Blackballing Teachers Needs to Be Outlawed

Unfortunately, Denver Public Schools is still going to continue the practice of blackballing teachers "unless they can prove themselves 'successful' in another district for THREE YEARS.

You can't even GET a job in public education, let alone work three years in another district, if you are dismissed from employment because one, those disclosure questions on applications, and two, because of the reference checks to school districts to see if you are eligible for rehire. I wrote about the disclosure questions in a post on another board this morning:

What is tragic is it will follow you to almost all 15,000 school districts in the country because of the HR weeding out questions in job applications which ask whether you resigned in lieu of dismissal, were dismissed, forced to resign, denied continued employment, and all sorts of other questions. Sometimes those questions will actually be on state licensing questions although few teachers dumped by school districts have actually done anything wrong to deserve having to reveal dismissals and the like to state boards.

The assumption is you are a "bad teacher" if you check off "yes," no matter what the truth is. Ostensibly those questions are supposed to be designed to determine "fitness" to teach, but given how distorted the power balance is between principals, who are NEVER held truly accountable for their actions and have all of the power, and teachers, who have NO power and are easily canned, the questions are nothing more than blackballing questions. They should be illegal nationwide. The only things schools should be concerned with are matters that directly affect licensing. You check off "yes," you will never make the cut for an interview; if you lie and check off "no," there is a risk the district will find out and then have your license sanctioned. HR and hiring panels do not care about the reason; they won't even read it. You check that "yes" off, and it goes into the garbage can because those questions are actually used solely to reduce the number of applicants for jobs.

The questions are usually listed as "yes/no" questions and you check off one or the other, but I have seen districts that have "no/yes," so it's pretty obvious what they are doing. They eliminate all applications with "yes" checked off regardless of your qualifications and references.

Education is the only field I know where this systemwide blackballing occurs. The only situation remotely similar is being disbarred from practicing law, but the reasons for disbarment are far more likely to be true than the garbage that goes on with incompetent and vindictive principals.

At the very least you have to move out of state, but then you are going to have to start all over again with substituting and all of that other stuff in order to get any decent references if you don't have any already. You better find you whether you are eligible for rehire at the old district; if not, this will kill your career chances, and a lawyer might be necessary to go after the district with a "cease and desist" letter.

And yes, I DO know what the OP is going through, and it's been five years for me and counting. The dirtbag district administrator who should have been fired is still employed but is bounced from job to job to job. Totally worthless individual.

Nobody should have that much power to destroy your career and really your ability to earn a living.


This is what the fired DPS teachers are up against.

They need to sue big time.