Francisco Garabitos and the Primal Network Brain
Bronx middle school teacher Francisco Garabitos was accused of striking a student and evidently was told to report to a New York City “rubber room” instead of his classroom. Garabitos was a teacher union chapter chairman at his school and his first response, naturally enough, was to call the United Federation of Teachers and ask to speak to UFT President Randi Weingarten. Told Weingarten was in Washington, he asked to speak to Sterling Roberson, the union’s head of school security. It isn’t known at this time whether they spoke.
What isn’t in dispute is that at about 8:30 this morning, Garabitos barricaded himself in the school’s computer lab, claiming to have planted a bomb in the school. He told school officials, “I have a date with God.” The school campus was evacuated and police called in. During negotiations, Garabitos admitted there was no bomb, but that he was going on a hunger strike and wanted the school principal ousted. He surrendered to authorities at 11:15. No one was injured.
An Internet search reveals Garabitos is connected to Detower Editions, a Bronx publisher. His résumé is posted, but more interesting is an article he evidently co-authored on school discipline. It begins:
Most approaches to child’s care today are focused on pampering cognitive behavior and understanding academic subjects based on ‘children first’ ideology. On the contrary, we believe that academic skills are secondary to psychomotor skills, and that children should not to be the center of social attention but need to be assigned a place of limited importance within the adult group. They shouldn’t get an automatic power rank like we do, because social-academic status is something humans develop into over time and only exists within the context of other adults.
He goes on to describe the Primal Network Brain, which boils down to:
Consequently a parent or a teacher should not waste time providing redundant explanations and details when giving simple direct primordial instructions. Children become unstable when adults try to explain the implications of primal commands (such as; stop, come here, eat, sleep) the reasons for which could not be comprehended at their developmental level of metacognition.
There is no evidence yet that Garabitos’ approach was related to the alleged run-in with his student, but there’s no doubt he understood the consequences of such actions:
Teachers and parents should avoid any kind of hitting, slapping, whipping, kicking, punching, grabbing, pushing, or pulling for it may be misconstrued as part of aggression and could lead to physical and/or legal confrontations.
Ironically, Garabitos had a particular interest in school safety issues. The photo accompanying this blog post shows him (at left) attending a UFT school safety workshop last November, speaking to Anthony Orzo of the New York City Department of Education. Sterling Roberson spoke at the workshop, and there were sessions devoted to violence prevention and the discipline code.
UFT will be holding a press conference momentarily to provide further details. There is irony involved here for the union as well. Just last Friday, Weingarten issued a press release commemorating the 10th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School. In it, she said:
The AFT has long been a proponent of proactive measures to ensure that all students, teachers and school staff are afforded a supportive and safe learning and working environment. Large-scale violent acts like those at Columbine, though rare, understandably grab our attention. However, it is crucial that we focus on early intervention to address more common signs of antisocial behavior-such as bullying, teasing, fighting and harassment-before they lead to tragedy.
UPDATE: The UFT press statement is here, and WNYC radio has further details of the press conference available as an mp3 file. Apparently UFT and the principals’ union are at odds over who is to blame for this.
UPDATE #2: It wasn’t clear at first, but after additional digging it seems that Garabitos and Dr. Fran Detower are one and the same person, which means all the material at http://www.detower.com is his writing (he also owns the domain names richteacher.net, signalglo.com and dhernz.com). I invite you to examine all of it. Of particular note is Genocide XXX – A Regressive Archive Video Documental, produced by F. Garabitos, directed by F. Detower, and narrated by “C. Amampour.”
The New York press has already latched onto The Virgin & the Beast (the graphic of the cover actually reads “Virgin & the Bitch”), which contains “mature content.” Fran Detower and Dr. Hernz appear in the story.
UPDATE #3: The New York Times reports:
A spokesman for the school system said Mr. Garabitos’s service has included more than a dozen allegations of misconduct, mostly for corporal punishment of students. Two of the allegations have been substantiated and two remain under investigation, including Thursday’s incident.
