Injury: The Unspoken Social Order in an American School System

By Dylan Miller

Dylan Miller, author of this semi-fictional narrative blazes a trail through prejudicial group activity, documenting the destruction of great teachers and the crippling of a profession. The main character, Jill Franklin, is retiring after thirty-two years as a teacher in Northwest Chicago schools. You’ll follow her through her last year and encounter some outrageous antics that commonly occur within the school environment. If you have ever experienced the schemes and traps that go on in a political workplace and disapprove, you’ll be rewarded by reading this candid novel. Many of the villains are punished and their victims become heroes by delivering some well deserved justice.

Unfortunately, injustice is more common in the real world. Whenever people are allowed to get away with devious behavior, they will take advantage. Since unprofessionalism is systematically allowed---and encouraged--- by higher ups, we often see frenzied colleagues grouping together, eagerly debasing deliberately isolated individuals. Jill and her friends exchange stories demonstrating that predator teachers spend considerable time and effort clawing and bashing for their measure of clout within the system, which gives rise to the question: who are they to judge as they spend less concentration and energy on education?

The author in this semi-fictional narrative has created a stunning portrayal of teachers mired in a hostile environment of political intrigue. Their savage stories will break your heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543452907

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Non-Fiction: A Child Imprisoned for Life for Being Abused

A NDY WAS FIFTEEN years old when he was unfairly imprisoned for having a breakdown, which ended the lives of two tattoo-covered ruffians. He tried but couldn’t find anyone to help him. Children who shoot are desperate. They can’t find help because there is none. After suffering unbearable brutality in his high school and unreasonable punishment through the courts, Andy landed in prison when he was fifteen. He’s currently thirty-some years old, still in prison, and scheduled for parole at the age of sixty-four, with all his life gone. Why do young, horribly abused teens have to suffer so much in our society (from a covert system that nobody talks about)? The criminality here belongs to adults who gave us a rotten bad plan to govern people. Then, to add to the disorder some careless bureaucrat decides to punish schools for not producing geniuses! An impossible goal to meet! If the Testing Competition is failing; it’s not the children’s failure! So up pops another crazy idea to mend a bad plan: let’s encourage poor scoring students to dropout until lesser scores disappear.

A systematic plan that causes children to shoot each other is evidence of barbarism. Rejection, mental and physical torture, and dismissive contempt don’t inspire receptive attitudes. Such evidence might also raise another question: when did the barbarians arrive? Doesn’t it seem we’re being swallowed up by an invasion of Neanderthals? The hate that’s passed around about kids! If someone defends so-and-so, they’re yelled down for having an unacceptable, kind opinion? Gossipy dirt dishing spreads from coast to coast on many of us! Could it be: there’s an underground plan that stigmatizes people until they all think the same?

In March, 2001, Charles Andrew Williams, known as Andy, shot up Santana High School in Santee, CA, after suffering towel whippings in the showers that marked his body with red welts, punches to the face while walking down the halls, cigarette lighter burns (also inflicted in the school halls), frequent ridicule from students and punks who wouldn’t let him join their ruthless gangs, with the exception of a skate board group, who accepted him. He was the new boy on the block and shy. The bullies loved picking on him, as he didn’t know how to curb the problem, except by withdrawing into a voiceless slump. His father reported that Andy sought help from counselors who were too busy with other problems.

I met a mother in my neighborhood who told a story of her daughter’s high school friends. They’d formed a rock band and were less ambitious students, who were suffering abuse in their high school along with continual encouragement to drop out. The mother concluded National School Testing was the problem. Eight months after I heard this tale of persecuted boys in my own area, Andy Williams shot up Santana High in California where he was failing academically, possibly over the bullying he was enduring. One of Andy’s fellow sophomores said, There’s a lot of hate around here: this is a school waiting for something to happen: with that he gave a rundown of the high school cliques in Santana: the gothics, the freaks, the dorks, the jocks, the Mexican gangsters, the white supremacists and so on. Also, some students said teachers witnessed students trouncing Andy in the halls and did nothing. (Time Magazine, Warning: Andy Williams here. Unhappy kid. Tired of being picked on. Sunday, March 11, 2001, by Terry McCarthy/Santee.)

