BFT LOCAL 434
  • Home
  • About
  • Executive Council
  • Blog
  • Giving
  • For Members
    • Documents
  • How Unions Work
  • More
    • Financial
    • Newsletter
    • FAQ's
    • Executive Council Guide
    • Links >
      • IFT Member Benefits
      • Landrum-Griffin Act (LMRDA)
      • Facebook Group
      • AFT Member Benefits
      • Know Your Legislators
      • Board of Education
      • District Main Page
      • Contact Your Legislators

Union Works 

Engage, Educate, Empower: The Heart of our Union

What to do if you know you're in trouble:

11/14/2021

 
Just Google “Teacher Falsely Accused” and you’ll find evidence that even the best of us can find ourselves on the wrong end of an administrator’s, parent’s, student’s, or even another teacher’s unfair, inaccurate, or patently false accusations. If this happens, you have protection and a union to fight for your rights.

Even if you did something worthy of discipline, you still have rights, and it’s difficult to fire a teacher without just cause. Furthermore, thanks to unions and union advocacy, most issues are required by the contract and state law to be formally documented and remediated before a school board dismisses a tenured teacher. As long as you don't do anything outstandingly bad, you’re likely going to just get a warning and some steps to take to fix the issue. Even if something goes in your personnel file, there are laws to prevent sharing most discipline information with anyone else, including future employers.

Finally, even if you do something the administration deems as egregiously bad, but you or the union disagrees—perhaps based on context or mitigating circumstances--the District is required to provide, at minimum, a notice of the charges against you, proof for those charges, and a chance for you to respond to the charges in a hearing before the board of education.
For tenured teachers who sometimes stay up late at night worrying about whether what they said or did in class is going to get them fired, it’s most likely not. You might get a stern talking-to, or a warning added to your personnel file, but your job is likely safe.

Picture

Comments are closed.

    Categories

    All
    Get Informed
    Get Organized
    Get Represented
    Members Engaged
    Member Training
    President's Message

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    May 2023
    February 2023
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    November 2021
    February 2021
    September 2020
    June 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

    Strength in unity, power in solidarity.


    ​
    Editor:

    Ashley Mims
    Local 434 Secretary since 2017 and educator in District #201 since 2011.

    Contributors:


    Lucas Spriggs
    Lucas Spriggs is the author of the Union Works newsletter, which includes posts in three series: "Get Organized," "Get Represented," and "Get Informed."

    RSS Feed

Home

     About
     Executive Council
     Blog
     Giving
​     Scholarship Information
     Scholarship Application
For Members

Insurance
Newsletter
Documents
Financial



Member Links

     Facebook Group
     IFT Member Benefits
     AFT Member Benefits
     Know Your Legislators
     Contact Your Legislators
     Board of Education
     District Main Page
     Landrum-Griffin Act
     
Site maintained by the Public Relations Committee.
​
Icons by Freepik: ​http://www.freepik.com/ 
Website born on January 29, 2015
  • Home
  • About
  • Executive Council
  • Blog
  • Giving
  • For Members
    • Documents
  • How Unions Work
  • More
    • Financial
    • Newsletter
    • FAQ's
    • Executive Council Guide
    • Links >
      • IFT Member Benefits
      • Landrum-Griffin Act (LMRDA)
      • Facebook Group
      • AFT Member Benefits
      • Know Your Legislators
      • Board of Education
      • District Main Page
      • Contact Your Legislators