BOE afraid of Bennett and union?

The Board of Education is afraid of truth, justice, and the American way that the union and I are promoting—it is that simple. I’m not superman but given the board’s plea for the governor’s help, one might think I’m a Super Teacher Rep, when its six board members against one and I don’t even have a weapon—a vote—which should also demonstrate to the public how weak BOE’s argument is for my removal and that the CNMI has a problem and it’s not Ambrose.

The board didn’t like my recent letter exposing the poor qualifications of existing board members and their distaste for the GFT newspaper that is now being circulated and there is nothing BOE can do about it. If BOE can raise the expectation for teachers with PRAXIS, certainly the public can raise the education expectation for board members to at least have a college degree. The board is frustrated with their inability to intimidate me and to know which teachers are signing up for the union. I keep coming up with good ideas and they keep trying to shoot them and me down.

I’m just a Social Studies teacher who simply knows his civil rights and I choose to exercise them for the betterment of the teaching force and the school system. Just think, when the CNMI and U. S. Constitutions and laws granted the rights to free speech, expression and to organize, these constitutions and laws didn’t care about how the BOE felt and they still don’t care and, guess what, neither do I anymore. The board blew its chance to treat teachers and myself fairly without a union. They stalled me for the first 10 months and they have been using me as a punching bag in the news ever since.

The board should have followed the advice given to me by Mr. Guerrero to “think things out” before you act. The board didn’t think about what I was trying to do, they just tried to stop me like they are still trying to do two years later. I tried to do this peaceably and respectfully but the board is just too far behind the times in their thinking to understand justice, with the capacity to actually do the right thing.

The board knows that with a union, the power will be with the “arbitrator” and not them and they don’t want to lose that ultimate power that has made them behave like a dictatorship, which they have enjoyed for too many years. But the board still shouldn’t be afraid of the arbitrator because I have gotten a Supreme Court justice to recommend someone in our court system to do the job and I’m sure we can trust they will be fair and that they aren’t going to allow the system to be subjected to anything “detrimental.”

However, the boldness of expressing my constitutional rights is something the board has never encountered before and can’t deal with. The board is in new territory because they have never had to deal with a true activist up close and personal and they don’t know what to do primarily because they don’t want to do the right thing. I have done the Muhammad Ali and took them to the 15th round and they have never been there before. But if they keep messing with me I will give them a real fight because my goal will be to knock all of them out in the next two elections and that’s the American Way.

Furthermore, if the board had done its research, they would know why I’m not worried about their plea to the governor. First of all, it is going to take a majority of teachers to remove me from the board, as it was teachers who elected me. The governor appointed me for teachers, not for the executive office. My post is autonomous and my removal from the board is subject to the same or similar conditions for removal of any BOE member, i.e., only teachers can request for my removal just like it will take an action by citizens to remove a voting board member.

Which word did the board didn’t understand the first time Governor Babauta told them, “I have no intentions of removing Mr. Bennett?” Maybe he should have said it in Chamorro or something. In fact, I don’t know when they are going to get it because the Governor can see from his window they are calling him over to BOE to help them do their dirty work. He wants no part of BOE’s scheme against me and I don’t blame him. BOE needs to stop trying to think of ways to stop me because in my old neighborhood, the saying was, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

While I’m on the Governor, I do want to thank him for not only supporting teachers and myself but for supporting our entire educational system, even though the board has given him a hard time on more than one occasion. I’m sure everyone can remember how the board figuratively told the Governor and the Legislature to take a hike more than once. All the fuss about no paydays and we still haven’t missed one because it was more politics than problem. He is an Education Governor, which no one in the CNMI can deny. He truly understands the future is at stake with our school system and he is the first governor that I know of in the decade and a half that I’ve been here to personally try and make a difference through Initiatives.

The board is behaving like the school bullies trying to gang up on the school nerd, only to find out he knows karate and now they are asking the Governor to play principal and suspend me because they are getting their butts kicked in the news. But if anyone has ever been bamboozled and hoodwinked, it’s the people of the CNMI and it’s not their fault because they were deceived by the board. Teachers shouldn’t worry about any of this controversy because that’s exactly what BOE wants—for you to be sidetracked by this distraction. I also told you things like this might happen because someone will always want to remain in the Dark Ages when it comes to change. I will be the Teacher Rep until January 2008 and teachers should continue to sign up over the Internet at nmiteachers.com and it will soon be a new day for teachers and the school system. One people, one direction.

Ambrose Bennett

Teacher Representative