The cultural phenomenon of shootings didn’t start with high school students, it started in corporate offices decades earlier. After the corporate mass shootings, came the postal shootings, and then, lo and behold, the high school shootings. What a coincidence! Many (but not all) shootings have been responses to social mobbing or to some kind of persecution! Persecution causes tyrannized victim(s) to answer back when they can’t take it anymore. When a student is continually mobbed: the number of attackers will convince him to believe a whole school (or environment) is involved in his persecution! That explains why shooters would shoot at everyone, even people they don’t know. The fact that groups like the Gothics, Freaks, Mexican Gangsters, and White Supremacists are necessary groups for student protection expresses an unsafe environment.

CHAPTER TWO

Summer: One year before Jill Franklin Retires

J ILL HANDED HER Library of Congress identification card to the Reading Room ID checker of the law branch of the Washington D.C. library. The attendant looked at the card and asked, Well, Jill Franklin, where are you from?

That toddling town.

Welcome, Chicago! Are you familiar with Rush Street?

"Ah, yes, I was well acquainted with Chicago’s international street of dreams as it was in my heyday. Rush street died after the ’70’s.

Nothing lasts forever.

Yes; things change. I’m less familiar with law. Do law clerks assist amateurs in research?

Go to the circulation desk. Someone will help you, he directed.

She proceeded, entering an arena of tables between the entrance and the information center. On her way to a table, she observed one person working in the reading area. My, what a distinguished-looking man! she thought. He raised his eyes as she passed, flashing a double take at her baseball hat.

Placing her red pocket folder on one of the deserted tables, she scanned the perimeters of the room. One other person was browsing in the reference stacks on this hot summer afternoon; otherwise, there was little sign of life. She noted the copy machine area and the circulation desk, where a clerk was working on the main computer. She fished out a news article from her folder and approached the clerk, who glanced up and offered assistance while continuing his endeavor. She held up the news clipping, explaining, I have an article about a Chicago court trial and would like to find more information. Could you help?

The legal assistant whimsically eyeballed the out-of-towner and noted she was wearing a tourist-shop T-shirt with the letters FBI boldly broadcast across the chest. Perched atop her short-cropped hair was a Chicago Cub’s baseball cap. He then reached over the counter, snatched the news clipping, and read the caption aloud: "Federal judge increases bias award to Chicago teacher. And here’s an emblazoned quote from the school board general counsel, who says, ‘a plethora of official board policies have been promulgated which prohibit discrimination on any cognizable basis.’ Hmm, I’d say the general counsel needs another class in Communication 101."

If discrimination exists, then it’s not discouraged, Jill observed.

The clerk popped another bemused glance in her direction and asked, So, young lady, what’s this about?

Jill explained she would soon be retired. He responded with surprise, marveling at her youthful appearance. With further questioning he discovered the news article was about a federal judge who awarded a Chicago high school teacher additional money for continued harassment where she worked. This article appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times a short time after Mrs. Janice White sued the school board for bias, winning a considerable settlement.

The clerk returned the news clipping to Jill, tucked a book under his arm, and bade her to follow. She complied. As they moved down the aisles, he asked her if Janice White was a friend.

Stuffing the news article in her pocket, Jill answered. I’ve never met her. Her case contributes compelling proof for an exposé I plan to write.

What’s being exposed? the clerk asked.

An ethics problem in education!

How do you intend to back your assertion? the clerk asked.

My experiences and Mrs. White’s experiences make a fine start. I have some colorful evidence and have heard similar stories from teachers all over the country. May I give you a quick illustration of those who run our system of injustice? Jill inquired.

Please do, the clerk answered.

