Deaf teacher continues to receive harassment over reporter visit
October 26, 2010
Kathleen Nosek, a deaf teacher in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, is
still in the thick of it.
Earlier this month, Dallas Morning News reporter Avi Selk visited Nosek at
her school in order to investigate allegations of harassment that Nosek had
filed against Principal Amy Miller. During the reporter’s visit, which was
processed through the front office, the reporter and the teacher were
escorted from the premises for “possible district policy violations.” Nosek
was put on paid leave pending investigation of the incident.
Now, it seems, the school district is attempting to extort a settlement out
of Nosek using the reporter visit as a tool. As reported in the Farmers
Branch blog of the Dallas Morning News, the school district offered to drop
the investigation into the reporter visit if Nosek would agree to drop her
allegations of harassment against her principal and return to work at
another school in the district. When Nosek’s lawyer requested that Nosek be
allowed to write a letter to her students explaining why she had left them
in the middle of the school year, the school district withdrew their offer.
http://farmersbranchblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/10/district-offers-sheffield-teac.html
Ironically, this whole incident happened during National Disability
Employment Awareness Month.
Kathleen Nosek, who has been a special education teacher in the CFB district
for a decade, was told by her principal, Amy Miller, that she would no
longer be able to have another teacher help her administer a pronunciation
test to her students, but would have to do so herself in spite of a doctor’s
note saying her deafness made it impossible. Nosek filed harassment
allegations against her principal with the district and these allegations
brought the reporter to the school to get more information.
It is currently unclear how the matter will be settled, especially since the
district lawyers refuse to explain why they want to use the investigation of
the reporter visiting Nosek at school to force her to settle her own
harassment complaint, which is completely unrelated. The retaliatory nature
of the whole situation is unsettling at best, especially since the school
district originally stated the investigation was unrelated to Nosek’s
allegations of harassment.
I urge you to pass this on to anyone concerned with equal rights for the
disabled, and for everyone to write respectful letters of protest to the
school district.
To contact the school district, click:
Superintendent Bobby Burns
http://www.cfbisd.edu/pages/aboutussuperintendent.cfm