IN THE drive to cut budgets, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) officials recently settled on a novel premise: attack librarians.
According to the Los Angeles Times' Hector Tobar, in May, LAUSD more than 80 school librarians were systematically interrogated about their qualifications as the school district's attorneys attempt to show why they should not continue to receive a paycheck:
Some 85 credentialed teacher-librarians got layoff notices in March. If state education cuts end up being as bad as most think likely, their only chance to keep a paycheck is to prove that they're qualified to be transferred into classroom teaching jobs.
Since all middle and high school librarians are required to have a state teaching credential in addition to a librarian credential, this should be an easy task--except for a school district rule that makes such transfers contingent on having taught students within the last five years.
To get the librarians off the payroll, the district's attorneys need to prove to an administrative law judge that the librarians don't have that recent teaching experience. To try to prove that they do teach, the librarians, in turn, come to their hearings with copies of lesson plans they've prepared and reading groups they've organized.
This led to bizarre scenes with LAUSD attorneys trying to prove that librarians don't actually add to school curriculum, and the librarians countering with all the ways that they do:
A court reporter takes down testimony. A judge grants or denies objections from attorneys. Armed police officers hover nearby. On the witness stand, one librarian at a time is summoned to explain why she--the vast majority are women--should be allowed to keep her job.
The librarians are guilty of nothing except earning salaries the district feels the need to cut. But as they're cross-examined by determined LAUSD attorneys, they're continually put on the defensive.
"When was the last time you taught a course for which your librarian credential was not required?" an LAUSD attorney asked Laura Graff, the librarian at Sun Valley High School, at a court session on Monday.
"I'm not sure what you're asking," Graff said. "I teach all subjects, all day. In the library."
"Do you take attendance?" the attorney insisted. "Do you issue grades?"
I've seen a lot of strange things in two decades as a reporter, but nothing quite as disgraceful and weird as this inquisition the LAUSD is inflicting upon more than 80 school librarians.
"With my experience, it makes me angry to be interrogated," Graff told me after the 40 minutes she spent on the witness stand, describing the work she's done at libraries and schools going back to the 1970s. "I don't think any teacher-librarian needs to sit here and explain how they help teach students."
In another instance, Sandra Lagasse, a librarian at White Middle School for 20 years, was forced to defend her job, and brought with copies of lesson plans in Greek word origins and mythology with her:
On the witness stand, she described tutoring students in geometry and history, including subjects like the Hammurabi Code. Her multi-subject teaching credential was entered into evidence as "Exhibit 515."
Lagasse also described the "Reading Counts" program she runs in the library, in which every student in the school is assessed for reading skills.
"This is not a class, correct?" a school district attorney asked her during cross-examination.
"No," she said. "It is part of a class."
"There is no class at your school called 'Reading Counts'? Correct."
"No."
Lagasse endured her time on the stand with quiet dignity and confidence. She described how groups of up to 75 students file into her library--and how she works individually with many students.
Later she told me: "I know I'm doing my job right when a student tells me, 'Mrs. Lagasse, that book you gave me was so good. Do you have anything else like it?' "
Sadly, such a sentiment is likely lost on the bean counters at LAUSD--who are all-too-willing to cut people oust people like Graff and Lagasse from their jobs, no matter the harm it causes to the kids they teach.
