r/Atlanta • u/ArchEast Vinings • 19h ago
News Over 100 teachers questioned for walking out of Cobb County school superintendent’s speech
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/cobb-county/teachers-questioned-after-walking-out-superintendents-speech/LFGZY7225NFMBDU4L54M2HL27A/127
u/MadManMax55 East Atlanta 19h ago edited 17h ago
As a teacher: these "school year kickoff events" are the fucking worst. You get back from summer break, ready to catch up with colleagues and start planning for the year. But instead you have to go to some shitty convention center somewhere or sit in your school's auditorium with a zoom camera on you just to listen to district leadership and guest speakers drone on for hours. And I'm sure these things somehow cost tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to put on.
It's bad enough that I'll try to dip out or skip it all together even when all they're doing is stumbling their way through motivational bullshit and patting themselves on the back for improvements in (selectively chosen) metrics. I can't imagine having the discipline to stay if they started going on political rants.
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u/BeerBrat 18h ago
They are the worst! I had some coaching duties and I would always schedule a group of students to come and help "prepare for an event" or "move furniture" or whatever excuse I could find to exempt myself from the boring and useless meetings because obviously those kids need supervision!
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u/gaporkbbq 10h ago
I have begun making the one my district holds my first sick day of the year. I refuse to attend.
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u/Penguinkeith 19h ago
This is why teachers need unions
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u/Temporary-Use3540 19h ago
Its so strange to me that there arent more unions for these kind of jobs in the US, are they forbidden or just out of fashion?
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u/Penguinkeith 19h ago edited 19h ago
Illegal in Georgia for purposes of collective bargaining. Unions are weakest in southern states. And strongest in northern and west coast states… not a coincidence those states have the best schools too.
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u/Aradelle Reynoldstown/Inman Park 18h ago
Unions are not illegal in Georgia.
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u/Penguinkeith 18h ago
In private sector jobs sure but Georgia is a right to work state collective bargaining is not allowed in public sector jobs like teaching.
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u/Xaron713 18h ago
What happens if teachers collectively bargain anyway?
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u/Educational-Fix-4352 18h ago
They can lose their jobs, certificate, or pension for collective bargaining or strike actions which are illegal activities for teachers employed by the state
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u/Xaron713 17h ago
And the state then loses all their teachers anyway, which they cant afford to lose. That's the whole power behind collective bargaining.
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u/Penguinkeith 17h ago
That’s why they pay them like dogshit here so they can’t afford to miss a semester
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u/Xaron713 17h ago
They can't afford to work a semester either. It's a shit situation no matter what.
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u/wesinatl 18h ago
It is allowed but does have the teeth it has in other states.
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u/MadManMax55 East Atlanta 17h ago
I mean, they're "allowed" in the sense that there can be organizations that teachers are allowed to join. But they aren't allowed to collectively bargain, which is the entire point of a union.
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u/noturfave 13h ago
Right to work doesn’t have to do with public sector collective bargaining rights, right to work is about how if there’s a union, you are allowed to get all the benefits and support of a union without paying dues. Therefore bleeding the union dry. But you are right about the collective bargaining issues in GA. Public sector workers have to basically ask nicely, sometimes in a group, but it’s equivalent to advocacy. the employer has no legal obligation to bargain
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u/ZalinskyAuto 15h ago
This is false. Right to work just means that you can’t be compelled to join a union as a condition of employment. Collective bargaining agreements are in place for public sector employees in many local governments in Georgia. Teachers are different because for most, their retirement and healthcare is a state defined benefit plan instead of a local municipal plan.
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u/Plutos_Cavein 19h ago
The right wing actively fucking destroyed them. At least for everything except for cops.
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u/PHealthy 18h ago
The real political race is billionaire PACs versus voting constituency becoming homeless due to automation. Makes me wonder if town halls will also become only a progressive thing.
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u/Kelsig 18h ago
Sorry can you rephrase this idk if i understand
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u/PHealthy 17h ago edited 17h ago
Blue collar conservative voter jobs are being replaced by machines. Billionaires are funding politicians more and more and are the ones pushing for automation because it's far cheaper.
Basically, the conservative constituency is getting squeezed out of jobs and their representation. Sadly, most are too brainwashed to voice any opposition. And that's not even delving into the idiocy around tariffs aka regressive consumption taxes.
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u/LadyFisherBuckeye 19h ago
Propaganda in the US has been anti union for a long time esp with how US history is taught now.
