More Horror Stories of White Educators Working in black-Dominated Schools

The War on White Educators (II)

The State of White America-2007: Education: Pseudo-Pedagogy, Real Hatred

Release Date: April 5, 2007

Prepared by and for the National Policy Institute by Nicholas Stix, Project Director

By Nicholas Stix


I. Introduction

V. “Education: Pseudo-Pedagogy, Real Hatred; Part I: The Autum of White America?”

Part II: “Black School Violence: Where’s the National Guard When You Need It?”

Part III: “The War on White Educators (I)”



Fenger High School, cont’d.: Although the teacher did not sign his entries, and reversed the school’s name, he told two colleagues, who told their students, who began threatening him. The teacher-blogger e-mailed his principal that he “feared for his safety,” stopped coming to work, and was fired.

The school’s black principal, William Johnson, denounced the unnamed teacher, saying “He’s lost his credibility. He lost the faith and trust of his students.”

And yet, the school then held meetings on how to improve Fenger, and students made statements about the school that presupposed that the white teacher had indeed told the truth about the school.

Note that in 2004, when black parents had demonstrated against the violence that they said was pervasive in Fenger, no school official said that by protesting, they had lost all credibility.[xvii]

In a well-worn ritual in America, whenever a white tells the truth about black social pathologies, he is denounced as a “racist” who “lacks all credibility”; meanwhile, blacks grant whites who lie about such pathologies, either romanticizing them as misunderstood strengths or blaming them on white “racism,” instant credibility.[xviii]

Chicago-based education journalist Alexander Russo called on the Chicago Public Schools to close Fenger, which he dubbed “One of Chicago’s worst schools.”

“[Fenger] is one of the least successful, most troubled schools you can imagine, even by Chicago standards. Fewer than eight out of 100 students passed the state high school exam last year, one of the lowest rates in the city. The school struggles to find and keep certified teachers – a problem that will no doubt get even worse with all the negative press. Well over half of the neighborhood kids go to other high schools instead of Fenger – making Fenger one of the least popular high schools in town.” [xix]

Russo also pointed out that the already violence-plagued Fenger had, under Principal Johnson, in just one year suffered a 20 percent rise in violent incidents.

Jackson, MS. In January, 2006, white former Jackson, MS teacher Michael Herndon quit after almost two years of teaching at Whitten Middle School. He told of black students showering him with racial epithets his first week on the job.[xx]

Herndon had worked for thirty years as an accountant, before deciding to embark on a new career. He had spent $60,000 on tuition for a teacher education program.

“‘It began with the m-f, the cussing and, you just don’t need to be here you honkey.

“He was also assaulted.

“‘Knocked down on the concrete floors, children walk by and thump the back of your head, throw pennies at you.

“He saw another teacher hit so hard she had a concussion.

“‘That child, who was bigger than the teacher, just took this teacher and slung her down on the floor. She lay unconscious for twenty minutes.’”

Herndon said “the girl who knocked the teacher unconscious … was back in school the next day.”

The Jackson Public Schools’ “response” ignored Herndon’s charges.

New York City. One white teacher found out too late that he was not safe from his black students, even in the confines of his own home. On May 30, 1997, teacher Jonathan Levin’s former student, 19-year-old Corey Arthur, left a message on Levin’s answering machine saying that he desperately needed to see him. Arthur visited Levin, accompanied by Montoun Hart. Arthur, who was armed with a gun, and Hart tied up Levin with duct tape, and turning up the teacher’s stereo, so that the neighbors would not hear his screams, proceeded to torture him by slashing and stabbing him with a kitchen knife, until Levin gave them the code to his bank card.

When Hart returned from the bank with $800, Arthur killed Jonathan Levin by shooting him in the head.

Corey Arthur was convicted and sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison for robbing, torturing, and murdering Jonathan Levin. Although Montoun Hart made an 11-page confession to detectives, including information only the killer would know, and ATM witnesses identified him as having withdrawn $800 from Levin’s bank account, incredibly, he was acquitted in a separate trial.[xxi]

Lake Worth, FL. On May 26, 2000, the last day of school at Lake Worth Middle School, Nathaniel Brazill, a black 13-year-old honor student, shot and killed his “favorite teacher,” Barry Grunow. Grunow, an immensely popular, dedicated, white seventh-grade English teacher, had reportedly had a good relationship with his killer … for all the good it did him.[xxii]

Brazill was sentenced to 28 years in prison, including time served. (The minimum possible sentence was 25 years without parole, the maximum was life.)[xxiii]

None of the major media addressed the racial aspects of the Levin or the Grunow murder.