Jill described a music teacher, who served as a district henchman. The punk was fond of vandalizing colleagues’ property. His targets were always colleagues blacklisted for petty reasons, like not paying homage to the likes of him. The goof frequently lubricated teacher chairs with lard so the teachers received smudged skirts or pants attained by sitting down on their teacher chairs to go over plans for the day. He would also slip into vacant classrooms to sabotage instruction by substituting white crayons for chalk on blackboard chalk trays; he loved spilling morning coffee cups over lesson plans; shuffling stacks of assignments into disorder; stealing light bulbs from AV equipment; unscrewing screws here and there; messing with door knobs so they wouldn’t turn, and etc. One teacher informed me he’d called her students’ parents from the lounge to malign her reputation. The slandered teacher discovered the stunt when a parent confidentially reported her telephone conversation with the music teacher. He also roams the halls, in his spare time, listening at doors, hoping to find something ripe for ridicule. I once criticized his boneheaded pranks, by reciting his latest stunts, to some teachers in the lounge, and they responded with a chorus of ‘we just love him’. I replied, Hitler was also loved; they didn’t dare to not love him.

Bizarre! Uniting like that to protect vandalism and professional sabotage!

It’s repression. Everyone’s programmed to defend it.

Does everyone really love the menace you described?

No, they’re afraid to cross him. He’s connected to other thugs in the district.

Did you hear or experience feedback on your opinion?

After I spoke out, a student pillaged my storeroom in another school. Paint was splashed everywhere, so was the glitter. The boy entered at the invitation of a teacher on lunchroom duty; she unlocked the door, let him in, and left him unattended—something she hadn’t done before.

We’ll take a right at the next corner, the clerk instructed, renewing the interview as they turned the corner. I take it the offending teacher was one of the devils at large?

No, one of the victims! She’d been trying to win group approval for years. She was looking for relief from bad treatment by assisting others in a misdeed. It’s the way most find admittance into the teacher herd.

Why didn’t they like this teacher who assisted them in wrecking your supply room? he asked.

She’s extremely professional, and, by that definition, not one of them.

But she stooped to their level.

We all do, sooner or later. There’s no choice!

The clerk stopped, reached up, and slid the volume he was carrying into an empty niche. Will any teachers agree with your complaint about the infighting? he asked.

They won’t! Retirees included! Even after retirement fellow educators keep retirees on a short leash.

Do you think a bias against Janice White was proven?

That goes without saying, she answered.

How does proof of bias go without saying? Where’s the proof?

If an individual sues a formidable institution, it’s likely for a significant reason. She then added, Let me clarify Mrs. White’s case.

The clerk shrugged. Be my guest.

Could we stop for a second? I need to get my thoughts in order.

Jill leaned against the library stacks to rest. After a moment’s contemplation, she continued her explanation of the Chicago trial. I picked up the Sun-Times in my driveway one morning, found news of the trial on the front page, and later researched the story through six previous news articles. A football coach physically assaulted Mrs. White in an all-black school. After the assault school administrators promoted her attacker—this coach, also PE instructor—to dean of the high school where they both taught. Mrs. White responded with a lawsuit. As she began the process of litigation, she also began receiving classroom assignments of fifty students per class, which violated the Chicago Teachers’ Contract at the time. During her classroom instruction, students would march by her room, chanting racial denunciations like KKK Honkie. An alliance of teacher pranksters formed to keep her life in turmoil. Her car was damaged. Colleagues threatened her life. Her safety became endangered, within the school and without. Before her trial came to court, she transferred to other schools in the public-school system, attempting to escape maltreatment, and received similar ill-treatment at each new assignment.

And this is the way your elementary school system operates?

Absolutely, one school system is the same as another, Jill replied. Ill treatment follows employees to each new assignment within the district. The procedure is part of an overall plan—kill the ones who speak up! The system has given rise to killers—inside and outside the system!

Anyway, Janice White went through the court system twice. First, she sued her attacker, the football coach, and won. Then she sued the school board for bias and was awarded a cool million or so by a jury. Obviously, she had a strong defense. The principal of her high school, where the battering incident took place, retired by the time of the trial, testified on her behalf, claiming the administration told him to side with the attacker, not the victim."

The principal had retired; that explains it! the clerk observed. Otherwise, it’s hard to understand why all these administrators could be so terrible, and yet one principal could defy the standard and be a good guy.

