Thank heaven for teacher unions…

…because if it wasn’t for them, unethical teachers like Mark Hodges wouldn’t be instructing our children anymore.
Hodges, a Fernley (NV) High School teacher and head football coach, was caught in the middle of a recruiting scandal involving FHS senior Kevin Hart, who made up a story about being offered a Division I football scholarship from the University of California, Berkley.
This strange story took an even more bizarre turn the other day when the Fernley School Board recommended that Hodges not be retained as the high school's head football coach, because new information linked him to $26,000 in unauthorized funds spent on the football program, as well as e-mail communication between the FHS coaching staff and UCB coaches denying the existence of any scholarship offer a whole three days before Hart’s big public announcement.
Coach Hodges knew Hart did not have a scholarship offer. Yet, he went along with the hoax as though everything was okay. Furthermore, it turns out that Hodges was spending money he was not authorized to spend.
So, what we have here is a liar and a fraud. But evidently the school board has decided that Hodges’ actions are not serious enough to warrant the loss of his teaching job.
Why?
One reason, two words: Teacher union.
While Hodges may not be back on the Fernley sidelines next fall, he will continue to instruct kids in the classroom. I guess, then, it’s not okay to coach kids on the field after one is found to be a liar and a fraud, but it is all right to continue teaching them in the classroom? What the heck is the difference?!
Frankly, the guy ought to lose his job for misappropriation of funds AND helping to perpetuate a lie by one of his own players. I mean, what sort of example is this guy setting for other kids in school? What kind of a role model could Hodges possibly be to the children learning in his classroom? If a kid cheats on a test, then lies about it, how can Hodges justly discipline the kid when he himself was caught lying and cheating at the school?
But thanks to the state teacher union, Hodges’ job in the classroom is protected, even if his job on the field is not. So, there’s really no skin off his nose.
I guess unscrupulous behavior is no big deal to the union, which evidently considers defending an unethical teacher’s right to a job more important than ensuring that the profession’s ethics are upheld and enforced.
If I was caught acting unethically on my job, I’d be gone the very same day.
I guess what I need is a union on my side. That way, I can act as unethically as I please and not have to worry about losing my job, because the union is watching my backside.
Where would our country be without those paragons of workplace virtue and justice, the unions? Indeed, what would we workers ever do without them?
Well, for starters, we’d have to hold ourselves accountable to a higher standard of ethical behavior to save our jobs, because unions wouldn’t be there to bail us out.
Fortunately, teachers like Hodges won’t ever have to face life without a union. Their futures are certain and secure.
So, take heart, Mr. Hodges: Even though your butt should have been thrown out onto the street for what you did, you still have a job and a union that loves your dues.