RUBBER ROOM
TEACHERS TAKE LEGAL ACTION OVER THE VIOLATION
OF THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
Teachers4Action
vs
Bloomberg, Klein, DOE, Weingarten, UFT
First Cause of Action :
Violation / Interference with Constitutionally Protected Rights – 1 st , 5 th & 14 th Amendement,
Freedom of Speech & Association and Due Process & Equal Protection Rights...
RICHARD KRINSKY , ESQ. :
A Former Social Studies Teacher at Madison HS, Former Rubber Room's Inmate
Turned Lawyer Turned RAT |
I met and befriended Rich in the Rubber Room, a rat-infested basement of a DOE building located at East Parkway @ Bedford Ave, Brooklyn. We had stimulating conversations. He is bright, the type the DOE's single-digit IQ principals/ assistant principals resent : they feel insecure. When they fired him, he dust up his law license and started defending Rubber Room inmates in 3020-a proceedings, in effect, thumbing his nose at the DOE. A couple of months ago I distributed his flyers at Staten Island Rubber Room where I have been confined for the last three years and half, to help him find clients. The moment he heard that I joined Teachers4action's federal lawsuit, Rich started to bombard me with emails, in an effort to persuade me to drop out of the lawsuit. He sent me first all kind of information denigrating our attorney, Ed Fagan (I know a lot about allegations !) ; next, my genial , cocky rooster tried to prove how "amateurish" the seasoned lawyer was by sending me tons of cases supposedly supporting his views, without telling me that he was sending some to our ennemies, as well ! Never mind if he never practiced the law until recently. On February 2, 2008, I got fed up, and sent him an email with "Debate is Over" in the subject line :
" Rich, It's about time to move on -- make this message of yours the last on the subject. I don't wanna hear anymore your bitter criticism of Ed Fagan and our case. I made a choice, I will stick to it. "
In his insidious campaign to undermine our lawsuit -- I was not his only target -- , Krinsky crossed the line, to my dismay, by leaking Teachers4action's confidential information to Theresa Europe, Deputy Counsel to the Chancellor, Director of the Administrative Trials Unit at the DOE's legal department, with CC's, Oh Lord, to arbitrators presiding over Teachers4action's members 3020-a hearings. Why, Rich ? Seeking a job with the DOE, the way my favorite "teachers' advocate", Betsy Combier, did with the UFT ? We should thank you anyway because the arbitrators did not disclose your emails to the respondents as they should have, and that is a ground for removing them -- Ed Fagan is fiercely working on it. The emails episode compounded another unethical conduct uncovered by Edward Fagan : ex-parte communications between arbitrators and the DOE (see next box below.) In pre-Klein era 3020-a proceedings were conducted alternately at the DOE premises and the UFT's headquarters. They are now exclusively conducted at the DOE's building at 49-51 Chambers Street, giving the employer a psychological advantage,and the opportunity to dominate the proceedings and facilitate its ex-parte communications with arbitrators.
Unmercifully, Ed Fagan has been pursuing the Krinsky's emails scandal : he requested and obtained from the court the deposition of Theresa Europe, former OSI's director demoted for incompetence, who is now going, in her capacity of Deputy Counsel to the Chancellor, after senior teachers with 10 to 20 years of experience for ... incompetence !
Facts About Theresa Europe's Deposition
Krinsky's Emails To DOE and Arbitrators Presiding Over Teachers4action's Members 3020-a Hearings
Krinsky's "Ratting" Exhibits
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TEACHERS4ACTION PETITIONS THE SUPREME COURT TO DISQUALIFY THE 3020-A PANEL OF ARBITRATORS FOR, BUT NOT LIMITED TO , COLLUSION WITH THE DOE AND/OR VIOLATING THE AAA RULES
SHORT VERSION
FULL DOCUMENT
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THE CONFESSIONS
OF CHANCELLOR JOEL KLEIN AND UFT PRESIDENT RANDI WEINGARTEN
The DOE and the UFT entered in an 11th hour, fireworks agreement in a vain effort to ward off Teachers4action's lawsuit against them, and ended up validating its merit. The agreement is tantamount to a MEA CULPA because the provisions mirror the due process and contractual agreements violations that prompted the lawsuit, and pretend to address them, with the Court in mind. Without legal enforceability, meaning without safeguards against the DOE 's possible future attempt to make a mockery of it, this agreement remains nothing else but a PR exercise, one more bloody jokes the DOE loves to pull on us under the UFT's watch.
