COMMENTS
Specifications 1 & 3
The DOE introduced two lessons unsatisfactory ratings implying that Respondent was incompetent, and contradicting the very person who has the competence and authority to make such determination, the principal. This cross-examination is quite enlightening :
Fofana : it doesn't prove my incompetence ? [the two U-ratings]
Wiltshire : No. (T711 : transcript, page 711)
Fofana : You did not file any complaint about my incompetence ? That's what you're saying ?
Wiltshire : I did not file the observations. (T712)
The incompetence charges were concocted by the DOE's legal department: “Your file was submitted to the attorneys.” (T712)
In other words, some shyster , a non-educator, went through the teacher's file for adverse items, found U-rated lesson reports, substituted himself/herself for the supervisor and characterized them as “incompetence and/or ineffective service”.
Specification 2
I did say, and I remain unrepentant :
You really raised L.M., because that's exactly the way she behaves in my classroom. Even if you felt that I was lying, your outburst was uncalled for. It is unacceptable for you to come here and scold a teacher publicly, in front of your child.
Just call a spade a spade.
Cross-examining Ms. Yvonne Adonai, math AP :
1) That Mrs Trotman called the teacher a liar is not disputed :
Fofana : She did say -- "yes" or "no" -- "you're a liar; you're a liar"?
Adonai : She did say, "you're a liar." (T516)
2) That Mrs Trotman stood up while scolding the teacher is not disputed :
Fofana : Did you say -- "yes" or "no" -- Ms.Ls.Tr. stood up -- you said --?
Adonai : I said she stood up. (T519 )
At no time did Adonai try to stop this parent from abusing a teacher.
Specification 4 :
I wrote in my closing arguments :
These charges have no merit and should be dismissed on the ground that :
- Respondent was not afforded the opportunity to cross-examine his accusers
- All students interviewed by OSI's investigator Robert Colon stated that they
"did not recall " the alleged incidents (See report.)
- In an egregious display of bias, the investigator left out an evidentiary
document Respondent produced during his interview on April 19, 2005. The
investigator acknowledged, in cross-examination, that he did receive the
document (nearly 30 pages) but did not read it. Why ? Because he "took it to
be polite" (T1257, T1258).
- Paradoxically, the investigator himself found the case highly suspicious : " I
thought it was extremely curious that all these incidents happened on the
same date, within a period - a period of time, I think it's two and half , three
hours." (T1248, T 1249).
The arbitrator had no choice but dismiss the charges : they could not survive an appeal.
Specification 5
Michael Wiltshire, Principal : "I thought that what Mr. Fofana was doing was to really celebrate what he considers the success of the student. (T568, T569)
If this is about celebrating the student's achievement, why filing a complaint against the teacher, two years after seeing the site ? Why Wiltshire lied to the SCI when he claims that
"after entering ‘Middle College High School' into Yahoo Internet search engine, he discovered two websites apparently created by Fofana, www.mathspell.com and www.teacherabuse.com" in 2006 ?
SCI's Report
.
The Arbitrator finds it striking that the Department has charged Respondent for having this website up in 2006 when it was aware of the website as early as 2004. The Arbitrator finds that the facts establish that Assistant Principal Adonai and Dr. Wiltshire [Principal] saw the website in 2004 and determined that there was nothing problematic with it. The arbitrator rejects the Department's contention that Dr. Wiltshire told Respondent in 2004 that he should have followed Department protocols by informing the principal about the website and having receive parental permission to post information about the students. (...) Moreover, there is no written evidence to support the Department contention that it warned Respondent about the need to follow appropriate protocols. The arbitrator finds it hard to believe that Dr. Wiltshire and AP Adonai both of whom wrote numerous critical documents to Respondent during his less than four month tenure at Middle College High School in 2004 would not have written something to him if they founded warranted to criticism.
Arbitrator's report January 7, 2009