Twice in the last three years, Mr. Garabitos spent time in a reassignment center for teachers and other school officials removed from the schools.
The New York Post also mentions the previous allegations, but none ever reached the city’s special investigations office:
Garabitos, a teacher since 1981, has been investigated 14 times for allegations and has twice been cited for two cases of using corporal punishment against students, in 2002 and 2004.
“There are so many reasons why this teacher does not belong in a school, much less in front of children,” city Department of Education spokesman David Cantor said yesterday.
But the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigations, which handles probes of the most serious misconduct allegations against school personnel, said it had never received a complaint against Garabitos.
UPDATE #4: Garabitos released without bail. Apparently no bomb threat was made. The latest is here.
April 24th, 2009 at 16:40
Why is Garabitos interest in safety being villify by your organization? Garabitos is a great humanitarian and he is a teacher who likes to collaborate with fellow educators and a team player. Why are you villifying his interest in safety. He is a hero in my eyes. He took a bullet for all those teachers that are being abused and intimidated by their CEO’s administrators who have no concept about what real education is all about. We should be helping this man– instead of condemning him. We haven’t walked a mile in his shoes. He took a stance against teacher abuse. BRAVO GARABITOS@
April 24th, 2009 at 16:46
Noticed that Weingarten’s statement insisted on early intervention. Teachers are put through a rigorous course of study– NO ONE GIVES US A DEGREE –WE EARN IT!!! I happen to be Garabitos coworker and happen to know the student he is accused of “HITTING” Or as some newspaper erroneously reported “TAKING HIM BY THE NECK” ALL OF IT FABRICATED NOTIONS BY AN ADMINSTRATOR WHO WANTS THIS TEACHER OUT OF HIS SCHOOL BECAUSE HE REPRESENTS A THREAT BECAUSE HE KNOWS HIS CONTRACTUAL RIGHTS!!! This student has reportedly told other students, “Yea, I got the NIGGER FIRED AND WHAT???” This is America, the students have all the rights and the teachers who got educated because they love to teach students, they have NONE. THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE???
April 25th, 2009 at 13:27
Ms. Perez,
You can color Mr. Garabitos gone. What remains for you to do is to expose the administrator’s prevarications… and put your own job on the line. Talk to a union lawyer first. Don’t try to save Garabitos; go after the folks who caused his breakdown.
Start with the “reporters who covered the story. Get your facts (dates, times, what you personally witnessed and what was said in your presence or by you, etc.) straight before you open your mouth.
April 26th, 2009 at 14:38
If I reconnected with my own self in the middle of my life was because of this great educator. He inspire my daughter and I to do things we never though we would… Today my daughter is the leader of a community center and I went back to school and inspire to do 5 positive things as he told us to do. Stop judging and stop looking on the surface… Check out the history of this so call principal… and two thumbs up for Mr Garabitos that had the guts to face and entire nation….We love you Fran.
April 26th, 2009 at 14:42
I am 16 years old student and met Mr Garabitos through my
mom…. He is the best dud I’ve ever met…Great inspiration for many once you let him in your life.
Dud!!! thanks… and Ok to raise your voice.
Kassandra, Alexandra or whatever you use to call me
April 27th, 2009 at 06:34
IF you all know him, can you confirm that the website in question does in fact belong to him? If so i’d say there’s a pretty clear case that he shouldn’t be teaching.
Also no matter what has happened to you, threatening the lives of children is never the answer. I too suspect that there is more to this story, but lets be real. If the police were called, then this was serious.
April 30th, 2009 at 03:51
I’m on it. Also, understand that I have nothing to fear because the TRUTH SHALL SET US FREE!
