It was only a matter of time! Over the last few weeks, I have been exposing the relentless pattern of false accusations put together by the University of Winnipeg, and especially professors Bush and Metz, which resulted in me being expelled from University and even thrown in jail. The straw that broke the camel's back seems to have been the shocking admission by Professor Lauralyn Cantor, who personally called on U of W President Lloyd Axworthy last week to tell him that the very damaging accusations she made against me in her letter of Nov 2011 did not, after all, represent her own opinions; but were written up at the request of Associate Dean John Anchan for the purpose of making out a case against me for Non-Academic Misconduct.
This morning I was personally contacted by Axworthy who expressed his profound shame at the way I had been treated, and promised to move immediately to restore my reputation and punish those who had....
Well....actually, that's not what happened. It might have been nice, but it didn't.
What actually happened is this: after Professors Bush and Metz accused me of attempting to carry out a home invasion at Professor Bush's residence, I sued Bush for defamation. I actually didn't have much of a chance of winning my lawsuit, because it was only my word against his. I had no proof of what Bush actually said. But then the University went ahead and pressed criminal charges against me! That was a mistake.
At my criminal trial, I got all kinds of incriminating admissions, including explicit emails, out of the university witnesses. I promptly filed them as evidence in my civil suit for defamation. This was a huge problem for the U of W. What had started out as a very shaky case of slander (verbal defamation) was now starting to look like a rock-solid case of libel (written defamation). Mrs. Cantor's admission was an unexpected bonus...I only got the chance to examine her because security chief Martin Grainger tried unsuccessfully to blame my expulsion on an incident where I was "virtually screaming in the face" of an invited guest, an ASL translator. Mrs. Cantor not only debunked that story, she recanted her original attribution of the events in which my behavior had been characterized as extremely offensive. Now she admitted that she herself had seen nothing improper about my conduct; on the contrary, I had been highly respectful and complimentary towards the guest.
So it would have been altogether reasonable for Mr. Axworthy, in the light of all this, to step in and take action; to call for a fresh investigation into the way the proceedings against me were carried out, and to punish those who were guilty of misconduct in persecuting me. But that's not what happened...
Instead the University has now moved to strike out all the evidence I gathered at the criminal trial! They've filed a motion in the civil proceedings, asking the judge to declare all those incriminating emails inadmissible. It's basically a legal maneuver that means even if everything I've uncovered is true, I won't be allowed to use it at trial.
This may be a sound legal strategy: but what ethical justification can the University have for using it against me? The answer is plain: the ethical justification is that they think they can get away with it.
I don't think they will. But that's a story for another day.
Ethical? You use the word ethical when your behavior in class disrupting the lessons people paid for was absolutely unethical.
ReplyDeleteDouble standard Marty?
Why don't you tell us about a lesson I disrupted?
Delete"Why don't you tell us about a lesson I disrupted?" Do you just cut and paste this question every time a former classmate reminds you that YOU WERE FRICKEN DISRUPTIVE??? If you don't remember.... you have bigger problems than pending lawsuits....
DeleteThe fact that you don't see HOW you were disruptive confirms the fact that you are on the spectrum.... You can get help for this. There are plenty of strategies to help you function in society as a productive and happy individual. One strategy is to THINK before you speak. Take a moment and put your comment through a filter.
I am curious how you would summarize your (brief) time as an education student at the U of W? Did you think your behavior was in line with others? Did you have a hard time reading other peoples reactions to your often bizarre, petty and nit-picking comments? (I know, I know.... "Tell us about a lesson...")
Selective memory is a funny thing Marty.....
Why don't you tell us about even just one of my "bizarre, petty and nit-picking comments"?
DeleteI couldnt imagine spending an entire year in your class. Listening to comments for the short amount of time you were in the faculty of ed (seriously, who gets kicked out of that?!?!?!) was enough for me. You clearly couldnt gauge an audience and see that NO ONE wanted to listen to a word you had to say. WE gave you a chance, we even found it comical for quite some time, then it got tiring, and eventually very aggravating. I wouldnt want to sit there when the floor is entirely yours. I see students in elementary school that handle conflict better than you.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you tell us about a situation where I handled conflict badly?
DeleteMarty this was over 2 years ago, we have all moved on. You were a simple discussion piece among students for comic relief. I do not remember specific points/arguements/comments, I remember very often being frustrated that the class was not moving forward due to your lack of understanding and/or fighting what they were saying and trying to validate your point of view. No one agreed with anything you had to say and clearly you could not gauge an audience. Sometimes its best to sit there and shut up. This kind of merry go round with your "why dont you tell us..." is what you tried to pull in class. Its all about Marty. Well sorry pal, it wasnt and it never will be. You got kicked out, many of us have jobs, you dont. Do you even want to teach? Why did you want to get into the profession? Maybe if you answer some questions that have been posed here ppl will be more inclined to answer yours, maybe stop being so darn stubborn for once.
