New Jersey Teacher’s Union More Powerful than the Civil Rights Movement?

By Shaughn Adeleye

When is it okay for a teacher to look a child in the eyes and yell “YOU NIGGER” at them?

We can come to a general consensus that at no time should anyone, much less a child, be referred to in such a derogatory manner. But according to Alissa Ploshnick on the “soon to be infamous” Teachers Union Gone Wild video, there appears to be little to no consequence for such an action.

As a Special educator for the Passaic city school system, Ploshnick stated that they had a teacher yell “YOU NIGGER” to one of their adolescent students. I found it very disturbing, to say the least, so I decided to launch an investigation into the matter.

On Friday, October 1st, 2010, I made a call to Dr. Lawrence E. Everett, the assistant superintendent of the Passaic city schools. I posed as a concerned parent whose special needs black child came home claiming that a teacher had called him the “N-word” at school.

Feel free to watch the video from this point on, but here is a slight window into our conversation.

I began by asking Dr. Everette what their policy was regarding teachers who called their students the “N-word.” He responded by saying it was totally unacceptable. I pressed further by asking him if such a teacher would be fired or kept on the staff. He responded to the question for about 30 seconds.

“Certainly if the expectation is that he or she is going to be fired immediately, with the contractual stipulations, no, we will not be able to do that,” Everette eventually stated.

Since he claimed the teacher deserved due process, I decided to press just a little bit further.

“So you’re saying that if an investigation finds that he or she said the ‘N-word,’ that she could still stay on as a teacher? That’s possible?” I asked.

His response was absolutely stunning! “YES, that’s VERY possible, YES,” said Everette.

Usually the talkative fella, I sat there in stunned silence, my mind reeling faster than my mouth could move. In a way, that was a good thing. It allowed him the opportunity to further explain the reasons why a teacher would be allowed to stay on staff at the school where they called a child the N-word.

By the end of the audio, Everette agrees to cover up the situation so that no one would find out. Please feel free to listen to and comment on the content of the audio.

I came to find out that three years of teaching tenure offers the perk to be able call a child the N-word with relative impunity.

Some will likely see this as an attack on teachers, but this is not the case. There are patriotic, hard working, common-sense, caring teachers who are in the public system. I know a few teachers and think most of them care about the education of our future generations.

Any contract, even if promised and delivered by their union leaders, which enables the loophole for someone to yell “YOU NIGGER” to a child and retain their job, is unacceptable. Please feel free to stand with us in outing those that betray the stewardship we give them over our children.