Per the Examiner: “They called me into an emergency Board of Education meeting on a Monday to tell me that after 34 years my position was now going to be part time,” Stephen Redes, health education teacher, said. “Instead of teaching a health course to students in all four years, I was told to just teach health in eleventh grade.”
Despite arguing that the change would put the district out of compliance with the state’s requirements for health education, Redes said the administration held to its initial decision. At the time, Jack Cross was Superintendent of schools and Maryann O’Donnell was assistant superintendent.
Redes says he thought about reaching out to students, parents and other staff to speak on his behalf, to protest the change to the curriculum and his position, but at the age of 60 he decided the fight wasn’t worth it.
“I knew this administration,” he said. “Instead of the squeaky wheel gets the oil, it was the squeaky partridge became breakfast.” (full article above).
Kate Dias responded two days later,
“From fairness to justice, the values of the Connecticut Education Association are as enduring as its long history of aggressively defending teacher rights. The right to personal privacy is a key pillar of our commitment to our members. Therefore, your recent attempt to bait our organization into speaking publicly about any current or former members’ employment is a failed attempt.
We work every day to make teaching a profession marked by trust and respect—never would we violate that trust no matter how hard your Internet site hurls accusations and repeats toxic rhetoric (Oct. 16, litany of accusations by Julia Werth). Offering testimony from individuals with criminal arrests calls into question the integrity of the reporting.
As professional educators and elected CEA leaders, we labor along with a highly skilled and dedicated staff. Knowing this, we find it beyond the bounds of decency that you would attempt to publicly humiliate one of our staff members who has gone above and beyond for countless teachers in countless situations. We hope your site’s decision makers feel the full measure of shame such conduct warrants.
Kate Dias
CEA President
Source: https://ctexaminer.com/2021/10/18/ceas-kate-dias-responds/
Older Teachers Driven Out
Project Veritas’ recent video demonstrated three kinds of discrimination: religious, political, and age. Over the past decade, hundreds of teachers across CT found themselves at odds with burgeoning administrations; the admins were looking to replace older, more expensive teachers. When a teacher feels alone, he or she is unlikely to fight back. And many times, an administration will encourage a teacher not to.
Kate Dias wasn’t pleased with CT Examiner reporter Julia Werth; Dias said Werth flung “a litany of accusations” and then made a claim implying that criminal arrests somehow negated Julia’s thorough investigating.
Now, the karma gods have come back to bite Kate directly in her financially-cushioned caboose, and this one’s going to sting a good long while.
Her email, sent to (likely) thousands of teachers across CT, urged teachers, and school officials to conduct meetings with no one else. She implored those thousands not to comment, not speak with reporters until thorough vetting, just …. well, just stay silent. Just stay in the dark.
O’Keefe was swift in his rebuke, which was really spoken on behalf of so many that just want the truth. Kate Dias is not answering her phone, nor emails. Let’s watch how this plays out. The house of cards is coming down.
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