The principal was under oath during court room testimony; technically, it was his duty to tell the truth. Although from what I heard, one teacher changed her story on the witness stand at the last minute for fear of political retribution. There was also student testimony of Mrs. White’s persecution. Some students signed affidavits verifying black teachers threatened them with academic reprisal for supporting this teacher. Most students regarded Mrs. White as an excellent teacher. One black student testified on the witness stand, illustrating her excellence. After his testimony, school athletes assailed and viciously beat the slightly built boy. The newly appointed dean of the school was the school’s football coach, the one who attacked Mrs. White in her classroom over a false rumor!

I’d say the evidence speaks, the clerk conceded. The school system demonstrated a bias by rewarding a brute. Nevertheless, it makes me wonder whether the victim may have done something to turn staffers against her.

The woman was a good teacher. She didn’t have to be a social butterfly. That wasn’t her job assignment.

I’m inclined to agree. Popularity is opportunistic, the clerk responded.

I left out some vital information about the case. To be brief there was an incident that sparked the assault on Mrs. White. This incident happened before a school party. Mrs. White was assisting other teachers who were decorating the gym. Nearby a black, female teacher, the one who changed her story on the witness stand, yelled racial slurs to break up a student slugfest, undoubtedly to divert their attention. Gossip spread, contending it was Mrs. White who yelled the slurs. She never betrayed the black female colleague responsible for the racially charged words, remaining loyal while under extreme duress. I think it’s safe to say our litigating teacher wasn’t racially prejudiced and didn’t intentionally provoke her colleagues. I do suspect a teacher or student intentionally started the inflammatory smear campaign.

I, for one, am happy your girl received a settlement, the clerk answered. But why are you investigating further?

While I’m looking at the White case in depth, I’m also looking for other cases across America, Jill answered.

Cases of workplace persecution? asked the clerk.

Exactly!

What year did your teacher’s case go to trial? the clerk asked, as he continued his stroll through the book stacks, Jill following behind.

1997.

Long ago!

They halted in front of a set of blue-bound, encyclopedia-sized manuals: each entitled West’s Federal Practice Digest. The clerk extracted a volume from the collection. I’ll look for White versus Chicago Schools, he said, flipping the pages. Ah, here’s something: White v (the) Chicago School Reform Board, dated 1997. There’s no other White versus Chicago Schools listed. Let’s look it up. Take this manual so you can study it. This is step one in finding cases.

Jill collected the sizable volume in her arms and followed him to the next aisle. Are you one of the casualties of the sick system? he asked. Yes, I was put through a wringer. Nearly everyone gets it—in the brain washing process, Jill answered.

Then you’re the voice for those who can’t be heard, the clerk concluded. Nobody admires my quest, she told him. I’ve lost friends over it. As she followed the law clerk, she unintentionally let her next thought slip out. When the high school shootings started escalating, I suspected high school teachers had handed the persecution down to their students. The clerk turned around and finally spoke his mind. Everyone has a theory about the school shootings. There are obviously many contributory factors, the clerk protested. Some think it was the parents who raised ’em wrong. Some think it’s the availability of guns. Some blame it on hereditary emotional disturbances.

Guns could be replaced by kerosene and a match, Jill answered. Raising ’em wrong is why teachers have trouble with discipline. Emotional disturbance is an understandable reaction to severe harassment. Out of all the causal factors—which is most likely to lead a tormented adolescent to assassinate fellow students: trouble with teachers, parents, or classmates?

The clerk shrugged. Trouble with classmates, I’d guess.

In other words, peer persecution, Jill responded.

The clerk’s face lit up. Ah, I see what you’re getting at! You mean the kiddies are aping adult war games? And you’re looking to find more proof!

Sometimes the kiddies are aping adult games; sometimes the kiddies are directed by adults to initiate the games against others. Proof and lots of it would be helpful, Jill replied. You see, I can’t depend on teacher support. Even teachers who confided in me will deny the truth if it endangers their salaries and relationships.