ReplyDeleteTo anonymous above who suggested that Marty is 'on the spectrum', aka autistic. If this were indeed the case, do you really believe that the U of W Dept of Education and its staff that became involved, acted in a reasonable and civilized manner ? I don't believe you could successfully argue that they did in a court of law or between two decent members of society. There were all sorts of small adjustments that could have been made that would have prevented the suits and hyperbolic acts. It is not the whole responsibility of someone like Marty, whether or not he is on the spectrum, to 'fit in' to the prevailing power structures and roles. Both sides need to accommodate the other.
ReplyDeleteMight be splitting hairs, here, but doesn't that sort of learning need have to be documented before the university can supply ancillary services to someone who is "on the spectrum"? If they have no documented learning needs, then how can a professor be expected to make meaningful modifications to their instruction? Outbursts, disruptions, and consistent challenges to instruction (while commendable, if the person doing the challenging can justify that they are doing it for the benefit of the class as a whole - otherwise, it's purely selfish) in a university class have never been tolerated as far as I have been enrolled (and I have been for several years, and have two university degrees to my name).
DeleteIf the professor had been doing the class some major disservice that had to be challenged, then I can understand consistent disruption.
Yes, that's why I keep challenging the haters to come up with some specifics of what I actually did or said. But they won't do it.
DeleteAnd the other thing is how even when I was perfectly respectful and courteous, as Mrs. Cantor testified in court, there were no shortage of haters who condemned me regardless. And Mrs. Cantor was willing and ready to back them up before the Dean, even though she saw nothing wrong with my conduct.
Why 'ancillary services' ? The teacher needs to be able to deal with all types of students, especially when they are adults and can't be treated with the authority that children can. Some professors talk a lot of nonsense and don't like to be challenged. Seen too many of them. Academia is full of poor teachers.
DeleteWow... okay, you just outed yourself as someone with little to no experience with special needs education. Ancillary services exist for the purpose of providing learning resources and teaching strategies to fill the gaps that the general training does not address. Even a professional teaching certification program (such as the one offered at the U of W or the U of M) does not equip new teachers with the strategies needed to comprehensively address classroom teaching strategies that are tailored for students who are on the autism spectrum. And that's today, when the amount of special needs students in the general classroom is continually increasing.
DeleteHow can you expect professors - who sometimes have no training in education at all - to know how to address special needs if programs designed specifically for teacher training don't do a good job of it? Please be realistic.
What was Mrs. Cantor supposed to be teaching us then? Is that how you plan to treat your autistic students...to sit in the teachers lounge and laugh at them behind their back ("we even found it comical for a while"), and then say it's not your responsibility to accomodate them?
DeleteHonestly, I can't even begin to imagine what pearls of wisdom we were supposed to get from that course. It wasn't, by any means, a bad class. It just did not leave us with any appreciable array of strategies to use for the various special needs we learned about (either directly from her or through the presentations we had to make). I can only imagine it was simply a course designed to survey the needs that are out there and some of the processes that exist to address them (IEP's, collaborative meetings and planning, and so on). Both years of the program were woefully lacking in specific strategies, but were rife with theory and, unfortunately, plentiful references to the documentation one needs to fill out in order to attempt to meet the needs of students with specific disabilities.
DeleteEven cooperating teachers I had during my final blocks were lacking those strategies and were unable to provide any direct guidance. It's an evolving area, and people in the field are figuring it out as they go along. More direct professional development, focused on specifics and strategies (including meaningful case studies) would be amazing... and even better would be helpful courses during those 2 certification years. But, here we are - out in the field with only a survey course on special needs to help us along...
Side-note: I am not the same "Anonymous" who stated that they "even found it comical". Sorry for the confusion.
DeleteOkay...then do YOU think it was ethical of Mrs. Cantor to lend her credibility to that girl's complaint without clarifying that she herself saw nothing wrong with my conduct?
DeleteWell, what I consider to be ethical is not necessarily what you, Dr. Cantor, or anyone else may consider to be ethical, but here goes:
DeleteWhenever I try to carry myself professionally and run into conflict with someone (colleague or otherwise), I like to try and settle the conflict on the terms of the individuals originally involved. In your case, if the dispute were between yourself and the student who reported, to Dr. Cantor, that she was offended by your actions, I would try to mitigate the conflict between the two of you and help you to reach some sort of understanding, rather than simply alerting the next man up on the totem pole right away - I would save that as a step to take only if I could not help you two reach a fair or civil resolution.
In the actual case, though, I suppose I am not sure whether or not the student who registered the complaint was comfortable enough to discuss the matter with you. That being said, I would at least try to act as an intermediary and carry out the discussion between you two before "calling in the big guns".
