Disgraceful Interrogation of LA School Librarians

I returned from Costa Rica at 2:00 a.m. May 1st in time to help garner support for Los Angeles school libraries at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC. We collected wonderful comments from supporters on postcards. Only one person I asked started ragging on me about taxes. I'm so sick of that. And now my friends -- 80 or so Teacher Librarians -- are being interrogated by LAUSD lawyers about their ability to teach because of a recent motion that we need to have "recency" in the small classroom in our original credentials. Thanks to one TL, Michael Bernard, Hector Tobar of the LA Times came twice to see what was going on and wrote an eloquent piece in May 13th's LA Times. My husband wrote an eloquent letter to the Times but I doubt it will be printed so I'll share it here or try to-- for some reason this blog isn't letting me cut and paste it:

To the Times: Re: Disgraceful Interrogations

Ray Bradbury missed the mark in Farenheit 451, in which firefighters in a dystopian future burn books. As it turns out, it's not books but librarians getting burned, and it's not firefighters but the school district doing the burning. One librarian at a time, their careers are demeaned, their livelihoods shattered, in legal proceedings meant to show that libraries are not "classes", and librarians are not "teachers", and are therefore expendable. All to save our dystopian school district a few bucks, while it squanders millions on new schools (with soon to be empty libraries), grotesquely overpaid administrators who spent us into this mess in the first place, and billable hours for the lawyers conducting this sordid little inquisition. Brian Hudson.

By the way, my husband is a lawyer! Thanks to great support from Susan Ohanian sending out her blog around the country, people posting over 10,000 hits on Facebooks because of Neil Gaiman's tweets on Twitter, the LA Times wants a follow-up article. And another about Roxie Ross's 40 years at Narbonne High School after Tobar was honored at our LASLA Spring Luncheon. One Math professor sent Susan a link from his email about LA librarians calling it "Waterboarding Librarians" - perfect title!! A true gulag as Susan said. Teacher Librarians are being treated to McCarthy-era tactics. It is truly distraceful!! All in the name of busting public employee unions and collective bargaining rights. If LAUSD succeeds with TLs, this tactic will spread. We need to fight for our rights as well as funding for education so this nonsense will stop!

PS - June 29, 2011 -- The Administrative Law Judge presiding on the gulag actually decided that all Teacher Librarians "who testified" were teachers and should have their "reduction in force" designations rescinded. Partial victory for common sense. Thank you Hector Tobar and Michael Bernard, Neil Gaiman and Susan Ohanian, among others. Thank you to the TLs who fought and testified under these horrible conditions.

School Libraries, Special Education, and Charters

Right now my school district (Los Angeles Unified) is turning all of its schools over to Charter Companies which they claim will do a better job than the District itself. The Los Angeles Times claims that Green Dot Charter has done so much for Locke High School, one of the worst in L.A. Here is a letter I wrote to the Times which they won't print:

Re: Cash for the Classrooms (L.A. Times Opinion Piece 9/28/2009)

While Green Dot Charters may provide smaller classes, like all charters they do so because they save money by not providing: 1) Counseling services; 2) Psychological services; 3) Libraries; 4) Special Education; 5) Nursing; 6) Intramural sports; 7) Orchestra; 8) Marching Bands and more. Moreover, Charters generally pick and choose the students they want so they'll test well and be more manageable.

Thirty years in education have taught me that our public schools need to do a better job. But Charters are not the answer. My three year-old granddaughter is receiving excellent services from LAUSD's Special Education. If all schools become charters, who will educate her? Schools will work for our students when money spent on bureaucracy goes directly to the schools. But to achieve this we should not cast aside our special needs students under the Charter mandate of education for the fittest.

Joan Kramer

I am particularly concerned with the loss of nursing, special education, counseling, music, art, and LIBRARIES!!! I have looked at 19 charter organizations and none of them hires a Teacher Librarian. In fact, I'd venture to say none of them has a library!! The head of Green Dot has said "We don't need libraries. Our kids don't read anyway." or something to that effect. This is a pervasive view among many of our administrators as well. I would guess that few of them read anymore, if at all. A teacher came into one of my libraries and sat there telling us that she doesn't read books. She wasn't particularly ashamed of this either. But she did think perhaps she should so she could model this for her students. Isn't this the biggest reason our kids don't read? It's not due to other gadgets and distractions, it's because the adults in their lives do not read!! This is a major loss for our collective good.

CSLA's Conference in November is taking up this most important issue of advocacy. I hope many people can attend and apply some of the good lessons learned by others in Districts where the library personnel have been saved from the chopping block. I fear our Teacher Librarians are in danger in Los Angeles. They have started to cut the elementary paraprofessionals, and I don't think they will stop there. DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR CLSA CONFERENCE IN ONTARIO NOVEMBER 19-22!!!