Friday, 7 December 2012

ATRs: Have You Been Scanned When You Report To Your Assignment?


 


David Hedges

 


LINK





 



 


A number of ATRs (including me) have had the dehumanizing experience of being scanned and frisked by School Safety at the door of the schools where we are assigned on our weekly rotations.  That is not supposed to happen, ever.  According to the UFT-DOE ATR agreement (printed below), no ATR is ever supposed to be required to submit to scanning on the way to an assignment.

If this happens to you, drop me a line.

We are not supposed to be degraded this way.  It deprives our students of the unprejudiced view that we are professionals, not visitors or intruders.  The quality of their attention is compromised when we are treated differently as separate members of the educational community.  (Remember the "separate by equal" analysis of the Warren Court?  Separate is inherently unequal.)

A teacher who is being treated this way has good reason to feel degraded as if he or she is professionally unwelcome as an ATR. 

I hope this makes your day!