Apparently this guy finally cracked. After at least a couple decades of teaching (I'm basing this assumption on his salary), he got sick of the administration, barricaded himself in a classroom, and said he'd planted a bomb. They evacuated the entire building and police rushed in to talk with him. Eventually he admitted there was no bomb and he surrendered.
When I started reading the article -- "A Bronx educational building that houses three public middle schools with about 1,200 students was evacuated by the authorities around 8:30 a.m. Friday after a disgruntled teacher claimed to have planted a bomb in the library" -- I thought it was going to be my former school.
The fact that the school building has been split into three schools means that the school was not doing well, got shut down, and the Region replaced it with three new ones. Which means it was probably not a pleasant place to work. He'd also recently been charged with corporal punishment -- not something one resorts to in an orderly setting.
Now, it's entirely possible that this guy had serious issues outside of teaching in a challenging school -- but trying to teach in a place like that for 20+ years can't have helped.
i couldn't agree more. he probably had some issues, but a high-needs bronx middle school no doubt exacerbated things to this ridiculous level.
ReplyDeleteit appears from his resume (http://detower.com/id15.html), that this was his first year at the school. perhaps it was his military experience, or a comedown from his previous work as a speaker, or maybe from his stint as "Partner-Business manager; Victor-Victoria sexy wear retail store," or even his administrative positions in schools which left him unprepared his new reality.
ReplyDeleteI work in this building and have for most of my 13 year career. This school was split up on the whims of Region One and because a former principal of one of the schools (who retired as a compromise to being fired) decided to write a grant and got money to start a new school. While all was not wonderful in 2004 when this decision was made, it was actually under control from a management perspective. Class size was a huge problem- I had 38 in my class that year. The next year, with the three new schools, was terrible. Classes were even bigger because classrooms had to become offices for all the new APs and principals. The school this teacher is from has never bounced back- high turnover, poor management, the kids are out of control and the principal violates the contract in lots of ways, like not paying teachers for covering classes. So I don't condone what he did, but maybe it will bring some attention to the issues in this building.
ReplyDeleteOh, and for the record, this school was NOT a SURR school when it was restructured. I worked previously in a building that was SURR for three years before finally being "shut down."
ReplyDeleteAnon: Thanks for the info. You and your colleagues are free to add anything else we're missing. Any idea what the corporal punishment charge was about?
ReplyDeleteHere are a few more details about Garabitos/Detower.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2009/04/24/francisco-garabitos-and-the-primal-network-brain/