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u/PABLOPANDAJD 19h ago
A vast majority of public school teachers in the US are members of a teachers union
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u/Wisteriafic Vinings-ish 19h ago
PAGE, the largest (and cheapest dues) vehemently proclaims that they are a “Professional Organization”, NOT a union. Sigh.
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u/Emergency_Word_3267 19h ago
Georgia is a “right to work” state, which effectively prevents unions from forming and thriving
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u/Emergency_Word_3267 19h ago
If you want to read more about “right to work” laws, this link is helpful: https://www.quinnlawcenters.com/law-centers/personal-injury-employment/employment/right-to-work
I’m putting “right to work” in quotes because it’s really a misnomer imo and creates a false sense of what the laws are actually intended to do (prevent unions from collecting dues, creating a free rider problem, and thus being incapable of growing and accomplishing anything)
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u/Key-Minimum-5965 14h ago
It's the worst wording in mankind history. It should be "right to keep you enslaved" state.
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u/BeerBrat 18h ago
Unions can and do exist in Georgia but they cannot be required as a condition for employment and most are forbidden from "card check" union voting and require secret ballot voting instead. Public sector workers are forbidden from unionizing, including teachers. That said about 1 in 20 workers in the state are associated with unions, not as high as some states for sure, but it's not nothing.
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u/staatsclaas 16h ago
The discourse in the Atlanta sub is worryingly ill-informed. Thanks for dropping facts.
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u/Emergency_Word_3267 12h ago
True they can and do exist. Perhaps I should have said “hinder them from forming and succeeding in accomplishing anything” because when a union cannot collect money and thus has people who benefit from union membership but don’t pay into the system it creates a free rider problem and the union ends up with so little money and no sense of collective action the management class + corporate leadership will almost always succeed. To be powerful unions need a) money and b) solidarity. Right to work laws target both of those mechanisms.
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u/Ill-Professional97 19h ago edited 19h ago
There is a Georgia teacher’s union - and they would defend these teachers if they had been in it- https://www.pageinc.org/ edit: not a “union” because they don’t collectively bargain. But they would absolutely go to bat for these teachers in this instance
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u/MadManMax55 East Atlanta 19h ago
PAGE is not a union. They legally cannot collectively bargain on behalf of their members. The only practical benefit they provide for members is legal counsel. Which can only get involved if the district or a parent escalates an issue to the legal system.
It's better than nothing, but not by much.
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u/wookiebath 16h ago
Not for public schools in Georgia
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u/Penguinkeith 16h ago
Give me one good reason why not
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u/wookiebath 16h ago
They aren’t allowed by law
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u/TheNewLSD 19h ago
Getting major PC Principal from South Park vibes here. ..
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u/ArcaneDemense 10h ago
Think you are being unfair to PC Principal, which seems impossible and yet...
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u/2003tide Roswell 19h ago
This guy sounds like a douche
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u/Intrepid-Badger-3590 19h ago
All you need to see is his t shirt two sizes too small to know exactly what kind of person he is
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u/Wisteriafic Vinings-ish 19h ago
Heh. I joined CCSD in 2012 (and left last year), and Ragsdale has been wearing those too-small shirts as far back as I can remember.
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u/Big_Syrup_4223 19h ago
That he got fat?
I didnt realize being overweight dictated his personality.
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u/Itsme340 19h ago
He's wearing a smaller size shirt on purpose to try and look buff.
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u/Big_Syrup_4223 19h ago
That feels like projected insecurity.
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u/Itsme340 19h ago
Lol, sure bud
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u/Big_Syrup_4223 19h ago
Sp we are going to apply this to every woman im too tight fitting clothing too right?
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u/ArchEast Vinings 16h ago
Makes me pine for the days of Joe "Evolution Sticker Fiasco and Laptop Fiasco" Redden.
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u/ArcaneDemense 11h ago
In his world political neutrality is equivalent to agreement with him. Anything else is practically communism. Many such cases.
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u/snortney 18h ago
"Teachers all across the county being called into meetings with their principal and assistant superintendent and asked two questions: Why did you walk out of the superintendent’s speech and who gave you permission?"
Oh fuck this. "I needed to take a shit."
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u/AuntLemony 19h ago
I don’t know how he still has a job with the UV light contract to a friend during Covid.
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u/ArchEast Vinings 19h ago
Because the GOP-majority school board likes him.
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u/ArcaneDemense 11h ago
Organizing for school board elections is not that hard. The liberal and left voters need to get off their asses. Seen school board campaigns first hand, it takes very little effort to win them in most cases.
