CANARSIE HIGH SCHOOL
DOWNFALL OF A BIGOT

Dr. Joel Shapiro, Principal

1. On 10/08/01, in a conference, attended by our chapter leader, Paul Millstein, and Mr. Balasiano, A.P., Dr. Shapiro told me that "students are complaining about you" and found an explanation : " it has to do with your culture ". When I asked him for specifics , he said : "You want specifics ? You called a student fucking nigger". Which one ? In what circumstances ? I never got an answer. He never reported the allegations as he should have (an investigation was in order, according to the Chancellor's Regulation A-421 that deals with allegations of verbal abuse of students) ; never mentioned the student's name ; never raised the issue afterward : evidently, the student was a fictitious one. This was nothing else but a slimy, cowardly way to deliver a racial slur through the back door, as I told him. Some students did have at least one complaint about me : I did not hesitate to visit their homes if they are impossible in class -- something that rattled the principal of the drug-infested school, but allowed me to keep my sanity in the classroom. To intimidate me the principal insinuated, in a letter put in my file, that I harassed students by visiting their homes, as if I did so over parents objections ! Dr. Shapiro did not care about the payoff : less than ten visits at the beginning of the semester were sufficient to deter all velleities of highjacking the instruction.
Dr. Shapiro's animosity did not come from vacuum : I will elaborate later. It culminated in a false corporal punishment charge he filed on 2/15/02 with the DOE's Office of Special Investigations(OSI). I responded in a documented letter to Shapiro with copies to the Superintendent and the school staff. ( These people hate publicity). In a prescient conclusion I wrote : " Dr. Shapiro, teachers are not your subjects; the school staff are not your subjects. We are your collaborators in a common endeavor : teaching and preparing thousands of children for better lives and productive citizenship under your leadership. Regrettably, you display little ; you are more interested in covering your own back, and in bullying segments of the staff. The most honorable thing for you to do is to resign, and give the children a chance. "

2. Indeed, on June 2003, Dr. Shapiro's fate was sealed after his misdeeds were fully exposed and denounced by a coalition of parents and teachers : "The extensive grievance list from the parents' groups include several serious issues that, if corroborated, could possibly lead to criminal charges. Among them are: alleged drug sales inside the school building and the principal's "failure to take corrective actions" to eliminate it; a claim that a male dean offered two female students $500 to initiate a fight with the school's Assistant Principal of Security, and the failure to remove the student government president after she allegedly admitted to marijuana possession on school premises (....) Other complaints against the principal range from a lack of empathy, concern, and respect for students, teachers and administrators...." (Full article)

3. The incompetent, abrasive, bigoted principal was forced to retire in December 2004. I was vindicated.

4. In the meantime, I filed a grievance in June 2002 for the U-rating he gave me. He refused to attend a face-to-face hearing (Fall 2002); shortly after, he was relieved when the Chancellor allowed tele-hearing practice, challenged by the UFT.
This hearing -- transcripts, outcome and the rest -- will be posted here.

5. The false corporal punishment charges were apparently dropped, because, with no explanation, I was simply reassigned to Middle College High School on March 17, 2003-- out of the frying pan into the fire, as I would find out.