But all is not lost. White educators are increasingly fighting back with lawsuits, and some are winning.

Oklahoma City, OK. In April 2000, the Oklahoma City School District paid a $277,000 settlement to 16 white teachers who had taught at Telstar Elementary School during the 1995-1996 school year.[xxiv] If the teachers’ charges are true, the school’s black principal, Dr. Doretha Colbert, ran a system resembling Jim Crow, but with whites treated like second-class citizens by black personnel and students.

The 16 white teachers charged that Dr. Colbert had “harassed, intimidated, and treated them unfairly,” racially discriminating against them by “assign[ing] more work and plac[ing] extra restrictions on white teachers”; treating black teacher aides (i.e., the teachers’ subordinates), whom she permitted to insult the white teachers, as if they were the teachers’ superiors; giving white teachers’ lesson plans to black teachers, thus discriminatorily cutting down on the black teachers’ workloads; permitting black teachers to desert their classes without penalty, while at times forcing white teachers to look after multiple classes; and that Dr. Colbert supported children assaulting white teachers. The plaintiffs also suggested that Dr. Colbert was organizing violent felonies against the teachers in their homes.

“Teacher Tracy Heatley quoted Colbert as saying on Jan. 22, 1996: ‘You will have to be beaten to a pulp before a student will be removed from your classroom.’”

Fifth-grade teacher Vickie Newcomb charged that due to violent students, she “went to the hospital with numerous injuries.”

“The teachers worried that classroom vandalism, hang-up phone calls, a robbery at a teacher’s home and a gunshot fired at another teacher’s home were related to complaints against Colbert.”

Once when a student brought a gun to school, teacher Kristin Dougherty charged, Dr. Colbert told black teaching assistants but refused to tell white teaching assistants or teachers.

Things got so bad that the teacher’s union had to hire its own armed guard to provide security in the school.

“‘It was the worst work environment I’ve ever seen in 30 years of public education,’ said Ted Metscher, president of the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.”

Following pressure from parents, Dr. Colbert resigned in November 1996.

[Postscript, March 29, 2023: She then got a well-paying sinecure as a professor of teacher education at a black-run college. black supremacist networks take care of their own.]

Mobile, AL. In the only case I could find of a white college instructor who was able to successfully fight racial discrimination, in June 2005, a federal jury in Mobile awarded $100,000 for back wages and $200,000 for emotional distress to Sarah E. Taylor, for having been fired by Bishop State Community College because she was white.[xxv]

Richmond County, GA. In March 2006, a federal jury found that Dr. Ellen Cauthen, a white assistant principal, had been transferred illegally based on her race. The case cost the Richmond County School Board a total of $435,000, not counting the Board's legal fees. As part of her court victory Dr. Cauthen, who had been demoted to teacher status, was retired as an assistant principal.[xxvi]

At the center of the case was embattled black Richmond County schools superintendent, Dr. Charles Larke. In spite of years of charges of incompetence, racial discrimination, sexual harassment and test and grade fraud,[xxvii] Dr. Larke, who proportionate to district size is possibly the highest paid superintendent in the state of Georgia, seems to be invulnerable.[xxviii] And yet, local black activists insist that he is a victim of racism, and have demonstrated on his behalf.

Charleston, SC. Finally, the Charleston, SC schools have been hit with racial discrimination lawsuits by five white teachers in recent years, including four teachers from the same school, predominantly black Brentwood Middle School, during the past two years alone. According to the plaintiffs, black principals Dr. Wanda Marshall and her successor, Cassandra Jennings, at Brentwood Middle School have condoned and encouraged black children who routinely shout racial epithets at, threaten, assault and steal from white teachers, while not tolerating such behavior towards black teachers.

