watch out; i just got political, i think
May 23, 2003, 12:56 pm

*Some content is altered in the official version (i.e. Names of Schools, teachers, etc.) "Dear Editors of Our Local Papers,

Last Thursday, the Faculty at my School met to discuss what we would be doing in response to the current budget crisis. We decided that the worst thing that we could do would be to hold a "Sick Out"/"Chalk Out"; as a staff, we decided to take other courses of action.

Imagine our surprise when we read in your papers that we had a major "Sick Out"/"Chalk Out" at the school. This "planned" event garnered us a mention in the article on county-wide teacher absences in the sense that we had one of the highest teacher absence rates in the county. Perhaps without the knowledge of the rest of the faculty, twenty teachers met after school, on their own, and decided to hold their own "Sick Out" in protest of our plight.

Or maybe a few reporters just didn't get their facts straight.

We had twenty teachers out on Friday, May 16, and, while we reported the second-highest number of absences of the high schools, having a staff of 131 teachers (one of the largest in the county) makes the percentage of teacher absences significantly lower than that of the other schools. In an article laden with quotes from teachers in other schools, where was our school's representation and support from one of our own? Our reported "Sick Out" was comprised of the following absences:

-six teachers were out on Personal Sick Leave, and of these six, one teacher is on long-term leave; of the five remaining absences, four teachers have submitted doctor's notes as per the Superintendent's request

-four teachers were out for Family Sick Leave; all submitted doctor's notes

-four teacher took pre-approved Personal Business days

-two teachers were attending a school-approved meeting

-two teachers were called to military duty

-two twelve-month employees (lumped into the teachers' figures) were on business leave

Wow! This sure sounds like a "sick out" when 6.8% of our teachers are in school because of their own or a family member's illness (sarcastic overtones heavily intended). Also, given the time of year for graduations and other family-related business, twenty teachers absent is a normal number for a Friday.

At our school, we strive to provide the best possible and most responsible instruction for our students. To make an unfounded and erroneous suggestions that our staff would jeopardize a normal instruction day to push our politicial agenda is just plain wrong. We are, at our school, taking action, both by enforcing a "work-to-rule" plan that fulfills our contractual obligations and being a visible presence before school on B&A Blvd.

At our school, our journalism students are taught to always check their facts; how sad that a professional, local paper that we encourage our students to read cannot uphold the most basic of journalism principles.

Sincerely,

Jessica Biensoul

Anne Arundel County Public School teacher;

Anne Arundel County Public School graduate"

Yeah, it's being published as a "guest column" next week in the local paper. FIGHT THE POWER!