Rubber Room

I was listening to "This American Life" on NPR over the weekend and heard an interesting story about what happens to teachers who are removed from their classrooms in New York City Public Schools. Here's an archived version from The New York Times. When teachers are put on suspension because of some inappropriate action they are sent to the reassignment center, or as the teachers call it, the rubber room. Teachers report to the rubber room each and every morning until their cases are tried. Some of these teachers have been in the rubber room for months, even years. Some end a school year and start another school year in the rubber room. Meanwhile all of these teachers are earning a full salary. A full salary for doing 0% of work. 0.0%!!!! It would seem that the school district would want to hear these cases so that these teachers could be immediately terminated, if warranted. It is also peculiar that the teachers' union hasn't stepped in and stopped this mockery of the public school system. Any given day 750 teachers are attending these rubber rooms where they sit around, read books, play cards, sleep and do other frivolous things while substitute teachers teach their classes for them.

I know that some of these teachers get what they deserved. I'm sure there were more than a few that did things that I would not want a child to be subjected to, but why keep these people in limbo? This is reminiscent of Guantanamo Bay. Speaking of which, some of the teachers had been in the limbo room so long, that a prison culture has developed. There are racial cliques, people are hyper-territorial, and there is a pecking order. It's amazing how people respond to different situations. Educators reduced to hardened criminals.

BBC