White former Brentwood Middle School teacher John Smith charged that he was “rendered totally ineffective in managing and instructing his classes” because the black principal, Dr. Wanda Marshall, “would not allow students to be disciplined for racial slurs or other disruptive behavior towards white teachers.”[xxix]

Smith sued the district, Principal Marshall, and Associate Superintendent Darrell Johnson when he was dismissed after one year on the job. The school district reportedly “admitted Marshall told Smith before he was hired that ‘in the eyes of the students, he could have two strikes against him, because he was a white male,’” while denying Smith’s claims of discrimination.[xxx] Smith eventually settled with the district for $50,000.[xxxi]

White former Brentwood Middle School teacher, Elizabeth Kandrac, “alleges she was not given a new contract because she complained often that students frequently mistreated and cursed her because she is white.” Kandrac’s suit will go before a jury later this year.[xxxii]

White former Brentwood teacher, Brandy Stokes, seeks back pay, compensation, and reinstatement. Stokes alleges that then-Principal Marshall “allowed students to harass her, causing the abuse to worsen and for her to fear for her safety,” and that Marshall told her to “accept the students’ behavior because it was part of the students’ culture and background. Ms. Marshall told me that the students did not have parental supervision and that this is the way they were.”

On Nov. 13, 2002, after only three months on the job, one of Stokes’ eight-grade students punched her “in the mouth when she tried to break up a fight. She said the blow broke a tooth, dislocated her jaw and caused her to hit a chair, injuring her spine.” When Stokes sought to come back from medical leave for her injury, she says “Marshall told her she could not come back.”[xxxiii]

In April 2004, then-Principal Marshall rejected charges that Brentwood had a discipline problem, saying “We deal with discipline everyday, but it’s the typical discipline that takes place with any student in any school U.S.A.”[xxxiv]

And yet, incredibly in a school of only 800-odd students, Principal Marshall had in that very school year reportedly issued 1,315 suspensions and 38 expulsions.[xxxv] Apparently, Principal Marshall was as aggressive in punishing black students on behalf of black teachers as she was negligent in punishing black students for abusing white teachers. (The most recent figure for attendance at Brentwood Middle is 846 students in the sixth through eighth grades.[xxxvi] Attendance figures for the 2003-2004 school year were unavailable, but WCBD-TV reporter Octavia Mitchell cited only “454” seventh and eight-grade students in the school.)

Elizabeth Kandrac’s lawyer, Larry Kobrovsky, discovered via subpoena that “Dr.” Marshall had not completed South Carolina State University’s requirements, and had thus been unlawfully awarded her degree, her job, and $2,000 per year in additional pay.[xxxvii]

Rather than Principal Marshall being fired for racial discrimination, incompetence, or fraud (much less prosecuted), or being forced to pay back the money she had wrongfully been paid, after the 2003-2004 school year she was transferred to West Ashley High School as an assistant principal.

In February 2006, teacher Gail Auld, filed a racial discrimination lawsuit, saying “Principal Cassandra Jennings knew students hit, threatened, stole from and racially cursed her and did little, if anything, in response.”[xxxviii]

Auld, a 28-year teaching veteran with two master’s degrees who heads up Brentwood’s Social Studies Department, and who was previously a renowned teacher at other local schools, is the first Brentwood teacher to sue while still teaching at the school. She is presently out on medical leave.

Auld reported that on her first day on the job at Brentwood Middle, a black female student “screamed at her, saying it was her job to get rid of all the (expletive) white teachers.”[xxxix]

In another incident, a black student Auld did not know “hit her twice on the arm, causing her to drop her papers, and ran away.” Auld observed, “If that had been a black teacher (hit), they would have found the kid and had him arrested.”

Auld sought to have the students disciplined, but says that Jennings and her underlings protected them. She said, “Kids got so empowered that first day that they can say anything and do anything.”

Across the country for over forty years, tens of thousands of white teachers have endured in silence the same abuse, assaults, and destruction of their careers by minority students, parents, teachers, staffers and administrators. At least the Brentwood teachers, like some other white educators cited above, have found attorneys willing to take on their cases, local media outlets willing to report fairly on them, Web sites and bloggers that have spread word of their travails, and in some cases, modest compensation. Thus are there grounds for measured optimism.

[i] Rachel Gottlieb, “Can Whites Teach Blacks? Teachers’ Racial Makeup In Hartford Spurs Debate,” Hartford Courant, 17 July 2005.

[ii] Vincent J. Cannato, The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 347.

Fred Siegel, The Future Once Happened Here: New York, D.C., L.A., and the Fate of America’s Cities (New York: Free Press, 1997), 44.

[iii] Conor Cruise O’Brien, “In Defense of Academic Freedom,” Academic Questions, Winter 2000-2001, Vol. 14, No. 1.

[iv] Sara Mosle, “Scores Count,” New York Times Magazine, 8 September 1996.

[v] Jim Sleeper, The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York (New York: W.W. Norton, 1990), 219.

[vi] United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 97-1859EM, filed 22 June 1998.

http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/98/06/971859P.pdf

David Hudson, “Teacher fired for allowing profanity says she will appeal,” Freedom Forum, 30 June 1998.

http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=9775

Charles J. Muhl, “The Law at Work; Student profanity,” Monthly Labor Review Online, April 1999, Vol. 122, No. 4.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1999/04/tlaw.htm

[vii] Nicholas Stix, “The War on White Teachers,” Chronicles, March 1997: 39-41.

[viii] Liz Leyden, “N.Y. Teacher Runs Into a Racial Divide,” Washington Post, 3 December 1998.

[ix] Joshua Kaplowitz, “How I Joined Teach for America—and Got Sued for $20 Million,” City Journal, Winter 2003.

[x] Vincent J. Cannato, The Ungovernable City: John Lindsey and His Struggle to Save New York (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 334.

[xi] Howard Schwach, “BCHS Principal Accused Of ‘Racist’ Request,” The Wave, 1 October 2004.

[xii] Ibid.

[xiii] Howard Schwach, “MS 180 Principal Accused Of Manhandling Teacher,” The Wave, 19 November 2004.

[xiv] Untitled Document (East Meadow School District News), Fall 2005. http://eastmeadow.k12.ny.us/news/pdf/steps_fall2005.pdf

John Comer was not disciplined or even formally investigated, but chose to leave MS 180 at the end of the school year. He is currently employed as an assistant principal in East Meadow's McVey Elementary School, as of fall, 2005. The East Meadow Schools newsletter introduced Comer as follows:

"John Comer, Assistant Principal, McVey Elementary School

"McVey Elementary School is pleased to announce the appointment of John Comer as their new Assistant Principal. Mr. Comer comes to the district from Far Rockaway, where he served as Assistant Principal for two years in the elementary and middle schools. Prior to his position as Assistant Principal, Mr. Comer taught middle school social studies in Ridgewood. Mr. Comer holds a Bachelor's degree in History from St. Francis College, a Master's degree in History from Queen's College, and an Administration Certificate from the College of St. Rose."

As far as I could determine, John Comer had actually served for one year as an acting assistant principal, and for one year as a principal. The newsletter made no mention of Comer's having served as a principal.

Melissa Gianninoto is no longer employed at MS 180.

[xv] "Fast times at regnef high." http://regnef.blogspot.com/

The author has since removed all blog entries, and although the controversy only blew up in early May, even the caches have been deleted. In May I was, however, able to download Google's caches of five entries.

Tracy Dell'Angela, "Teacher's biting blog stirs storm: Fenger High chaos target of postings, Chicago Tribune, April 22, 2006.

[xvi] Tracy Dell'angela, "Chicago teacher's blog outrages students," Duluth News Tribune, 21 April 2006.

[xvii] Theresa Gutierrez, "Parents storm Fenger High School protesting violence," ABC7 Chicago, 21 January 2004. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=News&id=1106811&ft=exLg

[xviii] The attacks on the white teacher-blogger followed an at least 41-year-old, racist black script. In 1965, when Johnson administration official, social scientist, and future U.S. senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote his report, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (since known as The Moynihan Report), warning that due to illegitimacy and related social pathologies, the negro American family was in danger of disintegrating, Moynihan was almost universally denounced by negro leaders. And yet, as Moynihan's warnings went unheeded, and as "Negro" leaders gave way to "black" and then "African-American" leaders, the 1960 black illegitimacy rate (21.7 percent), which Moynihan and other honest social scientists considered catastrophic, more than tripled. Meanwhile, as black sociologist William Julius Wilson reported in 1987, shortly after Moynihan wrote his report, some black leaders and academics would at times repeat as their own certain of his findings to black audiences, to thunderous applause. During the same period, as Kay Hymowitz recently wrote, most white and black academic social scientists entered into a phase in which illegitimacy, female-headed households, welfare dependence and related pathologies were romanticized as signs of strength and morality, not weakness and moral collapse.

