Bully teacher? or North County Times double standard?

To see an example of just how one sided the editorial troika at the North County Times is look at this Community Forum published in the North County Times.

FORUM: What about bully teachers?
By CHERYL A. PROTZELLER -- VUSD resident Thursday, April 2, 2009 12:12 AM PDT
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/04/02/opinion/commentary/zb8675a6979ab371088257585000491e3.txt
It was written by one kindergarten parent about two teachers and the alleged actions they took on their own at no direction from the VTA leadership. These alleged actions happened at ONE teacher's meeting. The actions of two teachers out of thousands in the Vista Teachers at this one meeting were unfairly used by the North County Times editorial staff to try to paint an ugly picture of all teachers in the district and of the Vista Teachers Association. Can you say political smear?

Protzeller's complaint is the kind of thing most papers would laugh off and suggest the parent take to the two teachers involved, their principal or the district office. Yet the NCTimes published it with the inflammatory and inaccurate "bully teacher" title.

Who were the teachers supposedly bullying? The principal? Sounds like a quick way to get fired for insubordination. A firing offense under California State Law. Who would risk losing their jobs in this economy in order to get a brief announcement at a single meeting? Could Protzeller have misinterpreted what she saw?

California Ed Code on line found here:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=edc&codebody=&hits=20

EDUCATION CODE
SECTION 44930-44988

44933. A permanent employee may be dismissed or suspended on
grounds of unprofessional conduct consisting of acts or omissions
other than those specified in Section 44932, but any such charge
shall specify instances of behavior deemed to constitute
unprofessional conduct.

AND

(c) "Unsatisfactory performance" as used in this section means,
and refers only to, the unsatisfactory performance particularly
specified as a cause for dismissal in Section 44932 and does not
include any other cause for dismissal specified in Section 44932.
"Unprofessional conduct" as used in this section means, and refers
to, the unprofessional conduct particularly specified as a cause for
dismissal or suspension in Sections 44932 and 44933 and does not
include any other cause for dismissal specified in Section 44932.



What were the circumstances before and after the incident? Did the Protzeller understand fully what was going on during the meeting from her outsides prospective? What was the back story?

Here is an example from my own life of a parent not knowing the back story and jumping to wrong conclusions:

Once many years ago, my wife came to a back to school night when one of our children was a student in my class. She made some funny comments--which I and others who knew us found amusing. One of the parents did not know she was my wife and that she was teasing in a humorous way. This parent went to the principal complaining about it. I was called in the next day by the principal. My wife was mortified when she found out. What had been a funny little aside to me during her one chance to be a parent in her husband's classroom had become an incident.

Of course it was my fault. I do not blame the parent for the misunderstanding. I should have introduced my wife, so all could be in on the joke. It was an oversight on my part to not realize that some of the parents did not understand that she was married to me.

Who knows what the back story of this incident was? What events happened before the meeting that Protzeller is complaining about? What was the context of those two teacher's remarks? Were those two teachers or the principal consulted before this NCTimes Forum opinion piece was published? Was this NCTimes Forum published solely as an excuse to try to embarrass teachers in general and the VTA in particular? Why exactly was the word "bully" used in the headline? Is there a 'hidden agenda' behind the decision to elevate this small isolated, misunderstanding into prominence on the NCTimes opinion page?

Sometimes at meetings we say and do things that are humorous to all of the participants, but that an outside person might misinterpret. Could that have happened here?

More importantly why would the North County Times publish the piece with no investigation or verification?

When the PRO public education writer, Jim Wickstorm, attempted to publish a forum piece
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/10/14/opinion/commentary/zc35553852f93f223882574c9005e9dea.txt
about Guffanti and the Lindamood Bell program, Wickstrom was challenged line by line by the editors and was forced to verify EVERY fact. Finally after days of verification and back and forth phone calls, the editors grudgingly allowed him to publish his forum piece. This level of scrutiny certainly was not applied to this forum by Protzeller.

Gee North County Times editors can you say DOUBLE STANDARD?