Leo Casey's Disney Conspiracy Debunked
Leo Casey is a special representative for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City. He has been one of the union's leading lights for many years. He is well-respected and has even received favorable mention in these pages. He is known for being the lead contributor to UFT's EdWize blog.
Yesterday afternoon Leo posted "Disney and Me: On Being Erased From Official Corporate History," which begins:
"On the Disney Company’s corporate website, the reader will find a honor roll of teachers from across the United States who have been recognized by the American Teacher Awards, starting with the first class of 1990 and concluding with the last class of 2006. A close examination will reveal that there is no teacher listed as the 1992 honoree in the category of Social Studies. Two of the three Social Studies finalists are listed, but the teacher who was actually named Social Studies Teacher of the Year is missing.*
"I am that missing teacher. My name disappeared some time after I organized a public letter, signed by twenty-five American Teacher Award honorees, protesting Disney’s sponsorship of John Stossel’s Stupid in America, an ideological broadside against public education and the teachers who labor in our public schools."
The asterisk at the end of the first paragraph refers readers to screen shots of the current Disney page and the Google cache of the page as it used to look. And, sure enough, Casey's name is missing from the current page. Casey posted these, he states, "in anticipation that this listing might change once again in response to this posting."
Casey's story was picked up and championed as evidence of the petty evils of corporate America by The Daily Gotham, AFT's NCLBlog, Daily Kos (with, at last count, 182 credulous reader comments), BuzzFlash, and Democrats for Education Reform (shame on you, Joe!). Only Eduwonk expressed some skepticism.
That Leo's name is missing from the current page of Disney honorees is indisputable. That the omission has anything to do with the "Stupid in America" letter is easily disproved.
Exhibit A) Of the 25 honorees who signed the letter, Casey is the only one who is missing from Disney's web page. The letter lists the signatories in alphabetical order, giving Casey no special recognition as the composer of the letter.
Exhibit B) The Google cache page is dated October 1, 2007. It sometimes takes up to two months for Google to update a cache page, depending on how often the original page is updated, but it's still hard to believe that Disney was so angry about the letter, that it would erase Leo Casey alone more than a year after it was sent.
Exhibit C) A comparison of the current page to the Google page reveals a significant difference - the current page lists the honorees in chronological order, the Google cache page lists them in alphabetical order, regardless of year. This may explain why Leo and the blogs who cited him didn't bother to check whether any other honorees were missing.
Surprise! I only checked through "H" and I still found 14 other Disney honorees whose names, like Leo's, didn't make it to the new page. They are:
Karen Butterfield, 1993 honoree for Visual Arts
Colleen Mary Callahan, 1991, Performing Arts
Lauradis Cardet, 1990, Foreign Language
Todd Coleman, 1993, Early Childhood
Carolyn L. Cotton, 1990, Vocational Arts
Judy Darden, 1992, Early Childhood
Beverly Y. Davidman, 1994, Mathematics
Stephen Fox, 1991, Physical Education/Health
Katherine K. Fujii, 1991, Science
Rebecca Goldman, 1992, Early Childhood
John E. Guardia, 1990, General Elementary
Janet Walton Hayes, 1990, Physical Education/Health
Herbert Lee Holland, 1991, Performing Arts
Virginia Honomichi, 1991, Athletic Coach
I could have continued to "Z," but why? As far as I can tell, none of these teachers has reason to fear petty retribution from Disney, yet they, like Leo, are also missing. The fact that all the names are from the early 1990s suggests transcription errors, rather than some ridiculous conspiracy theory.
It's pathetic that Leo himself spent so much time and energy writing up his little corporate persecution story without the smallest attempt to see if it held water. But what's worse is that so many people ran with it without bothering to ask such simple questions.
UPDATE: See Leo Stands By His Fantasy.
Yesterday afternoon Leo posted "Disney and Me: On Being Erased From Official Corporate History," which begins:
"On the Disney Company’s corporate website, the reader will find a honor roll of teachers from across the United States who have been recognized by the American Teacher Awards, starting with the first class of 1990 and concluding with the last class of 2006. A close examination will reveal that there is no teacher listed as the 1992 honoree in the category of Social Studies. Two of the three Social Studies finalists are listed, but the teacher who was actually named Social Studies Teacher of the Year is missing.*
"I am that missing teacher. My name disappeared some time after I organized a public letter, signed by twenty-five American Teacher Award honorees, protesting Disney’s sponsorship of John Stossel’s Stupid in America, an ideological broadside against public education and the teachers who labor in our public schools."