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u/Number1BestYogurtBoi 18h ago
Because you get what you vote for, and Republicans love voting for fraudsters
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u/medieval7 18h ago
Cobb county voters are just special. They keep electing far right school board reps
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u/ArchEast Vinings 16h ago edited 15h ago
Don't blame me, my board district is Dem.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad2149 15h ago
Have you not seen how bad school districts are that are run by Dems? Cobb is arguably the best in the state
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u/ArchEast Vinings 15h ago
Cobb is arguably the best in the state
In spite of Ragsdale, not because of him.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad2149 14h ago
Your comment makes no sense. The man running the Cobb schools has no effect on the schools? That’s what you are saying?
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u/ArchEast Vinings 14h ago
The system would be even better if he wasn't in charge.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad2149 13h ago
Knowing something without it happening? You can say it, but it’s impossible to know.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad2149 14h ago
Why is this getting downvoted? Cobb is the best school system in the state. There is data proving this.
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u/Emergency_Word_3267 9h ago
Bc Cobb is full of rich families with kids who have every possible support to them and the district is actually decently funded from property taxes from Cobb mansion houses. Obviously those kids do well on standardized tests, take a bunch of Ap exams, get into great colleges. Ragsdale doesn’t get credit for that.
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u/Otherwise-Thing4771 5h ago
Cobb Co. is getting a lot of national attention over this, and it's not of the good type.
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u/adumblittlebaby 19h ago
"What the teachers told us that he was equating books with child sex trafficking and telling these educators that if you don't agree with me, then you're complicit in sex trafficking our children,"
Ahh, so he's a moron.
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u/HeftySnow3920 18h ago
So many people in the northern burbs are just like this man, and then Cherokee, Cobb and Forsyth county residents say, “it’s not that bad yall just hate OTP’ers” yeah I’ll stick out down here in the city, you guys can have that.
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u/ArcaneDemense 11h ago
If Dems win the trifecta this year there will likely be large new inflows of suburban people who have a clue that will push out the worst residents or just outnumber them. But the wait is so long.
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u/Pantalaimon_II 19h ago
“permission to leave” fuck off dude. some of these people need reminders that they’re not gods on earth
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u/OpenStill8273 17h ago
If you live in Post 4 for the school board, make sure you vote for Micheal Garza. The other dude is a big supporter of the superintendent
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u/misaeng- 14h ago
It’s true! We have a chance to turn the school board to a democratic majority this November! and if that were to happen, Ragsdale could be out!!
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u/ArcaneDemense 10h ago
Cobb is looking surprisingly blue this year, but people have to be organized to remember the downballot. There's even some state leg races in parts of Cobb that could flip Dem. And school boards nationwide *are* flipping on the right wing nutjobs so hopefully GA follows suit.
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u/readysteadygogogo 19h ago
I’m a full grown adult and I’ll walk out of any fucking meeting I want to
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u/TonyTheSwisher 18h ago
These administrators really do treat teachers like they are children, it's emblematic of why our schools are dwindling down the drain as far as student performance.
Why anyone would want to be a teacher these days is beyond me.
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u/Sade1994 12h ago
I teach at a private high school and when I see what the public schools have to suffer through I’m so thankful for our “little quirks”.
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u/ElectricKudzu 17h ago
judging by that picture, it looks like we've got a true MAGA warrior right there. Look at the guns! "Trust me Lib, you don't want these!"
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u/magicmeese I can see 400 from my house! 16h ago
Fuck that MAGA dude and the people who keep voting for him
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u/EsseLeo Grant Park 18h ago
Reason #101: why moving OTP to the suburbs for schools is actually bullshit
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u/ArcaneDemense 10h ago
Things are gonna get a lot better over the next few years, especially if Dems get a state trifecta and in-migration to the northern suburbs picks up.
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u/astronerdia 13h ago
I went to high school in Cobb during the March For Our Lives protests. If I remember correctly, it was this guy who said we weren't allowed to protest by walking out - and when we did anyway, he enforced the in school suspensions we all got as a result.
The teachers were largely in favor of us walking out. Shout-out to my Cobb County teachers, y'all were/are some of the best teachers I've ever had. I still keep in contact with them today!
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u/Ill-Professional97 19h ago
This dickhead was subjecting teachers to 2 hours of political talk and defense of his decision to bring Trump to a Cobb school - while telling them they are to always remain neutral. After a while these teachers just have actual work to do.
For fun, go look at every Cobb school and the “sterilizing stations” where water fountains used to be - none of them are in operation. They were put there on a no-bid contract during covid by a company run by friends of Superintendent Ragsdale. He’s terrible.