Principals file suit over teachers union behavior
About a dozen school principals are accusing the Broward Teachers Union leaders of bullying, breaching security and even threatening castration.
The administrators are suing the school district, saying it has allowed BTU President Anna Fusco and other representatives to have free rein of school campuses and has dragged out an investigation into administrators’ concerns. Among the allegations are: BTU members bypassed security and showed up unannounced at schools, often coming in back doors.
They interrupt classes to talk to teachers about union matters,
Fusco commandeered the public address system at Coral Cove Elementary in Miramar without permission to make union announcements.
Fusco called an African-American administrator “little boy” when she disagreed with the way he was disciplining a teacher.
Fusco threatened a male administrator with the castration of his genitals because he told her she wasn’t allowed to roam the campus unescorted.
She ordered an administrator to “get her head out of her ass” in the presence of other school employees and physically pushed another administrator.
The union denies wrongdoing and claims the allegations come from a few principals who have mistreated teachers.
“BTU is proud of its aggres-
sive reputation for exposing and bringing to justice those few bad principals who abuse, mistreat and bully teachers, other school staff and students,” Fusco said in a statement. “While some may ironically call our actions bullying, we call it a public service.”
But the administrators say the union is jeopardizing school safety by ignoring security rules, which they say is a real problem after the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland.
“I would have thought in the aftermath of Stoneman Douglas that BTU would finally understand the need to follow the rules, procedures, and policies that keep us all safe,” Lisa Maxwell, executive director of the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, said in a recent email to district officials.
Union representatives are allowed on school campuses to investigate complaints and meet with teachers, but they must give the principal advance notice, district rules say. They can meet with members only during times they’re not teaching.
Maxwell claims BTU members often enter classrooms during instruction time without the principal knowing they are on campus.
None of the names of the 12 administrators are mentioned in the lawsuit nor are their schools. Eleven are principals and one is an assistant principal, Maxwell said.
After they filed a formal complaint on April 6, 2017, the district hired Miami law firm Bryant Miller Olive to investigate. But a year later, the district still doesn’t have a final report, spokeswoman Cathleen Brennan said.
She wouldn’t say what the outcome was or how much the investigation has cost so far.
While 12 administrators filed suit in March, at least 40 schools have complained, Maxwell said.
Most recently, principals at Sheridan Park Elementary in Hollywood and Nova Blanche Forman Elementary in Davie have accused BTU members of ignoring security rules.
“Principals and assistant principals cannot be held responsible for the next tragedy when a back door is left unlocked, gates are left open (or) people are in the school in areas unknown to the staff,” Maxwell said.
She added it’s been a problem only since Fusco was elected president in April 2016.
In December 2016, district lawyer Barbara Myrick sent union leaders a letter saying they were violating their contract by making unauthorized visits to several schools. Among them were South Broward High in Hollywood and Park Lakes Elementary in Lauderdale Lakes.
Myrick told the union leaders they might not be allowed on campus if they continued the violations.
Fusco responded that Myrick’s claims were “legally and factually incorrect,” according to an email district administrator Valerie Wanza sent to the principals’ association.
Union officials say they are following state laws and district policies and called the administrators’ lawsuit a “gimmick” and a “clear misuse” of the courts.
“BTU will continue to vehemently defend teachers and other school employees against the handful of bully principals so that our students and community can achieve the world class education they deserve,” Fusco said.