The other day, as Raymond and I ate our meal at a little diner down the road, he piped up about something he'd heard in the news.
"Hey, did you know we have a teacher shortage here in Louisiana?"
"Yeah, it's been that way for a while. Louisiana is last in education after all. Our teachers suck too..."
"Well, some agency has brought over a bunch of teachers from another country to help teach our dumb American children"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yep, and guess what country they are from!"
I thought a few moments, asking myself repeating the question in my head and wondering...then it clicked.
"The Philippines," I said, matter-of-factly. I knew.
Ray brought this up because he knew I'd be interested.
"Yep, you guessed it"
I was thinking to myself many thoughts at that moment. I thought to myself of how ashamed I am regarding Louisiana's educational system. I thought about all my teachers that I'd had and how some of them were brilliant while others were dumb fucks. I thought about how LITTLE we pay our teachers and how I think I am sure I could pull tax dollars from some other pool of money that is set aside for dumb shit like funding military projects that are useless (If I were given a full report of what all we're spending our money on, of course...in other words, if I were the fucking president!)
I also thought, "Oh God! How embarrassing! Now the Filipinos will truly know how DUMB people from Louisiana truly are! God help us all..." and I just sighed.
I was thinking a lot of things actually, and was wondering if any of the Filipino teachers had made their way to Northern Louisiana (where I live) around the Shreveport/Bossier City area. I don't get to meet many Filipinos, so this was an interesting thought. My doctor is Filipino and he's a damn nice guy, but I don't think I've met many others.
So anyhow, yesterday as I was on my way to work in my car, I tuned into some local news on the radio (I rarely listen to the radio, but I'm glad I did yesterday). I heard the DJ say something about a scam or controversy surrounding the Filipino teachers but I didn't catch what she was saying. I called Ray up and asked him to buy a news paper for me so I could read it after work and see if they were covering the story. Below is the article. I hope that it is readable.
I didn't post the entire article (obviously it continues further from the front cover. YES this was on the FRONT COVER of our newspaper!) because....well
1)the article continuation of the article on the 5th page of our paper was awkwardly scruntched up between other stories and it made scanning impossible almost. I tried to scan it and it resulted in a half cut-off scan that was impossible to read.
and
2) The article suddenly cut off in the middle of a quote. I can't even find the rest of the freaking article! I can't find the rest of the story! I scanned over the entire fucking news paper and it does not continue. I want to FIRE the editor.
And...and and and and....
HOLY SHIT DUDE! Talk about irony!
Look AGAIN at the second picture I posted!
The little headline says "On They Way Here" .... Sure, that was a typo of course.
Or was it?
Are we residents of Louisiana THIS stupid? Perhaps!
How can a fucking typo like that make its way into our paper? When I see shit like that, it stands out like a red flag. Sure, I have typos in my blogs, but hell, they're fucking BLOGS! It's not a newspaper.
it's just so IRONIC that we have this headline with a typo (or perhaps displaying our stupidity?) in reference to an article that clearly shouts, "Hey we don't have enough teachers and the ones we do have suck ass, so help us Philippines! Oh and we'll rip you off too and threaten your family..."
Yes help us Philippines! Our fucking teachers are stupid and we don't have enough of them. America is really pissing me off with their stupid educational system.
The other day on the news, Pres Obama was saying how he wanted to lengthen the school days in America because our poor kids' grades are so damn low and they aren't spending enough time learning. No no no Mr Obama you have it all fuckin wrong. It's our culture! Our dumb parenting skills! Our stupid citizens who have no BUSINESS having children and yet they do, they do! They reproduce like mindless fucktards and don't have any desire to teach their children anything from manners to their ABC's. If I had a kid, I'd shower that fuckin kid with knowledge. I'd devote all my fuckin time to shoving knowledge into that kid's brain (in a nice, non-Hilter way maybe...)
Anyhow, this has turned into a rant now officially.
So I checked out this blog
Click me
It's the Filipino teachers' blog about this whole injustice.
Now, the injustice of the situation truly falls upon the shoulders of this Lulu Navarro person. She is a Filipino and a scammer who is living in the United States. She is involved with the UPI organization. This organization is based out in California, but the complaints were filed here in Louisiana. According to the newspaper article, a local school board member claims that investigation will be quite complex and a hard issue to tackle because it is an out of state agency. Whatever, they need to investigate it immediately! UGH these people are paying out of their ASSES to protect their families and to not get deported out of the country. This is WRONG WRONG WRONG!
I signed their online petition for their cause, but I fear it won't do any good. Online petitions (in my experience) aren't really taken seriously, especially by a COURT. It certainly won't hurt though.
I left a comment on their blogger page as well:
"I can't believe this. I am just now hearing of this from the local media here in Shreveport, Louisiana. I am not Filipino, just a resident here in Louisiana, but I am so ashamed that this has happened. I pray justice will be done for all the teachers and I apologize. I feel so ashamed that we (Americans) made promises without any foundation of truth in order to squeeze money out of teachers. Teachers! Of all people! Teachers...one of the most noble occupations in the world, in my opinion.
I will find out what I as an average citizen can do to fight this issue and at least raise awareness about it. The more the world knows, the more we can try to put a stop to this. My heart goes out to the teachers and families involved in this situation. My best to you all. God bless you all."
While the person behind this all is Filipino, we Americans allowed it to happen. She paid people and had connections through money to hound these teachers and make their life miserable. We Americans who are out of touch with our educational system are also to blame for this. I am so saddened by this.
Sign their online petition
Blog spot
Official complaint filed in state of Louisiana on behalf of the Filipino teachers
Below is one comment from the petition:
I am one of the teachers here in Baton Rouge that was hired by PARS and UPI last 2008. This was my 2nd year and Lulu Navarro keeps on harassing us because of the additional 10% that we have to pay. She even sent letters to schools where we used to teach and she's always updated with our new teaching location, because she knew influential people in the district office.
Below is my comment from the petition:
I fully support this petition and offer up any help I can for our Filipino teachers here in the United States.
I put my first and last name on it along with my city and state. I want people to know I support it. I'll try and raise awareness about it. gah -.-
I was ashamed of our educational system, but now it's even worse. This really hit a sore spot with me.
I hope these people will receive justice.
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