The "independent investigation" that smeared two Sikeston teachers

If you listen to Chris Nicastro, Missouri's esteemed education commissioner, you would believe that teachers are doing handsprings over Common Core Standards.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has made a point of making videos of teachers who talk about how education has been revolutionized in the Show-Me State since the advent of the standards.

When DESE sent out news releases recently about the Senate hearing on Common Core, it not only emphasized the teachers and educators who testified in favor of this educational miracle, but it failed to mention that there were others, including reachers, who testified against the standards.

Two of those teachers had their names and reputations besmirched by their own administrators and school board in the Sikeston R-6 School District Tuesday night.

Kindergarten teacher Susan Kimball, a nationally certified 20-year veteran and fifth grade teacher Tonya Pobst said they were strongly encouraged by their administrators not to testify against Common Core Standards.

For some, who are not familiar with the way the standards are being imposed, or with the dictatorial way some administrators conduct their business, this might seem far-fetched.

To teachers in the Joplin School District, it is not hard to believe at all. When a Common Core informational meeting was held in November at Missouri Southern State University, the word was put out by the C. J. Huff Administration that no teachers were to attend. Not one of them did.

Nicastro brought the superintendents into the loop on Common Core and not much of anyone else. Legislators did not know what they were; boards of education had no idea, but under the training that the state of Missouri requires board members to undergo, they are taught to support their administrators and that is almost always the way it works.

So naturally, the Sikeston, R-6 Board of Education, which is listed on the DESE website as a staunch supporter of Common Core, found it hard to believe that administrators would intimidate their teachers. After all, they were not hearing from any teachers about any problems with Common Core. Of course, that could possibly be because in Sikeston, just like in Joplin, and in other school districts across the state, the teacher's job is to blindly follow administrators....or they will be trying to find a job with another school district.

Concerned about the allegations made by Ms. Kimball and Ms. Pobst, the board appointed an "independent investigator" to find out the "truth."

For that job, the board appointed an experienced lawyer, Michelle Basi of the St. Louis firm of Tueth, Keeney, Cooper, Mohan, and Jackstadt.

Ms. Basi made her report to the Board last night and, as you might expect, it said that the allegations against the administrators were completely unfounded:

The investigator examined whether the teachers were denied personal days because they intended to participate in a rally, testify before the Senate Education Committee or engage in any other type of protected activity, Griffin said.

The second allegation investigated was whether staff members in the Sikeston School District were directed or encouraged not to speak negatively about Common Core.

Also investigated were allegations of whether the teachers or staff members were bullied, intimidated or ostracized for speaking out about Common Core; and whether the district engaged in "lies" and "deceit" about the administration of assessments.

"Based on 36 interviews and 38 exhibits presented by those being interviewed, all allegations were unfounded," Griffin told the crowd, who sat in silence. "There is no evidence of a violation of law or Policy AC.

She continued: "In addition, there is no evidence of any intent, policy, practice or directive to limit the rights of the district teachers to speak out on matters of public concern, including Common Core."

It should be mentioned, of course, that Ms. Basi's law firm is devoted to representing school boards and school administrators. There is no indication that their clientele has ever included anyone who has taken issue with a school district.

And Ms. Basi herself has used some twisted logic in her zealous representation of her clients.

Case in point, a lawsuit brought by a teenage girl who was raped at Republic High School, after school officials repeatedly ignored her complaints about earlier sexual harassment by the rapist.

The lawsuit was filed after the rapist had already pleaded guilty and had been sentenced.

In the response to the lawsuit, Ms. Basi, since she was representing the school district and school officials, did not put the blame on them. Nor did she put the blame on the convicted rapist, except in an offhand fashion.

"Any damages the girl may have sustained were as a result of her negligence, carelessness, or conduct of third parties over whom the defendant had neither control nor the right to control."

At one point, the school officials told the girl they did not believe her complaints of sexual harassment and forced her to write and hand deliver a letter of apology to the boy who would later rape her.

When she first reported the rape to school officials, they did not believe that either.

The school district eventually settled the case for $185,000.

Michelle Basi represents school districts- that is what she and her law firm are paid for and that is what they did when they released her "impartial" report Wednesday night.

So things are once again all right in Sikeston, now that it has been shown that all teachers have the right to speak out against Common Core...if they don't mind being branded as liars.