Our View: For teachers who refuse to speak in the classroom
there will be consequences. That much trustees have made crystal
clear
We’re relieved that the Gilroy Unified School District’s Board of Trustees has made it crystal clear that district teachers cannot participate in the Day of Silence.
The report that Superintendent Edwin Diaz presented to trustees cited board policy 6116, which bars disruptions in the classroom.
A couple of things about this entire process, mostly centering on communication, bother us.
First, why wasn’t the board’s “no disruptions in the classroom” policy made clear in advance of last year’s Day of Silence? We’re suspicious of explanations that other board policies needed to be tweaked before board policy 6116 could be enforced.
Second, we’re alarmed to hear that closed-door discussions wandered from strictly personnel issues into policy issues. The Brown Act requires that the people’s business be conducted in public. If trustees want to keep the trust and respect of the community, they must be vigilant to follow the Brown Act’s rules, which are there for a reason: to promote open discussion on community issues. To stifle that in an effort to avoid controversy is an abrogation of a trustee’s elected responsibility.
All that said, we’re glad that a clear and clearly communicated policy is now in place.
But the district has not solved the final piece of the Day of Silence policy puzzle: It has not told the community what sanctions await teachers who violate this board policy.
All district employees work for the community, and the community needs and deserves to know what consequences – or range of consequences – will befall teachers who refuse to speak on the Day of Silence.
We don’t want to hear that “this is a personnel issue” as an excuse for keeping the public in the dark. Action taken against a specific teacher is a personnel issue. Possible action taken against possible violators is policy, and the community needs to know: How seriously does the district take its “no disruptions in the classroom” policy?
Given that at least one teacher has publicly promised to not speak on the Day of Silence, and given that if any teachers do participate, the community will hear about it, this is a relevant as well as fair question.
