Former student extends support to teachers’ plight

Tonight my heart is breaking. Thousands of America’s heroes are a world away fighting for justice while right here at home a huge injustice is playing out. As a result of this injustice, some of our other heroes, my heroes, are going to jail.

In order to understand the full magnitude of this injustice, you need to understand why many of the teachers in Middletown are my heroes. Carol DiSalvo, an English teacher at Thompson Middle School, was the first person to believe in me as a writer when I didn’t think I was good at much at all. Barbara Gunther, a history teacher at Middletown North, was the first person to teach me to think "outside the box" with her unorthodox teaching style that includes a memorable rendition of the "1812 Overture." I am sure several hundred readers who have had Ms. Gunther through the 25 plus years she has graced Middletown’s classrooms are smiling a knowing smile at that memory.

Robert Welsh, my high school track coach, taught me what it means to work for something and push yourself to achieve. Richard Piro, a math teacher at High School North, tutored me on his own time, for free, so that I could pass math analysis. You might say this was Mr. Piro’s job until you find out he was not my classroom instructor, just a friend who saw more in me than I saw in myself.

Tonight, some of their colleagues, other Middletown students’ heroes, are sitting in jail for fighting for the right to be compensated fairly as all college educated professionals should be. Tomorrow, each of the heroes I mentioned above will be called into a courthouse and asked if they will return to work for an ungrateful employer who refuses to bargain for a fair agreement, or stand up for what is fair, what is right, and what they deserve. The cost for the latter is they will be thrown in jail like common criminals.

The character of the people I mentioned tells me they will not give in and will go through the humiliating experience of being sent to prison. Not many professionals have to risk being thrown in jail to beg for a paltry 3- or 4-percent pay increase.

I, myself, am a management consultant. The CEO of my company talks with conviction about the need for our corporation to be "the employer of choice for professionals in our field." Have Jack DeTalvo and the Board of Education seen to making Middletown the "employer of choice" for people in the education profession? I don’t see how they could when they are busy having my heroes thrown in prison.

The schools in Middletown were once a shining example of success. Years of poor management and politics have driven it into the ground. The only thing left of value in those crumbling buildings is the dedicated members of the Middletown Township Education Association, my heroes.

I want my heroes to know I am thinking about them, praying for them, supporting them 100 percent.

Paul Hencoski

Middletown North

class of 1995

West New York