The clerk stopped, looked up, and pulled down a tan volume from the cramped upper shelves. Opening it, he flipped through the pages. Stopping at a specific location, he read silently for a few moments. His face collapsed into a frown. The U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded Janice White’s case, meaning they, and he read from the manual, "‘overturned the jury’s ruling and sent the case back to the lower courts for more proceedings.’" He backtracked a few pages. "Here’s the first sentence: ‘Caucasian teacher brought race discrimination and emotional distress claims against the public-school system’. It sounds like your case."

She lost in the appellate court! Jill gasped, the color draining from her face.

Don’t get upset, the clerk implored. This case, as you’ve described it, has overtones of racial unrest.

What do you mean?

Chicago probably doesn’t want their black population riled. Black leaders say their neighborhoods receive bad publicity while abuses in other neighborhoods remain unpublished.

Blacks are always scapegoats but prejudice comes in many varieties. The black man doesn’t own it. Besides, racial prejudice—in this case—is obviously a byproduct of political games. Seriously, a lone white woman in a black school! What a setup! A setup as dangerous as stationing one gay man in a homophobic army barracks! Jill retorted.

The white boys aren’t helping the black man’s plight by pitting one prejudice against another, the clerk commented. Down the road, mismanagement like this will backfire.

Mismanagement like this has already backfired, Jill answered. How about mass murder in the workplace? It’s happened so many times!

Yes, I remember the postal shootings. It did make me think the problem could be in management, but then nothing was ever proven, he returned.

Of course, there was no investigation, and an investigation wouldn’t uncover the truth anyway. The bureaucracy would take over and a phony report would be issued to save face.

Your theories will be challenged, but you’re right about one thing, it doesn’t take much imagination to see that the people in power were trying to do Janice White harm. Look to the superintendent! He could have used his influence to spare her and did nothing.

"He was trying to be popular with teacher cliques. That’s how superintendents win supporters. The system doesn’t reward good teachers or good superintendents; it consistently supports, rewards, and manipulates prejudice for the purpose of sustaining the system. Loyalists protect the upper echelon from bad press, and the brass, in turn, provides immunity for crooked opportunists, who rid the schools of competent teachers, too principled to pay homage to corruption. Janice White sued one system flunky and won. She sued twice: the first lawsuit was against the man who beat her up. She won that lawsuit. This suit against the school board was her second. Anyway, in these schools winning is a no-no! The administration-owned herd will stomp all over an individual who steps out-of-line to tell the truth and, worse yet, commits the more unforgivable crime of winning!

You don’t even know Janice White.

I know she had the guts to fight for her rights. She was entitled to restitution.

The clerk looked down at the open book, remarking, The Chicago School Board renamed themselves a reform board. Sounds suggestive, as if the school board assigned the wounded party a reform school status!

An establishment trick, turning things around so the incorruptible look guilty!

I don’t mean to offend you, the clerk assured her, but the people you’re accusing will want to make you look foolish. He handed her the Federal Reporter, saying, Hold on to this. You can read it later. There’s one more destination. We have a reference guide that lists federal citations. A citation means the old case influenced new court decisions. We’ll see if any were awarded to the White case.

They walked across the aisle to another row of stacks and stopped while the clerk pulled out a maroon volume. Jill read the title, Shepard’s Federal Citations, as the book descended into the librarian’s hands. The clerk easily sifted to the correct page. There are seven cases that awarded citations to White’s appellate decision according to this volume. Two of them followed White’s appellate court argument exactly. See the little f in front of the case? That means ‘followed’. There’s a table of codes in the front of the book.

And why do I need these citations? Jill asked.

Because exploring them could lead to other discrimination cases.

Jill blushed self-consciously. Of course, I wasn’t thinking! He handed her the citation manual, adding, You may want to study the citation codes in the front of this manual. Let’s go to the computer station and get an updated list.

They returned to the circulation desk, where the clerk pulled out a keyboard. While typing in the case numbers, he asked, Did you get all your information from newspapers? Jill informed him she’d read the circuit court transcripts from cover to cover and also talked to Chicago teachers about it. While listening to her story, he pulled up the more recent court citations on the White case. Jill leaned against the counter to rest from the weight of the textbooks she carried. Dejection had temporarily replaced her former passion.

There are twenty-four citations to date, the clerk reported.

The number has more than tripled, Jill remarked. How many followed the original case?

