Chris Guerrieri pays the price for speaking up for kids and teachers

School board memeber W.C. Gentry spoke about the culture of retaliation, intimidation and fear that teachers face in Duval County. As one of the more outspoken teachers I can say without a doubt he is correct and I know from first hand experience.

In 2006 I returned to teaching after taking one year off to care for my ailing mother.

At the beginning of 2007 I received the Map bonus that went to the top 25% of all teachers. I was excited so I told the teacher next door who was not just the best teacher I have ever met but a great man too. When he forced a weak smile and let me know he didn’t get it, I felt terrible. I told several other teachers who also didn’t get it, teachers I looked up to and respected that I wished I was as good as. I was finally pulled aside and told it was wrong to tell other teachers about my good fortune. Here I was proud and happy and yet I had to keep it a secret from my colleagues, especially from the teachers I knew deserved it more than me, and I consider myself a pretty good teacher.

The art teacher had published some meandering rant in the Folio a few weeks before and as an amateur writer I thought I would write about this. The Folio printed my first piece “30 Pieces of Silver” and shortly thereafter teachers from all across the district contacted me and thanked me for writing it as well as suggesting other school topics to write about, so I did.

Back then I usually only wrote about how magnet schools were unfair (I was on first coast connect discussing the topic) and about how special ed kids really had it bad (I was teaching profoundly disabled kids at the time) but the more I wrote the more I found needed to be written about.

I knew I was in trouble when they took away my classroom and I became a traveling teacher with a self-contained classroom. That’s right me and 8 severely disabled kids would go from room to room with out stuff in tow. Probably the only time in the history of education that has happened. In 2007 I also went from high performing to needs improvement

The next year I was switched to teaching science for more moderately disabled (V.E.) kids. I was told it was because I had an amiable style and as soon as they hired a replacement for the science teacher, who quit a few days before school was to begin, they would send me back to TMH. I taught science for the next three years despite the fact they hired 5 new TMH teachers, despite the fact I asked the union to intervene for me, despite the fact I wrote letters to everybody who would listen and despite the fact I had no business teaching science.

My last year at Ed White high school I was the only traveling teacher. My second period class met in six different rooms, including the band room, I would sometimes show up to my room only to discover they had booked it for other activities and failed to tell me. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it was just me but them messing with my kids should have been unacceptable but that didn’t stop them. I also didn’t have a place for my stuff, which often disappeared. They took all my books one day and when I asked if I could get them back they said they would get back to me but never did. It was a miserable year. But it was also another example of how kids were collateral damage due to the districts games. When they would mess with me, it would trickle down and mess with my kids too but they didn’t care.

Then two days before the 11-12 school year was to begin, I got a call saying I was surplussed. At first I thought it was a joke but it wasn’t. When I pressed for the reason why, two district administrators told me it was because of some data on Pearson but couldn’t be more exact. Months later I found out it was based on how 9 kids did in four classes I co-taught, which since I was reduced to being nothing but a glorified para is a pretty liberal description of what I did.

I know it now. My career basically ended when the Folio printed that first piece, I know I am just playing out the string until they can get rid of me or make life so miserable I quit, something they have also done to countless other teachers. Men and women who dedicated their lives to children, harassed, cajoled, brow beaten marginalized for this reason or another, more often imagined rather than real.

So many teachers have told me horror stories and when I have asked them to go on the record, they squirm and say, oh I have a family, or my principal would make life miserable for me. I am a single guy but if I had other mouths to feed I definitely would have made different choices. I probably would have just shut up and took it, which is what most teachers do as the school system crumbles down around us.

For 5 years now he district has messed with me and ironically they are now talking about the issues I have been writing about, a lack of rigor, a lack of discipline, shoddy treatment of teachers, teaching to the test and promoting administrators based on who they know rather than ability. It is as if a light bulb went off. It is just too bad so many teachers and students paid the price while the board was in the dark.

I don’t think Mr. Gentry is a bad guy but while he has been dragging his feet men and women who dedicated their lives to children have paid the price and children have been getting a substandard education. I have paid a price too.

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher