Bachus says `bully tactics' were used on Vets teachers

By Tessa Roy
Posted 12/22/16

By TESSA ROY When School Committee Member Karen Bachus caught wind of a debacle at Warwick Veterans last Friday, she went down to the school herself to find out what was going on. Three teachers were pulled out of their classes, accused of

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Bachus says `bully tactics' were used on Vets teachers

Posted

When School Committee Member Karen Bachus caught wind of a debacle at Warwick Veterans last Friday, she went down to the school herself to find out what was going on.

Three teachers were pulled out of their classes, accused of noncompliance with the electronic grading system, Aspen, and made to sit on a bench in the hallway until Union President Darlene Netcoh could come to represent them, Bachus claimed.

Bachus said none of the teachers had refused to comply; they had in fact tried to comply but didn’t receive proper training and thus couldn’t get the system to work with them, she said.

“There was no reason that I can think of that when those teachers invoked [right to representation], they couldn’t have gone back to teaching until such time that the union president arrived to represent them,” she said.

Bachus claimed students who were passing by were “horrified” at the sight of the teachers waiting outside the office, and that one student almost cried.

“To me, it’s very inappropriate and it seems like a violation of humanity to put a teacher in a hallway with a dunce cap on,” she said.

Vets Principal Dave Tober declined to comment on the issue, saying all comments needed to come from Superintendent Philip Thornton. Thornton also would not comment, as the situation is a “personnel matter.”

Netcoh also said she couldn’t comment further on details due to it being a “personnel matter,” but did say she wasn’t happy about how the incident apparently played out.

“While the teachers were waiting for me to meet with the principal, they should have been allowed to meet with their classes,” she said. “Making them sit outside in the hallway was foolish and resulted in others having to cover their classes.”

There were reports that one of the teachers became ill and a rescue was called to the scene, but that was not confirmed.

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  • Reality

    This has to be a joke. Backus sits in the back of school consolidations meetings with her cult yelling at concerned Warwick taxpayers who voice their opinions. That is the ultimate form of bullying by Backus. Maybe she should start practicing what she preaches.

    Thursday, December 22, 2016 Report this

  • sprawler47

    Thornton needs to go. He cannot continue to intimidate faculty members - especially women. The man obviously has a serious problem, defying court orders and embarrassing those who may be trying to obey the court's ruling and not able to because he calls them non compliant if they do. This is what courts are for.

    Friday, December 23, 2016 Report this

  • Tkubica

    There is a disturbing trend developing within the Warwick School system. This event, the special ed debacle, no teacher contract, Warwick Vets opening readiness to name four should raise serious concerns regarding the leadership of Warwick Public Schools. Too many missteps; too many implementation failures (I.e. Warwick Vets opening). It's absurd to continue to blame teachers, parents, students (which is being done with the Special Ed issue). Quite frankly they're running out of people to blame. We have a serious leadership problem. Whether it's poor leadership coming from the Scholol Committee or Thornton is not up for the job he holds is a question that should be addressed and fixed as quickly as possible. This is important so we can get back to figuring out how to best educate our students and how to create an environment that's conducive to learning and working together. It sure can be done, just not sure this leadership group Is capable of doing it.

    Friday, December 23, 2016 Report this

  • Homewardbound

    It's hilarious to see a union member call administrators bullies. She is the bully! And a liar! Why doesn't she admit the teachers are the ones who refused to go into the principal's office, and instead chose to sit in the hall so students can witness and cry. That's probably a lie too. And why did it take Netcoh so long to get there? If the union cared so much about the students why aren't they happy to have a RIDE investigation? Because they don't care about the students, it's all about destroying the credibility of administrators who are finally standing up to the union. This city needs to see what harm the teachers union has done to the school system! If they cared about our students why don't the students have a bargaining agreement? We are in this mess because the union will not make concessions! We have sickouts and work to rule because of classroom weighting! Warwick is the only district in the country that still uses it and they say it is for the kids, That's just BS?

    Monday, December 26, 2016 Report this

  • Kammy

    Another story with a lot of holes. Was there formal training on Aspen? Are these the only teachers that didn't comply? Is there a paper trail of requests for assistance or logged issues with trying to get it to work and failing? Were there verbal or written consequences for noncompliance prior to being called out? So many different sides to one story and without the scoop it is incredibly hard to understand where blame really lies.

    For every new system there will always be a few who struggle and require additional help. It doesn't matter what industry you work in, not everyone catches on the same way. I don't think this was bullying but rather a no win situation. Either way it went someone was bound to complain about how it was being handled.

    Tuesday, December 27, 2016 Report this