United Federation of Teachers delegates, frustrated that they were portrayed on prime time television as lazy obstructionists who are partly responsible for the poor quality of public education, have voted to organize a petition drive and rally outside the Manhattan offices of ABC News. Official story from New York Teacher is here. Mike Antonucci’s EIA blogs on it here.

UPDATE FROM LAST WEEK: The UFT’s Leo Casey writes to take exception with this post, particularly the suggestion that adults in Nixzmary Brown’s school could have done more to help save her life. Writes Casey:

To say that "school employees who allowed her to miss more than 40 days of
school and who allowed bureaucrats to dither over the case," is really wrong,
not just because they did exactly what they were supposed to do - report the
case to ACS, which is responsible for acting on those referrals - again and
again, but because they are ordinary hard-working educators, who did their best
to serve the children placed in their care. They should not be used to make
political points. I can only imagine how they already feel, even though that
poor child's death was not a result of any failure on their
part..

What do you think? Was there any more the adults at the school (and the regional and central offices) could have done? If you call ACS and NYPD and nothing happens, is there anything else you can do? Email thechalkboard@nycsa.org about this or anything else on your mind