He read the computer screen for a few seconds and answered, Fifteen.

Are they education cases? she asked.

He looked down again, scanning down each page and answered, There are two education suits, but other cases may demonstrate the system you’ve experienced is happening elsewhere, if not everywhere. Why don’t you read the Federal Reporter synopsis of the White case, then look over the citations and pick one. I’ll help you search for your choice. Once you know the process, you can research the other citations in any legal library in the country.

Thanks for the service, Jill returned. You spent a long time with me.

My pleasure, the clerk replied. You engaged my mind on a slow-moving day. He then made a bowing gesture and departed.

Looking around, Jill spotted the table with her red folder and hobbled over as soreness crept up her back. Plunking down her reference books, she pulled out the computer printed sheets from the top book and examined the topmost document within it, a list of court citations. An aching spot in the small of her back kept her attention divided as she rubbed the painful place, while sliding down into a chair. These cases are from all over the country! she thought. "Ah, ha, here’s one from Washington, D.C., Glass v Ashcroft. This has got to be John Ashcroft, a former attorney general in the George Bush administration. Interesting! I’ll tend to this later." Placing the citation list back in the top book, she put that book aside, opened the second book in the stack and began to read the Federal Reporter’s review of Janice White’s case.

CHAPTER THREE

J ILL FRANKLIN ARRIVED home from her road trip, rumpled and dusty. She pulled her suitcase from the car trunk, continuing to reflect on her long teaching career, as she’d done for the entire ride home from the District of Columbia. In one short week, a new school year would begin. It was her last year on the job. I’ve been quietly opposing the system for years; the toadies who sell their fellow man down the drain won’t miss me! she mused.

She dropped her suitcase inside the door and hurried to the backyard patio. After removing the cover from her cushioned recliner, she dropped into sublime comfort. A butterfly was circling her well-tended garden; soon it landed on her chair. She gazed at the elegant insect, while drifting into an enchanted trance. A whimsical idea crossed her mind; the butterfly glided to her shoulder.

What if I were asked to extol the virtues of the teaching profession in a good-bye speech to my fellow educators in a public square—uh—and over a loudspeaker? Hmm, what complacent euphemisms would I rattle off? Something that would be worthy of the most servile bootlicker! Let’s give this a try. She cleared her throat and the butterfly on her shoulder fluttered away. She watched its flight for a second and began, I’ve been employed for thirty-two years as a teacher. Thirty years were spent teaching in my hometown of Salem, Illinois, forty-five minutes northwest of beautiful, downtown Chicago. I’ve worked with a great team of dedicated teachers who are committed to the welfare of their students, colleagues, and fellow man. Oh really, such tripe! All nice-nellyism aside, ladies and gentlemen, two years ago, I signed on the dotted line, verifying my intention of retiring early. After exhaling forty-five minutes of relief on the drive home, I arrived on my doorstep to the sound of a ringing telephone. It was a fellow teacher and confidant. When I heard her voice, I delightedly bubbled, ‘soon I’ll be free to tell the truth after years of intimidation.’ My friend quickly popped my bubble by urging, ‘don’t be too free with the truth; it makes folks angry. They dislike hearing things they don’t recognize.’

She smiled as her daydream ended. Suddenly, a new thought came to mind. Whoops, I must add an addendum to my terrific speech. Ladies and gentlemen, to be more accurate, people dislike what they’re not free to recognize."

During the following week, Jill busily set up her art rooms in two different schools. After four days of physical preparation, she was almost ready for the new school year. On the fifth morning, while heading toward the workplace for her last preparation, Principal Lowell Hammerhausen’s menacing image emerged from her subconscious. What a horrible person to think about when I should be happy!

She tried to suppress him but his eerie image wouldn’t leave her mind. His wheat colored crew cut slowly rose into her mind like a ghostly apparition. Dark framed eyeglasses with lenses as thick as the base of a coke-bottle accentuated his odd appearance. He stood five feet five but cranked up taller with the aid of elevator shoes. Even without the geeky trappings, there was something abnormal about his manner. He upset the environment with ominous vibes; he seemed to