Fired union delegate from Juarez Community Academy tells his story
Note: Manuel “Manny” Bermudez worked as a computer teacher at Juarez Community Academy in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood for twelve years until August of last year when he was fired. At the time Bermudez had gone public with allegations of grade and attendance fixing at Juarez. He was also at the time a CTU delegate at the school and had filed numerous complaints. Bermudez, 47, was the union delegate there for three years prior to being fired. He was also the only bilingual computer teacher in a school that is 94 percent Latino. He is arguing before the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board that his activities as a union delegate were protected by law. He is also preparing a complaint before the federal government under the Whistleblower Protection Act which protects employees who denounce irregularities at their work place.
Besides, the Inspector General at CPS continues to investigate the allegations that the administration at Juarez Community Academy changed students grades and attendance in order to get out of probation due to poor attendance and performance levels.
This is Bermudez’s story in his own words.
“I was born in Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico, and I was brought here when I was one year-old. I have lived on 26th Street, in Chicago, all of my life.
I went to the military, I was in the army. I was in the Army’s 2nd Ranger Battalion when I was stationed in Germany during the time Ronald Reagan was president.
After the military I went to work in Special Education, actually I was a teacher’s aide in Special Education for many years and then I went to teach Special Ed for one year. After that I taught technology for one year.
I graduated from Chicago State University with a Bachelor’s degree in secondary education and science.
I was raised by a single mother; we were seven children in our house. I was only the second person in my family to graduate from a university. The first one was my oldest sister who has a PhD from a university. It was difficult going to schools but it was worth it. I felt proud as a Latino to get a degree.
At Benito Juarez I taught information technology and I also taught basic computing which is an introduction to computers, a taste of everything, a taste of web design, of software applications, how to search the Internet, search engines, so it’s a little bit of everything put into one course. I also taught computer sciences.
I taught at Benito Juarez High School for 12 years since 2002 until 2014. I basically started at Gage Park High School and I transferred from Gage Park to Benito Juarez. I loved teaching at Juarez, teaching is my passion. I’ve always loved teaching at Juarez.
But everything changed all of a sudden. A new administration came and a new grading system came and after that it felt like I wasn’t a teacher anymore. I was OK with the new administration; at first I had no problems. Then I became a union delegate and I found out from some teachers that the administration was changing attendance and then I looked at the system and I said the system is fixed. Changing grades is not the way to do it. And from there on it became a problem for me.
I, as a union delegate, was supposed to defend the teachers and that is part of our job, you know, to represent the teachers and enforce the contract. They ended terminating me, getting rid of me. There is no doubt he (Juan Carlos Ocon) did it based on retaliation because I went to the media. I blew the whistle on all the irregularities that happened at Benito Juarez and I also reported it to his boss at the Chicago Public schools.
It didn’t come as a surprise to me because I knew he was going to get rid of me because that’s how he is, he likes to retaliate. He also got rid of another teacher (Yolanda Muñoz) who was helping me out.
I always felt as a Latino that if you ever become something with your education and became successful in any kind of way you have to come back to the community and give something back. We have to give to each other, everyone has to help and this was my way of giving something back to the community. I felt proud, I felt very proud.
For example, in some of my classes at Benito Juarez there were students who didn’t speak a word of English and it felt good to talk to them in Spanish.
As a union delegate I promised from the moment that I became a delegate that I would help to fix all the irregularities even if I had to do it alone. I had some support from some teachers but I had a lot of teachers who were upset at me because some of them, I have to be honest, are buddies with the principal.
I represented the Union (CTU) and I felt that, you know, I stood up for the teachers, for teacher’s rights and even for the teachers who didn’t like me. It didn’t matter; I still fought for their rights. My goal was to represent everybody and enforce the contract because the contract is a binding law.
On my last day at Juarez I didn’t get a chance to get personal stuff out from school. He (Juan Carlos Ocon) called me and said that ‘unfortunately due to the school budget I had to get rid of some distinguished, or extraordinary teachers and you’re one that I have to let go and your position will be closed for next year’. That’s exactly what he told me.
I feel very confident that I am going to win this battle. My faith in God tells me that I am going to keep strong and I am going to keep fighting. Yes, I feel confident that I am going to win.”
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Antonio Zavala. Journalist, lives in Pilsen. He studied journalism at University of California, Berkeley, and in Roosevelt University, Chicago. © Antonio Zavala, 2014. This piece may not be used without written permission from the author.
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