After raising a ruckus over issues for several months now, public school teacher representative Ambrose Bennett finally got an official response from the Board of Education yesterday: a motion to sanction him.<\/p>\n
The board, led by chair Roman C. Benavente, adopted a motion to sanction Bennett over what it described as Bennett\u2019s \u201cunprofessional, unethical and threatening acts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benavente, in particular, cited that Bennett lately wrote him a \u201cnasty\u201d letter, reflecting on the teacher representative\u2019s \u201cvery unprofessional behavior.\u201d <\/p>\n
The board chair had issued a warning to Bennett last May following the latter\u2019s issuance of a letter allegedly \u201cmaligning\u201d board member Herman Guerrero and his use of the BOE letterhead when writing letters.<\/p>\n
Board members presented yesterday other letters that Bennett had allegedly written criticizing the board. Board members Marja Lee Taitano and private sector representative Scott Norman did most of the talking during yesterday\u2019s discussion on Bennett. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe presented the things [as proof of] his unprofessional actions. We stated all our positions, which he had a chance to reply, we put a motion to sanction him and he was sanctioned,\u201d said Taitano, who chairs the ad-hoc committee on Bennett\u2019s proposed collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n
Norman said he spoke as a fellow appointee or a non-elective member and a member whom Bennett had also attacked in his previous letters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he has been doing has been in violation of board regulations\u2014unethical and unprofessional,\u201d said Norman.<\/p>\n
He cited that Bennett, instead of putting his concerns before the board, has taken his grievance \u201coutside the board to the newspapers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett, he said, had \u201ctwisted\u201d his previous advice as a new member \u201cto sit and listen [first] and familiarize himself with board regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norman said that Bennett went out quoting him as saying that, as a non-voting member, he just had to sit in one corner and not talk.<\/p>\n
Bennett\u2019s sanction does not mean suspension from the board. It was more of a slap on the wrist, to formally make known his \u201cunprofessional actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think other further action would be necessary. But we always reserve the right to take further action if he continues to do things that are outside board parameters, and against board regulations,\u201d Norman said.<\/p>\n
Yesterday\u2019s issues included Bennett\u2019s use of the board letterhead and his often critical letters of the board which he had sent out to the media.<\/p>\n
Bennett said he had apologized to Benavente before yesterday\u2019s meeting. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the way I write to the paper [as reason for sanction]. What they\u2019re saying is that I can only act on things they ask of me. I think it\u2019s a violation of my duty. It also means teachers are inhibited in their rights to representation on the board. The board is stopping it,\u201d said Bennett. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t want me to write letters to the media. But I wrote them [board members] hundreds of letters and they ignored them that\u2019s why I wrote in the news. Their strategy is just to ignore me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Bennett insisted that as a non-recognized exclusive bargaining agent for public school teachers, a teacher representative can\u2019t do much. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is little I or any teacher representative can do unless there\u2019s collective bargaining right,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Bennett said yesterday\u2019s conduct of the board was professional but \u201cwhat they did to me was not professional.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more about nitpicking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bennett said, though, that \u201cI can deal with the sanction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After raising a ruckus over issues for several months now, public school teacher representative Ambrose Bennett finally got an official response from the Board of Education yesterday: a motion to sanction him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}