons in which people forcibly participate, our schools function unethically as fiefdoms exempt from scrutiny, accountability and honesty, silencing teachers so that they can carry out business as usual. Many of them are closer to organized crime; they are not about our children." Darlene Goodman of Belen, New Mexico is also a cofounder of NAPTA.

NAPTA invites the public to visit its web site to learn what has happened to teachers throughout the country and why educational reform fails despite the increase in governmental funds. These teachers want to put an end to the needless bullying by administrative officials around the country who use their power and authority to achieve selfish goals. The abuse of teachers in the workplace leaves them feeling helpless and psychologically raped and needs to be brought out in the open, investigated and stopped, Goodman said. In the face of personal and professional risk, these teachers have spoken out and have been retaliated against for doing so.

These teachers have courageously chosen to make their stories public in an effort to force accountability in the schools and to build the future of this country, its children, through educational honesty and a moral voice. Their intent is to expose that much of what the public hears from the education establishment is untrue; terrorized and brainwashed teachers are no more reliable than hostage victims, who know their fate should they reveal the truth, Horwitz said.

further information, please contact NAPTA President, Karen Horwitz

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