UFT PACT PROTECTS ANOTHER UNFIT TEACHER

Where else but in the New York City public schools would a drug
addict be in charge of a student drug prevention program? And where
else would school officials find themselves barred from firing said
addict despite a felony conviction?

The case of Michael Campbell, who was dean of students at
Intermediate School 72 on Staten Island, shows once again, as if
anyone needed reminding, that the Department of Education is
virtually powerless to remove unfit teachers from the classroom, be
they criminals, sexual predators or just incompetents. Job
protections built into the United Federation of Teachers contract are
that strong.

Campbell - whose duty, among other things, was to enforce the
school's anti-drug rules - was arrested in April 2002 with a bag of
marijuana on his person and 10 packets of cocaine in his car. He
pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a drug treatment program.
Chancellor Joel Klein moved to fire him with the broad support of
parents who sensibly wanted Campbell nowhere near their kids.

But under the UFT contract, Klein needs an arbitrator's permission to
dismiss any teacher, even a felon. Trouble is, the arbitrators earn
their $1,000-a-day fees at the pleasure of the UFT. Inevitably, they
require lengthy hearings and parades of witnesses before they direct
the chancellor to return teachers to the classroom as union lawyers
demand. That's exactly what happened with Campbell.

Arbitrator Ernest Weiss stretched every which way to give him a
break. He felt sorry that Campbell had suffered the "trauma of almost
spending extended time in prison," found grounds for leniency in that
Campbell's parents had been educators and, amazingly, opined that "if
given another chance, he will probably make even a greater
contribution to his students and his community."

Fortunately for the kids of IS 72, Klein took the matter to court and
an appeals panel last week overturned Weiss' decision, deeming it "to
be irrational and to defy common sense." Those words perfectly
describe the entire teacher disciplinary system. It is designed to
preserve employment, not to protect students, and it must be scrapped.

Klein and Mayor Bloomberg have set their sights on a radical
overhaul, but UFT President Randi Weingarten is fighting them tooth
and nail in contract negotiations. She's wrong. They must prevail.