PAYING ATTENTION!
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Who has
the right to Speak out?
Was Superintendent
Right to Terminate Assistant Principal
Arlington School Assistant Principal Graciela Trilla has
been notified that her contract will not be renewed next
year. Of course, the school department is tight lipped
about the reasons for her non renewal, but Ms. Trilla is
publicly speaking out. According to Trilla, she is being
let go because of her public criticism of the
Superintendent’s stand on bilingual education.
Being a first amendment advocate I was taken back by this
at first. After all, if it’s true, the basic
principal behind her being let go was her exercise of
free speech in a free country. Or was it? Some people
believe that city workers have no right to speak out
publicly against their superiors because it violates the
chain of command set up by the structure of our
government. For the most part, I would agree with them.
If you work for the city and disagree with the policies
or actions of your superiors you should work within the
channels of city government to resolve those issues.
Before she goes outside the chain of command, she should
first speak to her principal and then to the assistant
superintendent about her concerns. If she needs to speak
to the superintendent after that, she can make an
appointment with him (if he will see her) to express her
feeling in private as a member of the team.
Now if that doesn’t work, and the Superintendent
makes it clear that her point of view is not strong
enough to change his mind, Ms. Trilla has other options.
She can shut up and carry out the policy directives of
the school committee and the superintendent, or she find
another job. If she truly believes that the Lawrence
schools are going in a direction that is not in line with
her beliefs why would she want to stay? The policy
decisions in the Lawrence schools are made by the School
Committee. The superintendent is the sole decision maker
on how to implement those policies.
As an assistant principal, Ms. Trilla’s function is
to carry out the wishes of the superintendent in the
schools. If she cannot or will not do this she is no
longer part of a system working for a common goal and the
superintendent has every right to remove her. We have too
many people working in city government who are a
liability because they are quietly working against the
policy directives of their superiors simply because they
do not agree with them.
I do believe there are exceptions to this rule. If a city
worker happens to be a Lawrence resident and has gone
through the chain of command with no satisfaction, and
still believes the superintendent is doing something
which will hurt the city or the schools she has an
obligation as a tax payer to speak out at a public
meeting and disagree without reprisals. But do it once,
and if the school committee does not agree with you, as I
said before, shut up and carry out your job or find
another one. As long as a city worker is speaking
respectfully to her superiors on the school committee and
there is no public spectacle involved which hurts the
image of the city she has done what is appropriate and
she now has a decision to make (stay or leave).
Unfortunately for Ms. Trilla, she attended a public
meeting where she was disrespectful and insubordinate
even after speaking against the superintendent and his
policies. At one point during the meeting, some idiot
said that if we do not allow kids to be taught in Spanish
in the younger grades we would risk more school
shootings, almost eluding to violence as a threat for not
giving them their own way in the bilingual program. Ms.
Trilla stood and clapped wildly in full view of the
superintendent, the school committee and the public.
Her behavior was unacceptable and her view of how things
work (or at least how they should work) have now made her
a liability to the superintendent as well as the children
in our school system.
I am not saying that city workers should have to work
under a dictatorial gag order and be fearful to speak
their opinions in public. But, there is a time and place,
as well as a chain of command to be followed when it
comes to publicly criticizing your superiors. Clearly,
Ms. Trilla has violated all of those basic operating
procedures and it truly is in the best interest of the
children and the tax payers to remove her from her job.