Campbell Brown called on New York City’s mayoral candidates to stand up for legislation aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse in schools in a Tuesday New York Daily News op-ed.
New York City mayoral candidate Bill Thompson won a prized endorsement from the United Federation of Teachers last week.
The endorsement of the city teachers union is a double-edged sword for Thompson — he’s in line to benefit from the union’s political muscle but therefore must also say where he stands on the union’s most toxic position: protecting sexual predators in the classroom. The UFT claims to have zero tolerance for inappropriate sexual behavior by teachers and school employees.
Yet they spent the last year fighting a new state law that would make it easier for school administrators to fire instructors who present a clear threat to city public school students.
According to Brown, the UFT opposed a new law proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City Department of Education Chancellor Dennis Walcott that would "take final say in sexual-misconduct cases away from paid arbitrators and give it to those officials tasked with protecting our kids—the city schools chancellor and school district administrators elsewhere in the state."
Pressure from UFT prevented the law from passing.
If the UFT’s intent was to send the message that it will defend the right of any teacher to remain in the classroom no matter what they have done, well, then, mission accomplished.
It is time for each mayoral candidate to take a position on legislation to put the city schools chancellor or school district officials, not paid arbitrators, in charge of these sensitive cases.
And Bill Thompson must now answer a simple question: Will he stand with the UFT on this issue, or fight to protect children in our public schools?