Rhee Explains Controversial Remarks

Photo courtesy of
‘I blame the post office’
courtesy of ‘Dvortygirl’

The other day when Michelle Rhee was quoted by Fast Company suggesting that teachers laid off as part of the DCPS RIF were poor performing teachers including those who had sex with students, displayed excessive absenteeism and hit students, it made News. The Teachers Union threatened to sue Rhee for Libel. The Council chair threw a fit and demanded an explanation. Today we got it.

As it turns out, all of those things were true. Some of the RIF’d teachers were on suspension for sexual conduct with students, had served suspensions for striking students, and were absent for lengthy periods without explanation.

The letter to the Council Chair, released to the media today, also had the following damning line: “The progressive discipline procedures contained in the applicable collective bargaining agreements prescribed suspension, rather than terminations, for these situations.”

All of that outrage over teachers in the schools having been disciplined for serious offenses and returning to the classroom, and it’s all right there in the progressive discipline procedure that the contract with the Teachers Union demanded. Who’s supportive of the Union again?

I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.

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5 thoughts on “Rhee Explains Controversial Remarks”

  1. I just remember thinking when all the outrage started about this that for whatever interpersonal faults Michelle Rhee might have, she’s surely smart enough to know better than to just toss out a statement like that without having the facts to back it the hell up.

  3. @Tiffany Bridge

    She surely is smart enough to know that leaking something like this through a favorable news outlet would allow the other shoe to drop. Now it’s out in the open that because of the CBA, these teachers could not be fired for cause. The spotlight will probably shift very quickly off of her, and onto the union.