For a rigorous, legal analysis, please, read Ed Fagan's letter to federal judge Andrew Peck
who has been presiding over the pre-trial activities.
Even if they satisfy the enforceability requirements, the Defendants must pay for the damages they inflicted on us : physically, psychologically and financially. Ed Fagan is open to a settlement conference as urged by judge Peck : it's up to our tormentors to cooperate and turn the page on this shameful, institutional abuse.
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TEACHERS4ACTION OPPOSES THE DEFENDANTS
DOE / NYC AND UFT'S MOTIONS TO DISMISS
1. DEFENDANTS DOE / NYC'S MEMO SUPPORTING MOTION TO DISMISS
2. DEFENDANT UFT'S MEMO SUPPORTING MOTION TO DISMISS
3. TEACHERS4ACTION'S MEMO OPPOSING MOTIONS
4. MEMO BY BRUCE A. AFRAN, Esq. Prof. of Law, Rutgers University,
to support Teachers4action's opposition to the Defendants' Motions to dismiss.
"In promulgating § 3020, subd. 3 and 4, the Legislature appears to have made no finding that would reflect a “reasonable consideration of difference or policy” between New York City and other regions that would justify the deprivation of procedural due process imposed by the UFT's collective bargaining agreement on New York City teachers. Unlike the City law secretaries in Tolub v. Evans, whose benefits and salaries remained intact even though they were less than the state law secretaries, § 3020 has affirmatively deprived New York City teachers of due process rights that they formely possessed prior to the enactment of § 3020, subd. 3 and 4. Moreover, while the Legislature may impress distinct legal rights in separate geographic regions where there is “some ground of difference having a fair and substantial relation to the object of the legislation”, Weissman, supra, administrative due process in New York City teacher disciplinary proceedings is promulgated by collective bargaining of he UFT, a private union, not by the legislative power and therefore outside the authority of precedent. For these reasons, it would appear that a strong constitutional challenge can be presented to Education Law § 3020, subd. 3 and 4 insofar as it denies tenured New York City teachers the due process protections of § 3020-a while preserving such rights for all other tenured New York state teachers..." (Emphasis added). Full Memo
5. EDUCATION LAW 3020-a 2(c) VIOLATION : THERESA EUROPE PROVIDES US WITH AMMUNITION
" Within ten days of receipt of the statement of charges, the employee shall notify the clerk or secretary of the employing board in writing whether he or she desires a hearing on the charges and when the charges concern pedagogical incompetence or issues involving pedagogical judgement, his or her choice of either a single hearing officer or a three member panel. All other charges shall be heard by a single hearing officer."[3020-a 2(c)]
Single hearing officers are routinely imposed on teachers who chose the three-member panel option.
Does the contract allow that ? NO. That was an "oversight" according to Theresa Europe, Deputy Counsel to the Chancellor, in a response to a Teachers4action's member who raised the issue during her 3020-a hearing on 5/6/08. She added :
"However the president of the Union has given a statement which I can provide to you, if you'd like, saying yes that was the intent of the negotiations, was to eliminate the three member panel. " (Emphasis added.)
Well, Terri, why, instead of providing a copy of the statement to Teachers4action's attorney, Ed Fagan, at his request, you sent him this affidavit ? That won't do : we want to hear from the horse's mouth -- how Randi Weingarten sold us out, in her own words.
6. Fagan's 15 August 2008 letter to judge Peck addresses the above issue.
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