Victims of Fraud and Unprofessional Conduct

I was a victim of a crime and unprofessional conduct in which I and many others were injured and could be injured in the near future.

Fraud occurs, if a grant application includes false or misleading information, whether intentional or reckless, even if no money changes hands. This was the case with Horry County Schools’ FY 2013 Race to the Top – District application. Although named a finalist in last year’s competition, our district was not a finalist this year. Therefore, we missed out on a $2.5 million award.

In addition, fraud requires injury. I was injured by Horry County Schools, and so were most teachers in our school district, by being left out of the development of our application. According to the requirements of the competition, teachers were supposed to play an integral role, through giving input and feedback. We did not, but the application said we did. 

Our district was also supposed to provide time for possible revisions, before teachers were asked to give their support or non-support to the final proposal. It did not, but the application said it did.

Teachers at my school, Socastee High School, were supposed to have had an on-site meeting or meetings to deal with the details of our application. The application said we did. We did not.

There was a period of at least two months in which teachers could have been meaningfully involved in the development of our district’s application. We were involved for less than one school day, September 12, 2013, and that while we were working. We were told that there was nothing we had to do but sign a form, one which had to be turned in to the district by the end of the day. We had no input. There was no feedback. There was no time for possible revisions, only our signatures. 

Injury definitely occurred in some ways and might occur in others.

Many participating teachers were injured because they were under pressure to show their support for our application, due to the fact that there was no secret ballot. Many could see who had signed the common form being passed around and would have felt compelled to show their support. Teachers fear retaliation from administration in the form of undesirable job assignments, transfers, and even job loss. This was in direct violation of district policy which is supposed to guarantee anonymity on highly sensitive issues by administration.

I have been personally injured because almost three months of my life have been devoted to making the public and the proper authorities aware of the crime committed against me and others by the superintendent and Horry County Board of Education and the unprofessional conduct exhibited by the superintendent. Many might say that it was my choice to do so, and they would be right.

It was my choice to do what was right. It was my choice to exercise my duty as a teacher, to look out for the welfare of my students and my profession. It was my choice, upon discovering irrefutable evidence of a crime, that I report it. Not to do so could have resulted in my being charged with a felony.

After attending to my students and my school duties, these past three months have been devoted to study, thinking, writing, and speaking about all the significant aspects of our district’s participation in the Race to the Top application. I truly want my life back, but I must finish what I started. 

The greatest injury of all was to each participating teacher’s self-worth and professionalism. What the district did was a form of bullying. In essence, what it did was to send a message, “You do not matter. You are just a teacher. You cannot have any significant input into pedagogical ideas and the philosophical content of something as complex as Race to the Top. You must rely on administration. So, there is nothing you have to do but sign here. We need the money, and it will help you do the job we tell you to do in your classroom.” How belittling and demeaning! 

If a teacher gets this message enough, he will begin to believe it. He will lose all sense of self-worth. His professionalism will be reduced to having his thinking and believing done for him. Our district needs to be held accountable for its actions, and nothing like this should ever happen again. 

I refuse to be a pawn or a toy soldier for administration. I have a mind, and I am going to use it. This entails my sharing my ideas publicly on these matters, first as a citizen, and second as a teacher. Teachers are citizens, too!

Since the district submitted an application with gross inaccuracies in the B4 narrative, which were unsupported in Appendix B4, this could have contributed to our district’s elimination from the competition and a loss of its portion of grant monies, $2.5 million. The loss of this money would cause injury to both teachers and students, by depriving them of classroom support.

The loss of $2.5 million could lead to increased class sizes. The district might have to hire fewer teachers to pay for the technology and support that it intended to purchase with the grant monies to supplement its Personalized Digital Learning initiative. If this were to occur, injury would result to both teachers and students because much research supports the idea that increased class sizes causes harm to both teachers and students. In addition, a number of teachers would necessarily lose their jobs, causing much personal injury.

I am thankful that there will be districts which deserve their grant awards, for they will have achieved them in the proper manner, hopefully, by involving their professional teaching staffs in the meaningful development and support of their applications. 

The day must come soon that all citizens, especially parents and teachers, will once again be major participants in what goes on in our public schools.