Angry Parent Takes Tenured Teacher To Task

Alan Wilensky was tired of “sitting idly by, and watch this going by.” So Thursday night, he did something about it.

At Thursday’s board of education meeting, Wilensky, a member of the board of finance and school building committee, aired his grievances about an unnamed teacher. The point was not just to attack a teacher, but also the administration’s inaction against that teacher and the system as a whole, he said in a later phone interview.

“I wanted to bring it to the forefront,” Wilensky said. “This is not about being against the Waterford school system, I have had many great experiences with the Waterford school system. This is about improving the Waterford school system.”

The Complaint

A few weeks ago, a non-tenured teacher at Waterford High School resigned under pressure for “improper use of language in the classroom," Wilensky said. What bothered Wilensky was not the firing - which he called “appropriate” - but what he felt was the hypocrisy of the move.

A tenured teacher has had similar problems at Waterford High School, but has received only a letter in his or her file, he said. And while appropriately disciplining a tenured teacher is harder than disciplining a non-tenured teacher, “it is not impossible,” Wilensky said.

The tenured teacher admitted to making an anti-Semitic remark in class, used inappropriate language in class, called a female student “the b-word,” advanced a political agenda during an advisory period and “made an offer to loan out school equipment to a student in exchange for a promise to attend a class trip abroad after the parents had told the teacher that the student would not be attending the trip,” Wilensky said.

All of these problems, aside from the one about advancing a political agenda, were directed toward one of Wilensky’s children, he said. However, other parents have had issues with this teacher as well, but did not speak up for a variety of reasons, he said.

“There is …  an atmosphere of intimidation that pervades the district insomuch as parents and students are fearful of retribution,” he said. “(Parents) are either unsure about the correct course of action of they fear reprisals against their children by the lowering of the students' grades.”

Board And Administrators' Reaction

Wilensky made these issues known to Principal Don Macrino and former Superintendent Randall Collins last year, and they discussed it with the teacher. A letter was put it the teacher’s file, but problems have persisted with other families this year, Wilensky said.

At the board of education meeting Thursday night, chairman Donald Blevins said it is not fitting to air personnel matters in public, as normally they are discussed in private and protected by confidentiality laws.

“We discourage personnel discussions in public,” he said.

Superintendent Jerome Belair said he was unaware of the issue. Belair began as superintendent this February.

When approached after the meeting, Macrino refused all comment because it was a personnel issue.