The asterisk at the end of the first paragraph refers readers to screen shots of the current Disney page and the Google cache of the page as it used to look. And, sure enough, Casey's name is missing from the current page. Casey posted these, he states, "in anticipation that this listing might change once again in response to this posting."
Casey's story was picked up and championed as evidence of the petty evils of corporate America by The Daily Gotham, AFT's NCLBlog, Daily Kos (with, at last count, 182 credulous reader comments), BuzzFlash, and Democrats for Education Reform (shame on you, Joe!). Only Eduwonk expressed some skepticism.
That Leo's name is missing from the current page of Disney honorees is indisputable. That the omission has anything to do with the "Stupid in America" letter is easily disproved.
Exhibit A) Of the 25 honorees who signed the letter, Casey is the only one who is missing from Disney's web page. The letter lists the signatories in alphabetical order, giving Casey no special recognition as the composer of the letter.
Exhibit B) The Google cache page is dated October 1, 2007. It sometimes takes up to two months for Google to update a cache page, depending on how often the original page is updated, but it's still hard to believe that Disney was so angry about the letter, that it would erase Leo Casey alone more than a year after it was sent.
Exhibit C) A comparison of the current page to the Google page reveals a significant difference - the current page lists the honorees in chronological order, the Google cache page lists them in alphabetical order, regardless of year. This may explain why Leo and the blogs who cited him didn't bother to check whether any other honorees were missing.
Surprise! I only checked through "H" and I still found 14 other Disney honorees whose names, like Leo's, didn't make it to the new page. They are:
Karen Butterfield, 1993 honoree for Visual Arts
Colleen Mary Callahan, 1991, Performing Arts
Lauradis Cardet, 1990, Foreign Language
Todd Coleman, 1993, Early Childhood
Carolyn L. Cotton, 1990, Vocational Arts
Judy Darden, 1992, Early Childhood
Beverly Y. Davidman, 1994, Mathematics
Stephen Fox, 1991, Physical Education/Health
Katherine K. Fujii, 1991, Science
Rebecca Goldman, 1992, Early Childhood
John E. Guardia, 1990, General Elementary
Janet Walton Hayes, 1990, Physical Education/Health
Herbert Lee Holland, 1991, Performing Arts
Virginia Honomichi, 1991, Athletic Coach
I could have continued to "Z," but why? As far as I can tell, none of these teachers has reason to fear petty retribution from Disney, yet they, like Leo, are also missing. The fact that all the names are from the early 1990s suggests transcription errors, rather than some ridiculous conspiracy theory.
It's pathetic that Leo himself spent so much time and energy writing up his little corporate persecution story without the smallest attempt to see if it held water. But what's worse is that so many people ran with it without bothering to ask such simple questions.
UPDATE: See Leo Stands By His Fantasy.
Leo has gone beyond special rep and is now the high school VP, being elected at an Exec. Bd meeting of the UFT recently. Overjoyed high school teachers danced in the streets at the election of ever popular Leo by a body of 90 while they are denied the right to elect the high school VP in general elections.
Posted by
ed notes online |
December 01, 2007 5:33 AM
Thanks for researching this. It's remarkable that someone in Mr. Casey's position could not bother to do the same. Previously, he accused a UFT opposition group of Nazism because of the iconography on their website, which I think was based on that of the United Farm Workers. Mr. Casey has also blatantly libeled me, attributing the words of the LA Times editorial board to me and accusing me of "making up facts," as though such a thing were possible.
It's remarkable that UFT President Randi Weingarten would promote and seek the counsel of someone like Mr. Casey, who obviously can't be bothered doing his homework.
You'd think the people who run a teachers' union would have some respect for homework. You'd be mistaken.
Posted by
NYC Educator |
December 01, 2007 8:48 AM
So Mr. Casey is upset because Disney (he claims) did to him what he wanted to do to John Stoessel? Alert the media.
Posted by
allen |
December 02, 2007 9:38 AM
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