Francesco Portelos' Online Story Brings Retaliation By The NYC DOE And Principal Linda Hill

This story is one of retaliation. 

A friend and retired teacher sent me Francesco Portelos' blog "Don't Tread On Mr. Portelos" and I posted his blog entries on my blog and website, here and here, because Portelos wanted the actions of his Principal exposed. I gave Mr. Portelos and Jim Calantjis the "A FOR ACCOUNTABILITY" Award for exposing the wrongful actions of IS 49 Principal Linda Hill as cited by Mr. Portelos in his posting of the emails of Ms. Hill showing the lack of transparency in the school's CEP data.

The school's NYYSED/NYCDOE JOINT INTERVENTION TEAM REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS cite data about the school that are not good and need to be fixed. My experience with this sort of situation is that the Principal, now embarrassed with the exposure of his/her actions, goes after the whistleblower and tries to get the messenger charged with something. Portelos knew this, and for the reason of protecting his status, and exposing the retaliation, he chose to publicize the actions taken against him.

Francesco Portelos

I again salute him.

The manner in which the NYC Department of Education removes tenured employees from schools, charges them, and terminates or fines them, is not lawful. This is my opinion, for all you who are waiting in the wings to take me out, and I am not an Attorney so this is not legal advice. What everyone who is attacked or harassed should do is immediately write a Notice of Claim and send it to the Bureau of Law and Adjustment. Filing a Notice of Claim opens the door to your filing a lawsuit against the City of New York for a year and 90 days. No NYSUT Attorney has told any of the many clients this, but look into General Municipal Law Section 50-e and you will see what I mean. Do not waive your rights to sue your attackers.

The education mafia simply must avoid exposure at all times. They must keep their actions secret from the public because the public relations team working at Tweed cant spin fantasies out of documents that are visible, and Bloomcott (Mike Bloomberg + Dennis Walcott) know how lethal whistleblowers can be.

In fact, Francesco is in the NY POST today as a result of his blog, my blog, Facebook and Twitter:
Tech Teacher in Staten Island Chronicles Tiff With Principal Online 

IS 49 Principal Linda Hill

Now, Ms. Hill will push for charges against Francesco, such as he "revealed confidential emails" - oh really? Emails sent via a DOE computer are FOIL-able, so the fact of the matter is that I have filed a FOIL request for all of Principal Hill's emails as they refer to Francesco Portelos and/or the School Leadership Team and the Comprehensive Educational Plan (CEP).

This case is beginning to look alot like the case against Christine Rubino, in terms of stretching the envelope on what teachers can or cannot say on the Internet. I have heard that the teacher, David Senatore, who handed Christine's facebook comment to the Principal Lisa Esposito, was removed from the school on wednesday March 14, 2012. He may now get a taste of his own medicine.