May 1st, 2009 at 21:24
Thank you all for your concerns… We must read all sides before making a comment…consider my statement given to teachers, parents and to press:
>>On April 24, I forced the evacuation of the school for a fire drill. THE CHILDREN WERE NEVER NOT PUT A RISK. It is recorded that I called 911 and the Union while barricading myself inside the classroom for a hunger strike in protest to the unfair methods of arbitrary reassignment used by the Division of Human Resources. This counter-action I took on my own without consultation or approval from UFT. The principal of MS325 Mr. Kelly and the Principal of MS 145 evacuated the building in a safe and orderly manner before the bomb squad arrived. But the MS328 principal Mr. Bastian on the second floor was a total disorganization with no chain of command and no safety plan in place.
I reacted with this civil disobedience because of the principal’s countless violation of contract and he has made two previous false allegations of child abuse against me personally, with the clear intend of removing the voice of Union from the school… If I did such a crime, I demanded that criminal charges by the school and parents must be filed with police. An arrest could not be made because the parents of the child understood that the boy was not harmed but removed for violating discipline code.
This time I refused to leave quietly and took the last stand on behalf of those others 500 teachers who could not. I negotiated time with safety squad and waited it out until the Union and DOE authorities showed up to leave the school. I also wrote a second letter requesting an immediate investigation over the working conditions which has prompted the turn-over of 80% of the staff leaving MS 328 due to the supervisory impotence of the superintendent and the professional harassment done by Principal Dorald Bastian.
By 8.30 am someone else from the building made a second or a third call to 911 saying that there was bomb in the building… FOR THE RECORD: I Francisco Garabitos never claimed to have hostages, did not have a bomb nor any kind of explosives; Whoever made such a call should be prosecuted further.
In the course of my 30 years as a public educator I had been in direct contact with thousands of children, prevented or intervened in hundreds of fights between children by pushing some aside, pulling one from another or using my body as a buffer zone between hyperactive students but never abused nor caused injury to anyone. Indeed I have been accused 18 times… but 16 times it has been proven to be false and I only received two disciplinary letters in 25 years of uninterrupted service….NEVER BEEN ARRESTED.. Yet the current system of “special investigations” with automatic reporting is unfairly used as the principal’s tool to reassign over 500 teachers which are being treated as guilty perpetrators of evil, held in unlawful confinement, vilified and emotionally tortured, pending a timeless investigation of mostly fabricated allegations without a due process….
THESE ARE THE REASONS WHY I REACH THE END OF A $100,000.00 CAREER FOR ONE in order to STOP PROFESSIONAL ABUSES AGAINST MANY.
Although the lack of a clear discipline structure at MS 328 is the main cause of school’s disruptions, I believe that anyone (children and/or adults) who violates laws and regulations must be promptly investigated and/or prosecuted within 48 hours… Conversely, those who fabricate false allegations against me and serve as false witness must be also prosecuted immediately. Lying children should be suspended and adults should be fined and/or imprisoned.
BASIC SCHOOL ISSUES:
That the parents and general public be informed of the teacher’s shortage and discipline situation at MS 328.
That the Office of Special Investigation sends its agents to MS 328 within 48 hours to handle allegations.
That the DOE interview individual staff members as to the stressful conditions caused by Principal Dorald Bastian
That the UFT charge the principal for interfering with Union Business, teacher harassment and safety violations
That the Principal Dorald Bastian be transferred or terminated for poor personnel management skills.
That a SAVE room be permanently staffed to hold/counsel disruptive students removed from classroom.
That the DEAN position be devoted FULL TIME exclusively for safety and discipline related issues
That Security officers be allowed to patrol corridors to remove disruptive-truants roaming the halls.
DOE:
That a 72 hours method of pre-investigation be used by OSI-SCI before removing teachers from their positions unless there is reasonable evidence of actual criminal violations against federal, state and/or education laws.
That the DOE close the RUBBER ROOMS and release teachers with pay until their case is promptly investigated.
That fine, suspension or termination be imposed AFTER and ONLY AFTER a due process investigation, 3020-a hearing, and/or impartial arbitration is conducted.
Interested party for a resolution and further details may contact me:
Phone: 646-228-0668 or email fgart44@hotmail.com
BRONX UFT rep: C. Harrison: 718-379-6200