alexethridge Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:24 pm412 words, co-written by Alex Ethridge and Jasmine Woo.
Imagine if the L.A. Unified School District was given ten million dollars to spend on improvements to the Los Angeles educational system, and from this ten million, Arcadia High School pocketed at least one. Oh, the endless possibilities! Perhaps some healthier prepared lunch food, or more recent and more interesting books in the library to use for research or recreational reading. And hey, we could even rehire some of our old teachers! Oh wait! Forget about those plans, that ten million bucks has just gone into the wallets of a group of teachers. This group called “Housed” teachers that don’t work because they’re waiting for the district to resolve accusations of misconduct, such as (among other things) sexual harassment, theft, or even drug possession.
One example of such a teacher was Matthew Kim. After being accused of sexual harassment, Kim was told to go home; he was going to be “housed.” His work schedule included sitting at home during school hours, from 7:50 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. with a 30-minute lunch break somewhere in between. So long as he didn’t do any work or show up at school, he would be paid. (He’s never missed a paycheck.) Between the first day Kim was housed n 2002 and his last day in 2009 when he was officially fired, Kim had made approximately $2 million.
More than 150 teachers and faculty members are in a similar situation to Mathew Kim. Their days consists of sitting at home doing nothing and waiting around to see what the district will do with the charges laid against them. Meanwhile, these housed teachers collect approximately ten million dollars in salaries over the time they spent on lockdown, despite the current economic crisis the L.A. Unified School District is going through. “[The district takes] so long to respond that there’s no justice in [them] gaining benefits by doing nothing while being charged with a serious crime,” said junior Brian Wan.
Not only are these educators wasting their time, the school districts on wasting their money on an inefficient punishment program. Forcing teachers to stay home and await their sentencing does not secure the end of their offenses. Brian Wan says, “Given the circumstances there is not really any other alternative because even though they are really good, the district sees them as inexperienced, so they would have to lay off people. It would affect the students greatly due to overcrowding classrooms and not as much of a learning experience”
Imagine if the L.A. Unified School District was given ten million dollars to spend on improvements to the Los Angeles educational system, and from this ten million, Arcadia High School pocketed at least one. Oh, the endless possibilities! Perhaps some healthier prepared lunch food, or more recent and more interesting books in the library to use for research or recreational reading. And hey, we could even rehire some of our old teachers! Oh wait! Forget about those plans, that ten million bucks has just gone into the wallets of a group of teachers. This group called “Housed” teachers that don’t work because they’re waiting for the district to resolve accusations of misconduct, such as (among other things) sexual harassment, theft, or even drug possession.
One example of such a teacher was Matthew Kim. After being accused of sexual harassment, Kim was told to go home; he was going to be “housed.” His work schedule included sitting at home during school hours, from 7:50 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. with a 30-minute lunch break somewhere in between. So long as he didn’t do any work or show up at school, he would be paid. (He’s never missed a paycheck.) Between the first day Kim was housed n 2002 and his last day in 2009 when he was officially fired, Kim had made approximately $2 million.
More than 150 teachers and faculty members are in a similar situation to Mathew Kim. Their days consists of sitting at home doing nothing and waiting around to see what the district will do with the charges laid against them. Meanwhile, these housed teachers collect approximately ten million dollars in salaries over the time they spent on lockdown, despite the current economic crisis the L.A. Unified School District is going through. “[The district takes] so long to respond that there’s no justice in [them] gaining benefits by doing nothing while being charged with a serious crime,” said junior Brian Wan.
Not only are these educators wasting their time, the school districts on wasting their money on an inefficient punishment program. Forcing teachers to stay home and await their sentencing does not secure the end of their offenses. Brian Wan says, “Given the circumstances there is not really any other alternative because even though they are really good, the district sees them as inexperienced, so they would have to lay off people. It would affect the students greatly due to overcrowding classrooms and not as much of a learning experience”