[Education] KatyISD's Morton High students walk off to protest teacher layoffs

Triple post: Anyone hear how the teachers got fired? Joe Adams, member of the Katy ISD Board of Trustees, apparently went to each individual teacher and fired them in front of their students. The teachers had to go back into the classrooms to gather their personal belonging, in front of the students. A sub came in to replace the teacher. Wow. Call them all after school. Don't fire them like that in front of their students.

 

Yes. The teachers got fired during their class periods. But no they weren't forced to leave. If they were emotionally distraught they were given a choice to either continue teaching for that day or go home and let the sub take over. Teachers are staying until the end of the year.

A common misconception is that everyone thinks that these teachers are being told to GTFO. No, that's not the case. Rather they are just telling them that they may not be renewing their contracts for next year.

 

Can someone explain why this would be necessary?

 

I don't know the reason. The SI stated that it is Katy ISD policy to give teachers notices about layoffs, etc. 45 days ahead of time. That didn't explain anything; they could have been laid off after school or something during more private hours...

 

Firing a teacher in front of the students is one of the lowest and most despicable things a boss can do.

And they knew it too, which is why they had subs on hand for teacher's who could not finish the day. And are those subs free? NO. Nice message to send when cutting the budget.

 

I have to agree...that's pathetic...why couldn't it wait until before or after school hours w/o students...

ON a side note, a few dozen students walking out doesn't do anything...but I applaud their effort...

 

I have a very, very hard time believing that they were notified of their contract non-renewal in front of students during class.

 

They were taken outside of class. But yeah, basically.

Maybe I can convince these kids to start a productive fundraiser or something instead of just sitting outside. Let's tackle the issue of money rather than dodge around it and hoping someone (the state?) will eventually pay for it.

 

It's not the kids' responsibility... I say them doing their walkout brings more attention to the issue, which is a great thing.

 

I still have a very hard time believing that.

Seems completely unnecessary and unprofessional.

And not only that, it also seems highly inefficient.

 

People think these kids are concerned about their students being laid off? I'm sure a handful are but the other 40 just want a reason to skip school.

 

Edited.

 

Because we are a country filled with incompetent hacks... we have been raised to be cows... we don't think for ourselves or know how to handle adversity.... so naturally it spreads up the chain to administrators, politicians, doctor's and lawyers...

So, the short answer is that it wasn't necessary or professional, but I am not surprised... our education system, like the general public is incompetent and filled with morons.

 

Regardless or not whether it is our responsibility, doing something productive would be good for everyone. Now that we have everyone's attention, wouldn't it make sense to put a suggestion out there that could possibly help? It saddens me that we couldn't think past the attention-getter...

 

They weren't "fired" in front of their classes, but they were called into the office to be fired in front of their classes and everyone knew what was going on, so it may as well been in front of the students.

In my wife's district, all teachers were told on a Friday morning to stay in their classrooms all day so they could be there when the principal called them on the phone to come to the office and get canned. This was on a school day and they were calling people in all day long.

I guess when you have an industry that isn't used to laying people off (unlike corporate America), they don't really know what the standard protocol is so they just wing it.

 

Well, I'm talking specifically about Morton Ranch. And here, teachers were literally told that there will be no contract renewal for them right outside of their rooms.

 

That sounds like a lot. How do you even have a school after letting that many teachers go? Seems like you'd end up with 50-60 kids in a classroom.

 

Another reason to abolish public education.

They can't even fire people right.

 

They target the regular non-AP/Pre-AP teachers, the fine arts, an the foreign language teachers. And it's not like the teachers leave immediately, while a few do resign at that exact moment; most are going to continue teaching for the rest of the year.