The Providence Public School District has been in the news recently due to its racially discriminatory conduct against white teachers, which has been challenged by Legal Insurrection Foundation:
Before that, we spotlighted Providence (RI) teacher Ramona Bessinger. Our most recent post on October 8, 2022, gives the history of Bessinger’s struggles ever since she blew the whistle in a post at Legal Insurrection about the corrupting influences of a new radicalized and racialized curriculum at her middle school, Providence (RI) Schools Bow To Radical Mob, Remove Whistleblower Ramona Bessinger From Teaching Position.
Here’s a brief excerpt for those of you who are not familiar with Bessinger:
…We have covered Bessinger’s story from inception. In July 2021, then a middle school teacher, Bessinger blew the whistle at Legal Insurrection on a new radicalized and racialized curriculum that was creating racial tension in school, including turning students and staff against her because she is white….Bessinger received national and international media attention:The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board called it Education Horror Show, Continued …After that publicity, Bessinger suffered retaliation, including physical intimidation. Rather than stand up for Bessinger’s rights, Providence Schools involuntary transferred her from middle school to Classical High School, where she sat in a windowless basement for almost a year before finally getting a classroom teaching position after filing a formal grievance. Providence Schools was unwilling to prove its case at a grievance hearing, so it agreed to reinstate Bessinger to a classroom position not long before the hearing was to take place. Bessinger was represented by a union lawyer and also by James Peterson, Esq., of Judicial Watch.Being back in the classroom, Bessinger declared victory, believing her ordeal finally was over and she could get back to doing what she loved and had been doing for over 20 years, teaching ….Hope was given a chance.The Wall Street Journal noted on July 25, 2022, A Teacher Triumphs Over the Woke Educational Establishment ……. just about a month after resuming her classroom teaching, the mob was after Bessinger again. We chronicled how in Whistleblower Providence (RI) Teacher Ramona Bessinger Under Attack Again, Teachers Helping Organize Student Protest Against Her …The protest took place with about 40-50 students in attendance according to a person I spoke with who was there, confirmed by the photos of the event. A left-wing website called “UpriseRI” published photos of the students at the protest and the name of a student who wrote a post for the website attacking Bessinger, and claimed “over 130” students joined the walk out.We covered the protest in our post, Judicial Watch Demands Providence (RI) Schools Cease and Desist “Retaliation and Harassment” Of Ramona Bessinger ….Then things went from worse, to even more worse. Bessinger was Threatened At School By Student Protest Leader ….In a letter dated October 7 but received by Bessinger today (October 8), the Providence Schools informed Bessinger she was being put on administrative leave with pay, was barred from any interaction with staff, students, or parents, and was under “internal investigation” …
Since then, Legal Insurrection Foundation obtained over 175 pages of documents from the Providence School District pursuant to a public records request. Most of the records are unsurprising – in the handful of days leading up to being relieved of her teaching duties in the midst of the student protest, several community activists (and a professor at Clark University) as well as a very small number of parents of trans students complained that Bessinger’s publicly expressed viewpoints warranted her removal from her position at Classical High. While most of the documents are unsurprising and uninteresting, there is an important document that predated Bessinger even arriving at Classical High.
On August 3, 2022, an English Teacher at Classical High started organizing in anticipation of Bessinger’s arrival at the school.
Hello Classical parents!I am an English teacher at our school. Just heard that Ramona Bessinger, an alt right mouthpiece for barely coded racist, homophobic and transphobic filth, will be teaching 9th and 12th graders at our school this fall. [redacted] his classmates could end up in her classroom makes me … well it brings up a lot of negative feelings. I wonder if a parent group could make a little noise around this issue.ThanksLet me know
The teacher’s name is disclosed in the production, but for the moment I’m not naming her. The teacher used her Providence Schools account to send the email, which is why it showed up in a public records request production. But she sent it to someone who was not in the system but active in a parents group, as well as copying herself at what appears to be a non-Providence Schools email. So whatever happened after that would not be part of the public records production.
But it puts the hostility towards Bessinger at Classical High in context. That hostility predated anything Bessinger did or did not do, said or did not say, after joining the school.
That teacher was one of the several teachers Bessinger, the records reveal, accused of assisting or encouraging (in some unspecified way) the student protesters. Those teachers, the records reveal, denied it to the administration. On October 6, 2022, the day before Bessinger was removed, the teachers, including the teacher who organized against Bessinger before she even arrived at the school, filed an internal complaint against Bessinger, saying her reporting the teachers’ names to the principal was “bullying and harassment.”
As of now, Bessinger appears to still be employed, though on paid leave. How long that will last is unclear.
What is clear is that when Bessinger was involuntarily transferred to Classical High, after her middle school whistleblowing retaliation, she walked into a situation where an influential teacher already was organizing against her based on Bessinger’s viewpoints.
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