Honestly, if we're going by decent professional conduct, which I suppose you can deem to be ethical as well, it's always best to settle a disagreement between the original participants before moving up the ladder.
Does that answer your question? Let me know.
I appreciate your thoughtful, intelligent answer, but since you asked: no, you did not answer my question.
DeleteI didn't ask whether Mrs. Cantor's actions were the most effective way of dealing with a conflict. I asked if what she did was ethical. You know what she did. She saw nothing wrong with my conduct: but because the Dean asked her to write a letter to get me in trouble, she attached the student's horrifying complaint and made it look like she shared that opinion. I've given my opinion: that it was horribly unethical and downright dishonest. I wonder if you think I'm being a little harsh on Mrs. Cantor?
A little harsh, perhaps. You did lay her actions down on the line, but I suppose what's missing is what pushed her toward reporting it the way she did. Was there any evidence to suggest she was postured into it? If so, it's certainly unethical, but perhaps a bit harsh to lay the blame squarely on her.
DeleteIf she wasn't prodded toward the course of action she took, and chose to do so completely, then it is still, in my opinion, unethical because it fails to address the issue on terms that are just for both side of the conflict. That's why I launched into the discussion on effective conflict resolution - I think that its efficacy stems from the fact that it is ethical and just, and this event doesn't seem to satisfy those criteria for me.
So, essentially: yes, I think it was unethically handled, but no, I am not sure that I can completely agree, based on what I've read, on the blame being assigned mainly to Dr. Cantor. I would have to know more about what caused her to choose the actions she did.
PS: Just to clarify, what I mean is - I am wondering what it was that made her decide to directly approach the dean about it. We know that it was the dean who asked her to write the letter, but what I am not certain about is how she decided to move directly to speaking to the dean, rather than taking it up with you (or, for that matter, anyone else).
DeleteThat's easy. The Dean (actually John Anchan, the Associate Dean) called a meeting of all the professors (Bush, Metz, Bell and Cantor) to collect incriminating evidence against me, and at the end of the meeting, told all the professors to put down what they had on paper. All except Bush complied. I'm not sure that's any credit to Bush: I think the stories he had would have clearly shown him to be the one in the wrong, so he had no choice but to hold back. He certainly didn't do it out of solidarity with me, based on what subsequently transpired.
DeleteTo Anonymous of Feb 13 7 am - I am confident I have much more experience with you regarding special needs in the public schools. The teachers are expected to be be able to **include** many children on the spectrum in the curriculum. We have an official policy of inclusion in this province. That is why I questioned your naive comment about 'ancillary' services. There are no special teachers that come in and teach the children on the spectrum. The regular everyday teachers do that.
DeleteTo the evidently wise and perceptive Anonymous of February 13, 11:06 PM:
DeleteI am well aware of the policy of inclusion, just as I am sure you are aware of the role of a Special Education / Resource Teacher (or SERT). Do you suppose they sit upon their tuckus all day twirling in their seat? Or do you suppose they are actively involved in providing additional services, guidelines, strategies, and documentation for the classroom teacher who is required to deliver instruction to a student with special needs?
As the definition of "ancillary" is "providing necessary support to the primary activities or operation of an organization, institution, industry, or system", I think the role of a SERT fits nicely with that term.
Good night.
Well Miss Fricken (anonymous Feb 13 11:33 pm),
DeleteI suppose I am seeing things from the student side, as my son is autistic and I have seen many teachers with no clue on how to accommodate him. In the two schools he has attended, the resource teacher has not been a special needs teacher and has not been involved with his classroom teacher. Your knowledge is theoretical and irrelevant. My point in the first place was that any teacher needs to be able to work with all sorts of different students, as we are ALL on the spectrum. Maybe after some real world experience and a bit of growing up this will become more evident to you.
Well, Miss Presumptuous Anonymous of February 14, 2014 at 11:01 AM, I think that it is unfortunate that the SERT at your child's school does not provide the support needed meet your child's needs. At the end of the day - at least from my experience with my classmates in education - no teacher who is truly serious about doing their job wants to become a teacher who does not satisfy the learning needs of all of the individuals in their class.
DeleteHowever, I do find it a bit hasty to call me down. I do, in fact, teach a student who is on the autism spectrum, and it is my first year of teaching to boot. That student is not the only individual with special needs in that class, either. I think, honestly, whether or not you want to admit it, that you're making my point for me. If you are going to attack teachers for not having the skills or strategies to meet the needs of your child (or any other child with special or unmet needs), I think you need to dig a little deeper. There are "bad teachers" out there, naturally. However, most new teachers do want to do well by ALL of their students... but if you think they are equipped to do that after their 2 years in university, you really need to do some research about what teacher training entails. Though we are required to take 2 courses in special education, they are so broad and superficial that you don't come out of the program with a functioning knowledge of how to meet special needs. Moreover, unless you are paired with cooperating teachers who are particularly knowledgeable about those strategies and have a wealth of experience, your practicum is not going to help you out in that regard, either.
