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* Her top deputies are further to the left than she is, so times will get interesting…
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis says she has submitted her retirement papers, effective today.
"I want my members to know first that I’m not abandoning them, I just will be an emerita," she said. "I will be around to help do things, I’m not disappearing anywhere."
— Juan Perez Jr. (@PerezJr) June 22, 2018
* Meanwhile, this didn’t get covered much, but it’s CTU’s only response to the Tribune’s investigation of sexual predators in the Chicago Public Schools, many of whom were CTU members…
The following statement can be attributed to Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey.
“We support common sense changes to CPS’s policies, just as we support our members’ rights to due process. Student safety and due process are mutually affirming – because workers with due process rights and protections on the job are better empowered to advocate for and protect our students.”
“Our union has been advised of CPS’ plans to re-run background checks of our members, as part of their effort to respond to their appalling failures to protect students from child abuse. CPS has reported that about 30% of our members – those who were not fingerprinted by Accurate Biometrics – will need to be re-fingerprinted as part of this policy. CPS has assured us that this new round of background checks is designed explicitly to identify issues related to child safety concerns, and we will be on the alert for any effort to target members outside of the scope of this review.”
No word yet about how vigorously the union fought to keep some of those employees on the job.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 12:35 pm
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Lewis is also very popular with rank-and-file teachers, many of whom tolerate CTU’s political agenda outside of the classroom out of devotion to her. Not sure when the next union election is, but the current leadership slate will be in for a battle.
Comment by TNR Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 12:51 pm
I’m a union fan, but that CTU response to the sex abuse story is totally tone deaf.
Comment by Albany Park Patriot Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 12:55 pm
Things are about to get weird.
Comment by NIU Grad Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 1:00 pm
“We will be on the alert for any effort to target members outside of the scope of this review.”
It’s all about the children, am I right?
Comment by JB13 Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 1:43 pm
With 22 years teaching, 8 years as CTU president, and undoubtedly a large number of CPS sick days banked, Lewis is probably very close to full pension vesting. The move makes sense financially, especially considering her CPS pension will be based on her CTU president salary.
Comment by City Zen Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 2:29 pm
===With 22 years teaching, 8 years as CTU president, and undoubtedly a large number of CPS sick days banked, Lewis is probably very close to full pension vesting. The move makes sense financially, especially considering her CPS pension will be based on her CTU president salary.===
She’s also battling brain cancer, but please, go on with your pension concern.
Whew.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 2:32 pm
CZ, know before you post. Sick leave accrual is capped at two years unless CTPF has different rules.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 2:35 pm
=and undoubtedly a large number of CPS sick days banked,=
Yeah, probably not. See OW’s post.
Comment by JoanP Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 2:36 pm
Folks, I’m aware of her health issues. My post was of a financial nature.
AA - CPS has a grandfather rule for banked sick days. I never claimed it get her to full vesting, hence “very close”. No comment on the non-employee loophole, I suppose.
JoanP - Her recent health issues fall under CTU employment, not CPS.
Comment by City Zen Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 2:57 pm
===I’m aware of her health issues. My post was of a financial nature.===
So you were purposely callous and shallow, wringing your hands about a pension that’s not yours, a pension belonging to a person battling cancer, but let’s duscuss that pension… callously and coldly.
Hmm.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:00 pm
Well, Zen, if you want to keep this strictly financial, you have little to worry about. Sadly, given her health struggles, I think the actuarial charts would predict she’ll end up paying way more into the pension system than she’ll ever pull out.
Comment by Roman Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:03 pm
It’s all about the children, am I right?
We support common sense changes to CPS’s policies, just as we support our members’ rights to due process. Student safety and due process are mutually affirming
What’s the conflict in that statement?
Here’s the deal, the union’s job is to represent the interest’s of their members. You have to represent every teacher, member or not, regardless of your personal feelings about any specific disciplinary action.
You just do. It’s the law. If you fail to do so you are legally liable for a failure to provide representation.
Teachers are mandated reporters, so you are also legally required to report any abuse to the authorities.
If you are a teacher who is a local union official you would not be representing a teacher accused of abuse (or you shoudn’t), that would be the responsibility of the union’s legal counsel.
