By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org
WEST CHESTER, Pa. – A Pennsylvania teachers union is demanding that a school board member resign her post for expressing anti-union views in a letter to a local newspaper.
Last month, West Chester Area school board member (and longtime union critic) Heidi Adsett exercised her First Amendment rights by submitting a letter to the editor of the Daily Local News.
In her letter, Adsett criticized West Chester Education Association President Debbie Fell for publicly hinting that a teacher strike might be in the works if her union’s pay and benefit demands aren’t met during ongoing contract negotiations.
Adsett thought Fell and her union had gone too far.
“If you don’t think you are fairly compensated by the taxpayers, you are free to take your $106,000 taxpayer-funded compensation package and seek alternative employment,” Adsett wrote. “How dare you threaten students (two of which are my own) and their families because you think you deserve more money/benefits. How dare the union make offensive financial demands of taxpayers who are struggling in this economy.”
Adsett then doubled down on her free speech rights by making a political endorsement.
“I am reminded of why my family will vote to re-elect state Rep. Dan Truitt this coming November,” she wrote. “Rep. Truitt is a co-sponsor of the bill in Harrisburg that would ban teacher strikes. He believes, as I believe, that every child deserves the legal right to receive a strike-free public education. It is a right that 37 other states have guaranteed their students.”
Adsett ended the letter by signing her name and identifying herself as the vice president of the West Chester Area School Board.
That was all it took for WCEA members to flip their lids. In a response that seemed more appropriate for a Middle East country than a small Pennsylvania community, teacher union members filled the next school board meeting to demand Adsett’s resignation.
“Ms. Adsett, your publicly venomous animosity of our teachers and even some of our students does not represent our strong, 40-year tradition of supporting public education in our community,” one critic said, according to a recording of the meeting. “And therefore, I respectfully request that you resign as a member of the West Chester Area School Board.”
The critic left the podium to loud applause.
‘A culture of intimidation’
The union claims that Adsett misled readers into thinking she was speaking on behalf of West Chester’s entire nine-member board, simply by including her board title with her signature.
“Adsett writes letters to the editor using her title, did a robo call in the last election … and clearly is speaking for the board,” complains one resident on a local news blog. “Does the whole damn board agree with her doing this? Shouldn’t the president or superintendent sit this woman down and tell her to stop?”
While it’s a huge stretch to argue that Adsett was speaking for the rest of the board, it’s downright troubling that some union supporters think school board members should forfeit their free speech rights when they take office.
Simon Campbell, president of Stop Teacher Strikes in Pennsylvania, came to Adsett’s defense and said it was the WCEA that’s out-of-bounds.
“Each school board member is an individual in their own right, elected by the public to represent the public,” Campbell said in a video interview with Adsett. “Congressmen and senators are interviewed all the time. None of them say, ‘Well, I want to make it clear that I’m not representing the whole of Congress.’”
Campbell suggested that the union’s trumped-up charge against Adsett is just part of a larger “culture of intimidation” that school employee unions use to punish their critics.
“We have this bullying in school districts, sometimes against teachers (but) quite often against school board directors who get intimidated. You get these mob scenes at school board meetings. It is mind-boggling how the union operates,” Campbell said.
Adsett agreed.
“They’re trying to shut me up and trying to intimidate me because they know my message is right,” she said. “And they don’t want me to get that message out there for people to hear what’s really going on. They can’t argue the facts, so they have to try and argue by bullying and intimidation.”
Adsett has been cleared of any wrongdoing by her board, but that was never the point of WCEA’s criticism. The union just wanted something – anything – to use as a weapon against its toughest board critic.
This silly, union-contrived controversy over a letter to the editor is further proof that teacher unions are still the biggest bullies in our public schools.
Comments
Tags: AFT, alternative employment, American Federation of Teachers, anti-union views, collective bargaining, collective bargaining reform, Daily Local News, First Amendment, Heidi Adsett, local newspaper, National Education Association, NEA, offensive financial, pennsylvania teachers union, Rep. Dan Truitt, Simon Campbell, Stop Teacher Strikes in Pennsylvania, taxpayers, threaten students, WCEA, West Chester Area, West Chester Education Association President Debbie Fell
There are two kinds of school board members. Some are cowardly, many with relatives employed by the district. Others tend to be braver and occasionally vote for less spending.
School board members who don’t have relatives in the system are more likely to think independently than those with family members dependent on school board budget increases to get raises.
Teacher’s unions and their pensions and benefits are a giant chunk of the national debt due to stimulus spending. So the teacher’s unions put our kids into debt slavery so their easy and lucrative jobs could be even more so. Doesn’t matter if you have to live within your means, they are above you.
School boards in the main are simply kissing cousins to teachers unions. That’s why the union was so astonished at the audacity that a board member would jump ship and tell the truth about them. They retaliated with the predicted union playbook heavy handed response by attempting to punish the writer for having the gall to use his free speech rights.
Good for Heidi the person who should be fire is Debbie Fell how dare her demand more money she should be reminded that she gets paid by the taxes payers. And she better be glad she even has a job because I am sure that some of the people she is asking for more money don’t even have a job.
I applaud Mrs. Adsett’s boldness and wish that there were more like her on school boards. As a member myself I am amazed at how so many board members will just roll along with the ever increasing budget demands that are presented to them each year. They talk like a good fiscally responsible board member until it comes time to take the vote to pass the budget and then they cave and vote for the increase. Good Job Mrs. Adsett.
Teachers’ unions provide another money-maker for organized crime, much like the teamster’s, longshoremen’s and other mob-related unions. Why a teacher needs a union is beyond me. That being said, too many school board members are beholden to the same scoundrels as the teacher’s union. I call it sychronized crime.
I worked for a school district in Mes Az. We are considered representatives of the district when off duty. It doesn’t matter if you are a teacher, a custodian or a superintendant. This is silly, as ones Freedom of Speech can be seriously curtailed. Someday, the Supreme Court may get to hear a case about this issue.
All public school union members are cowards and worthless! Fire everyone of these worthless public union bastards!!! Last time I checked Illinois has little to be proud of when it comes to education!!! THEY ARE ALL REPLACEABLE!!! ANY IDIOT CAN GET A TEACHING DEGREE, ONLY A GREAT TEACHER CAN TEACH!!!