Re HERB RIEGER : BREATHE, BREATHE" HE TAUNTED:
...it was at Liechty Middle School several years ago. I was a sub teacher...arrived on time,,,got keys to the classroom, entering the room..a kid yells "Are you going to teach us or not?' I had barely set my things down and was looking at the lesson plan, but noticed the room was very dim. The custodian walked by and I asked him if he could fix the lights. He gave me a look and said "I'm not promising anything" but proceeded to call somebody.
He had called Herb Rieger, the A.P. ...Herb, who I didn't know by name nor face at the time came into the room and I asked if we could get adequate lighting. Instead he turned to the class and asked, "Is is too dark in here?" as if giving them a cue as to how he expected them to respond.
I said, "Don't ask them, ask me." He said "Breathe, breath" as if I was an angry white man while he was the cool, calm, collected administrator. He had set up a showdown. Now I couldn't back down without losing my manhood. So I re-framed it and said," We either get better lighting, or I leave." By the way, if angry Rieger had indicated that there were issues preventing better lighting I would have said ok. He didn't explain nor justify, and spoke to me as if he didn't have the obligation to explain orjustify it, because I was a "nobody sub."
Problem is, that's not true to who I am as a person committed to education, trying to help the kids. So he was taunting me, mistreating me, and refusing to converse with me as a fellow educated adult ( probably more educated and w/ more experience than Herb Rieger, who may have been younger than me). After I said "Either better lights or I leave" he coldly and nonchalantly said, "Then leave."
And that's indicative of too many LAUSD school administrators, or office workers (sorry to the good ones who DO truly care) . And so I did leave and he wrote up an ISR (insufficient service report) without meeting or consulting with me (which is required by contract prior to any ISR) and sent it to an address that I hadn't used in over a year (a closed po box) so I didn't even know about it until January 20, 2011 (informed via phone by Ira Berman), three+ years later (the mailing was done by Regina Echols; did she intentionally mis-send it so I couldn't timely contest it?) . Regina's boss is Marjorie Josaphat (originally from Haiti?).
Vander