If there is information that the union was complicit in a cover up of the abuse, then yes, they should be open to criticism.
No word yet about how vigorously the union fought to keep some of those employees on the job.
Exactly.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:04 pm
Sorry, that was me
Comment by Morty Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:04 pm
In the interest of disclosure, I was a union representative at my local for many years.
I’ve been in disciplinary meetings where I walked away thinking the administration was way out of bounds with their response
I’ve been in disciplinary meetings where I totally agreed with the administration’s position and my only role was to ensure the proper procedures were followed.
And I’ve been in disciplinary meetings where I walked away thinking that the administration should have fired the employee. That If I had been the person administering discipline, that’s what I would have done.
In each case it was my duty to represent the interest’s of that employee.
So I did.
It was extremely stressful and I recieved no compensation for doing so, which is why I no longer do it.
But I believe it was important to be done.
Comment by Morty Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:12 pm
Wish her well with her life. very very scary health issue.
as a big union supporter, I am almost automatic in support of any union issues. but the CTU, nope, not automatic.
Comment by Amalia Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:21 pm
“we will be on the alert for any effort to target members outside of the scope of this review.”
Is that the position you want to take? Why would you be against teacher background checks for *any* reason?
Comment by Anon E. Moose Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:23 pm
CTU defends teachers in court regularly who engage in all sorts of crazy behavior that should otherwise keep them out of the classroom. So their lackluster response on the sex abuse allegations is not surprising. If it was anything else they’d order their members to CPS HQ for a protest.
Comment by Shytown Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:33 pm
Why would you be against teacher background checks for *any* reason?
CPS is supposed to do a background check on all their employees. They failed to do so with about 30% of their employees. They will now do so.
Why would the union allow background checks for teachers who already passed background checks?
Again, the unions job is to look after the interests of their members.
Comment by Morty Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:40 pm
===the unions job is to look after the interests of their members===
Agreed, but, as with the police union, vigorously protecting the interests of very bad individual members can do great harm to the interests of members as a whole.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:42 pm
CTU defends teachers in court regularly who engage in all sorts of crazy behavior that should otherwise keep them out of the classroom.
Legally required to do so in disciplinary meetings.
Required.
As in it’s the law.
As to providing defense in a courtroom, that would be covered under an insurance policy that the union provides, meaning the member paid for that representation as a part of their dues.
Comment by Morty Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:44 pm
vigorously protecting the interests of very bad individual members can do great harm to the interests of members as a whole.
True. As I said there were times I had to defend teachers who I personally felt should not have been in the classroom because I thought they were incompetent.
If the administration followed the proper procedures to remove that teacher they were gone. It was my job, and our uniserv directors job to make sure their rights were protected, not their jobs.
My uncle is a retired Chicago cop who was also a union representative. He was often called upon to testify in cases where an officer was accused of improperly discarging his weapon.
As far as he always said to me he gave an honest appraisal as he was required to do under oath.
He also said that he knew of guys on the force that everyone knew shouldn’t have been.
He couldn’t fire those guys. He had no authority to.
My conjecture is, because I never asked, was he also felt any of the cops that covered up for a bad cop were stupid and going to lose their jobs.
Comment by Morty Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:54 pm
And as a personal aside, I never wanted a bad teacher on the job, for professional reasons as it wasn’t good for the kids and it made everyone else’s jobs harder to compensate for their incompetence, and personally because it made my life much more difficult. Out of 120 teachers in my local I spent the majority of my time dealing with issues involving 3-4 individuals.
Had to do it. It was tedious though. Which is why I’m no longer riding that horse. It’s someone else’s turn.
Comment by Morty Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 3:59 pm
It isn’t that hard to find CTU’s messaging to its members. They are clearly not against the background checks.
https://www.ctunet.com/blog/due-process-rights-and-background-check-policy
Comment by anon Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 4:07 pm
“CPS is supposed to do a background check on all their employees. They failed to do so with about 30% of their employees. They will now do so.”
That doesn’t really respond to my question. Regardless of CPS’s failures, I would hope that school teachers would be ok with background checks since they, y’know, work with children.
Comment by Anon E. Moose Friday, Jun 22, 18 @ 4:16 pm