"The Negro Family: The Case For National Action," Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor, March 1965. [Note that the Department of Labor has disabled the direct link to the report's introduction and table of contents.]

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:sddgFUATVscJ:dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htm+%22The+Negro+Family+:+The+Case+for+National+Action%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a

Kay Hymowitz, "The Black Family: 40 Years of Lies," City Journal, Summer 2005. http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_3_black_family.html

William Julius Wilson, et al., The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1987).

[xix] Alexander Russo, "Why is Fenger High still in businsess? [sic]," Chicago Sun-Times, 14 May 2006.

[xx] Maggie Wade, "Former Teacher Recalls Harsh Conditions," WLBT, 18 May 2006.

http://www.wlbt.com/global/story.asp?s=4924692&ClientType=Printable

[xxi] "Killer of Time Warner chief's son gets 25 years to life," CNN, 11 December 1998. http://www.cnn.com/US/9812/11/levin.slaying/index.html

Tammy Bruce, The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left's Assault on Our Culture and Values (Roseville, CA: Prima Lifestyles, 2003), 9ff.

[xxii] "Honor Student Kills Teacher: Case Chronology," Court TV, undated. http://www.courttv.com/trials/brazill/chronology.html

[xxiii] Sam Handlin, "Nathaniel Brazill sentenced to 28 years," Court TV, updated 27 July 2001. http://www.courttv.com/trials/brazill/sentencing_ctv.html

[xxiv] Randy Ellis and Christy Watson, "School district settles discrimination lawsuit," The Oklahoman, 13 April 2000: 1, 9.

The $277,000 settlement was paid out to Vonda Baranski, Stella Bass, Vicki Brinson, Connie Burnett, Kristin Dougherty, Mollie Effland, Tracy Heatley, Martha Hull, Becky Lindsey, Jamie Miller, Edith Morales, Vickie Newcomb, Anita Schroeder, Janine Shanabarger, Shirley Stucks and the estate of the late Connie Corder. [xxv] Rhoda A. Pickett, "Teacher wins discrimination case," Mobile Register, 8 June 2005.

[xxvi] Greg Gelpi, "Deal gets OK'd: Total for taxpayers comes to $435,000," Augusta Chronicle, 31 May 2006.

[xxvii] Brad Schrade, "Josey test probe extends to teacher: Students cleared of cheating charges after investigation revealed they were unknowingly supplied test answers," Augusta Chronicle, 19 April 1997.

[xxviii] Dr. Larke is paid more than superintendents of districts three to four times the size of Richmond County.

Jonathan Martin, "Annuities in Larke's contract push his salary past most other superintendents in Georgia," WRDW-TV, 28 March 2006.

[xxix] "School District Denies Racial Discrimination," Charlotte Observer, 30 July 2004.

[xxx] Ibid.

[xxxi] "White Former Teacher Settles Racial Discrimination Lawsuit," Tuscaloosa News, 5 November 2005.

[xxxii] Schuyler Kropf, "Former Brentwood teacher's lawsuit will go before jury," The Post and Courier, 7 June 2006.

[xxxiii] "Third Teacher Files Discrimination Suit," TheState.com, 28 August 2005.

[xxxiv] Octavia Mitchell, "Brentwood Discipline Allegations," WCBD-TV, 27 April 2004.

[xxxv] Ibid.

[xxxvi] Schools in Charleston County, South Carolina Web site, 27 May 2006. http://south-carolina.schooltree.org/Charleston-County-Schools.html

[xxxvii] Seanna Adcox, "S.C. State reviewing educator's doctorate," The Post and Courier, 27 April 2005.

[xxxviii] Diette Courr, "4th Brentwood teacher files racial complaint," The Post and Courier, 16 February 2006.

[xxxix] Ibid.