To the SHS community:

I read Angela Carella’s article in The Advocate on the Stamford High School student newspaper staff with great pride, but also with great sadness. Actually, it broke my heart.

Again and again the students referred to the teachers’ fear of speaking out, fear of recriminations, fear of losing their jobs. I don’t know what is sadder: that teachers feel this way, or the fact that they have lost their voice. It is a terrible indictment about the state of our school when those who fight for and protect students are too afraid to do so because of an environment that has been created in the school, and because of the current threats of legal action for speaking one’s mind. That students should know that teachers are too scared to fight for them, to stand up and express their beliefs, is a terrible burden for us to bear, and truly, I never imagined I would see the day, work in a school, where that is the reality.

As a librarian, I am keenly aware of three rights in particular that are at the foundation of our democracy: access to information, privacy, and freedom of speech. I feel all three of those rights have been compromised for SHS teachers by the constant threat of personal liability by Donna Valentine’s lawyer. I know I myself was personally warned. After a phone conversation with a union member familiar with the confidentiality vote process, on Thursday, November 20^th, I attended an SEA meeting in order to learn more about possibly holding a confidence vote at Stamford High on our administrators who have been put on leave in the Danielle Watkins matter. At that meeting I was told by a former president of the SEA who now works downtown that “my name was all over central office” and that I better watch out, because in seeking this information about a confidence vote I was opening myself up to personal liability – and didn’t I know that “she has a very good lawyer?”

I feel safe in saying this because teachers on the executive board of the union heard it. If you don’t think that shut me up temporarily, you would be wrong I admit. But it only took talking to a few friends and a night’s sleep to wake up to an anger that really riled me up, and I was even more committed to pursuing holding a vote. I and a small group of colleagues felt strongly that it was our right, and we would put aside our fears to fight for teachers to have that formal voice to let their opinion be heard, because no one seemed to think our opinion counted at all in the handling of this matter. We are the adults in this building who have dealt professionally with Dr. Valentine for the last four years, and we are the ones that will have to continue to deal with her if she returns.

Once a core of 20-30 teachers committed to working for the vote and taking other actions it was the first time I felt empowered with a camaraderie I have not felt for a long time at work, and I was able to find a determination to move forward despite the fear of being sued by Donna Valentine. Members of our group worked different angles in addition to the confidence vote, whether trying to arrange a conversation with the superintendent (fiasco), meeting with the press, encouraging parents to do what they could, speaking at the Board meeting, writing letters to the Board, contacting Board members individually, etc. We wanted to let people know we are a power to be reckoned with and that we will not allow fear to silence us.

We strongly believed that the community needed to know how we felt about the return of the principal, and the confidence vote was the legal, correct way to do it. We worked hard with the union and with teachers to organize and educate ourselves to be ready to speak our mind. Our biggest obstacle was teachers’ fear that there would be retribution if they were in any way tied to a vote of no confidence for the principal. We assured them of the secret ballot, and of the union’s obligation to protect us with lawyers and paying our legal fees if anyone suffered retaliation.

We met after school several times, polled the faculty, and were ready to go with the vote with union’s full backing and protection. But Mark Sherman, Dr. Valentine’s lawyer, did his best to make sure that didn’t happen, sending an eleventh-hour email to our union, as we all know now, and he succeeded, with more threats of personal liability, “reserving the right” to sue us.

That’s right; this principal is publicly reserving the right to sue her own teachers! Just think about that.

They want us to know the whole story behind the Danielle Watkins matter, that because they chose not to go to court, Dr. Valentine has not had the opportunity to share her story, and in this investigation, to be conducted by the superintendent, she will have the opportunity and we must reserve our judgment until that time.

What Mark Sherman and Donna Valentine well know is that this vote was not about the Danielle Watkins matter alone. And if they do not know that, I am telling them now. It was to be about Donna Valentine’s four years at Stamford High School. And for that, we do not have to wait for the results of the investigation, because it will change nothing.

We will not have a vote. That has been decided. The results we had tallied repeatedly prior to the vote to make sure we had the support, as the union required, have been published in The Advocate. There is no more to say: A conservative tally showed 85% of the teachers at SHS do not have confidence in Donna Valentine’s ability to lead the school. I truly believe that if a vote had happened it would have been a higher percentage.

Am I going to be sued for saying that? Unfortunately, after the suspension of the vote and the perceived threat of legal action the faculty fear continues, as indicated by teachers’ reluctance to speak to student reporters on the school newspaper about the quashing of the confidence vote. I know I myself took back a piece of my quote for fear of recrimination, although a vanilla version did appear on the paper’s blog.

It is like living in a police state here, and no matter what anyone tells you, it is affecting the SHS community. The amount of energy that has gone into dealing with this issue is appalling. A school cannot thrive when the morale of the faculty is low, and a faculty cowed into silence by the threat of litigation and fear of retaliation from their own principal is a very sad thing.

So to our students, I want you to know that I hope I am speaking for all my colleagues when I say that, although many teachers have chosen to remain silent during this difficult time because they are concerned about their reputations and careers, please know that a significant number of us will continue to fight for you in the many ways in which we feel comfortable and protected. As always, we are here for you and want only the best for you. You deserve a school that is safe and secure for all students, one that is succeeding and in which you can feel great pride and affection. We have an opportunity now to create that, and will do everything we can to achieve it for you.

Jean Isler

Head of Library Media