Who do those board superintendents think they are, CEOs and upper management?
13 Likes
An incantation (note etymology via the second syllable) indeed:
“There’s a widespread pattern in American policing where resisting arrest charges are used to sort of cover – and that phrase is used – the officer’s use of force,” said [Sam] Walker, the accountability expert [and retired criminal justice professor] from the University of Nebraska. “Why did the officer use force? Well, the person was resisting arrest.”
This guy’s chant was a little half-hearted, but it was still there as an almost trained response.
24 Likes
wow, that was amazing. the longer video is worth watching. sure looks like absolute power corrupts absolutely.
12 Likes
Didn’t watch the video, don’t care to comment on the particular situation, but the answer to the question in the title is because they belong to the teacher’s union and therefore everything they have must be collectively negotiated. A superintendent on the other hand does not and can be offered whatever he negotiates for himself.
The other side to the coin is that he can be gotten rid of at the drop of a hat where as the teacher cannot. If they decide they have made a mistake on the superintendent’s salary, he can be terminated or have his pay reduced. This is not the case for teachers as a result of things they have already collectively negotiated.
A pay rise for a superintendent may be viewed as an incentive to perform better with the understanding it may be taken away or given to someone else. A pay rise for a unionized teacher is a new baseline salary budget for future negotiations and therefore a much bigger deal as a raise for one necessarily means a raise for all. A small raise for all teachers can easily be greater than or equal to even a large raise for a superintendent.
11 Likes
I will say there is a modicum of resistance, and truth be told there will ALWAYS be some resistance. Anytime a person is being subdued in any form or fashion the instinctual reaction is to resist in some form. Little kids of course flail and kick, teens might go completely limp, a calm and in control adult will at the very least jerk a little and say “you don’t have to be so forceful” all of which are resistance of varying degrees.
The question will always be in a reasonable situation what is reasonable or acceptable resistance wherein it is just normal behavior.
She wasn’t resisting in any way to my eyes that the force used was appropriate, then I’d also suggest her question whether out of order or not wasn’t something that should have led to a “boot her from the building” demand in the first place.
9 Likes
It’s called covering your ass.
It’s the same reason white COPS tend to scream " stop resisting" when they are about to violate someone’s civil rights
14 Likes
I didn’t say nor even imply that; but again your choice of phrasing and your chosen focal point is …interesting.
Everything is competition to some folks, and that’s probably part of the reason why actual progress takes so damn long.
8 Likes
Yes, I do agree that she should not have been booted from the building. And I agree that some form of knee-jerk reaction to being apprehended by a cop usually does occur. There is still footage missing between when she left the room and when she was already handcuffed in which we don’t know what happened. We don’t know if the cop handcuffing her was completely justified because of something she did, or if he was going on a power trip and over-reacting by cuffing her. My point is, we don’t know and should stop assuming.
Was the resistance intended as an attempt to escape police custody? Was it even intended in the first place? I don’t know enough to say so but you’d think that would be the test for a legal definition of resisting arrest. Which is why I’m OK with saying that I don’t see any resistance.
Yeah, that was what I was getting at with calling it magic incantation.
8 Likes
The curriculum prepares the students for the real world.
1 Like
You hold school boardroom meetings as if they are court room trials? With armed security officers??? WTF is wrong with you people!
32 Likes
Well… she got her question answered truthfully at least.
7 Likes
“second syllable” do you mean like thieves’ cant?
3 Likes
As much as I like to insert the ‘What do YOU mean “you people”?’ joke as much as possible, whenever appropriate, I feel like that question merits a real answer:
The chains are on our minds now.
19 Likes
i don’t know what things are like in the state of louisiana but in texas a standard superintendent’s contract runs for three years. in one district i taught in the board wanted to get rid of the superintendent after his fifth year but didn’t want to pay him for not doing anything so they made him the highest paid assistant principal at the high school. most superintendent’s contracts here also have a clause stipulating that they must be the highest paid district employee. another district i taught in had to raise their superintendent’s pay after they gave the athletic director a hefty raise after his second year in a row of winning the state football championship in our division.
13 Likes
So enraging. I hope the cop and every member of the council get fired and sued.
9 Likes
I can’t speak for this community, but in most places I’ve lived, especially smaller communities, school board meetings are held in some municipal building that houses a bunch of other functions. That usually means there is a full time “guard”. In the case of my city the guard is a 90 year old former city employee who would otherwise be retired. He’s mostly useful for directing people to bathrooms. It is possible that the guard is there because of some other function of the building.
3 Likes
In NJ and PA, that’s not the case. These superintendents have contracts that seem to have been drafted by the best lawyers. Every time there’s a scandal and the board or state wants to remove one, they either wind up in court (which is rare) or have to offer a huge buyout to break these contracts. The taxpayers get shafted twice, because on top of the buyout payment, they get to pay the incoming superintendent a really high salary, too.
6 Likes
Point is. I don’t disagree. I don’t see her as resisting “arrest”. Merely the expected response any human being should have when being forcibly handled.
9 Likes