Yes, the province mandates that schools are to be inclusive and that teachers are to address all of the learning needs in the classroom. But since enacting that bill, what have they done to ensure that we, as teachers, have the needed skills and knowledge to realize that mandate? It's likely less than you think, and I find it unfair to blame the teachers for a lack of training in special needs in a program that is set out by the province and the three major universities in that province. Sure, there are PD sessions about certain learning needs here and there, but they aren't often enough to meaningfully address the issue. Would you expect a surgeon to be adept without classes and practical experiences that specifically speak to their discipline? Or are they simply supposed to "know how to do it" just because they're conferred a title?
In my classroom, where I work with a student on the autism spectrum, I have a SERT who organizes collaborative meetings including the student, their parents, the student's other teachers (as this is at the high school level), and the administration. We discuss workable strategies, learning preferences... even the student's sense of humor. And you know what? THAT is how I have learned to address that special need, at least for that particular student. Not one bit of my coursework provided that insight. But, by the sounds of what you've experienced, I am fortunate to have had a SERT that was so supportive and willing to learn and grow (it's their first year as a SERT).
It is regrettable that your child is not on the receiving end of that same support. But don't paint all teachers with the same brushstroke. Many want to learn to meet the needs of all of their students, but the framework for learning how to do that is barely existent.
If you want that to change, you have choices. You can continue to have tight-fisted trantrums on Marty's blog about how teachers are blithering idiots when it comes to meeting special needs. Or, you can advocate for proper training so that they understand what it means to have a child with a certain special need in their class.
I've chosen to learn from my students, from our SERT, from other teachers, and from the parents. The university, the province, and the policy-makers have been all but useless on that front.
Why dont you tell us about the times you spoke up in class to refresh our memories and we can tell you if they were rude/offensive or disruptive to that specific class (please include the topic of discussion for that day so we can understand the context of the point you were trying to make) thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteWell, that's an interesting thought. I have to wonder if these aren't the kind of details that people should have worked out BEFORE they got together to kick me out of school, but I suppose it's better late than never. Would it be helpful if I just posted the list of complaints the Registrar sent to me after I was suspended?
DeleteA list of complaints?? Wow, you were popular. For the record, I don't think people 'hate' you Marty. I think it was your behavior that was disliked. I know, I know... you have no recollection of this "behavior" and would like me to tell you about it in specifics. No thanks. You are a big boy and YOU know how you behaved.
DeleteI never said I don't remember, and I've never believed that you don't remember. I think you're afraid to come forward with any details because they'll show that it was me who was treated badly by the professors and the students, not the other way around.
DeleteWhat a perfect comment! Everyone was out to get Marty Green! Can you please post the list and remind us all of everything I had asked please! thanks!
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder how you can be so sure I deserved to get kicked out of school when you can't remember what I actually did to get you so upset.
DeleteWe've been through this. Let everyone see the list of complaints. You want the truth out there so let's see all sides of it. What did everyone else have to say?
ReplyDeleteWho said I want the truth? I don't want the truth. I want the lies. I've already got the lies Professor Bush and Professor Metz told about me, and I've got Mrs. Cantor's lies (none of which bothers you in the least). But I'm still waiting for the lies you and your friends told about me behind my back. You said I was a "discussion piece" but I have no way of knowing what you said about me until you come clean.
DeleteIf your memory is as weak as you claim (although we both know you're lying about that) why don't you ask your friends what they remember. Or ask Mrs. Cantor if she agrees that her conduct was as ethical as you make it out to be.
You offered, why are you backing out Marty?
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know how many of you "anonymouses" there are out there, but looking back at the thread, I offered, and "Anonymous" said "no thanks". If you want to be taken seriously, either use your real name or at the very least a moniker that distinuishes your from all the other random haters.
DeletePeople want to see the list...cmon... do it!
DeleteThis is Miss Fricken Anonymous. For the record, you have incorrectly amalgamated anonymous opinions. Your also pretty presumptuous that I am a 'she.' Not surprised.
DeleteIf there is a list, it would be interesting to see what the actual offenses were against you. I don't know who declined your offer, but it wasn't this anonymous....
If you're going to get all up in a snit over me not knowing which anonymous is which, then don't you think you ought to identify yourself at least with a number, e.g. anonymous13? Otherwise your outrage is a little misplaced.
DeleteAnd you are a "she", aren't you?
Where's the list? Not sure why you say I am in a 'snit.' I suppose it's because you don't like what I said. Suck it up buttercup. You seem to have forgotten to submit the list..... I won't hold my breath for that though. As if there is a list.
Delete