A Dallas ISD teacher is suing the district, accusing the district of retaliation after she reported her school was filing false reports on the number of students in English as a second language classes. Anali Vidaña has been a teacher in Dallas ISD nine years.
Vidaña had been teaching kindergarten at Mockingbird Elementary. She says she also led the school's language placement assessment committee, which determines whether students need assistance learning English.
Vidaña says she told school administrators some students who needed bilingual services were placed in general education classes. She says kids never received additional services, and administrators then "started a campaign of bullying her to the point of removing her from the campus."
"The message was to get me to stop talking and stop bringing to light some of the things I knew when I was in charge of LPAC," Vidana says.
She says she was transferred from teaching kindergarten at Mockingbird to second grade at Barbara Jordan Elementary.
"The district allowed the people around me to bully me, harass me, accuse me of unthinkable things," Vidaña says. "Today, I stand here because I'm afraid. I'm afraid as a mother, and I'm afraid as a teacher."
The lawsuit accuses Dallas ISD of forging parents' signatures to indicate meetings between families and administrators to determine which classes kids should take.
"That signature confirms teachers have given the child in their classroom a voice to be able to perform the test they feel most comfortable with," Vidaña says.
The lawsuit accuses Dallas ISD of retaliation by moving Vidaña to another school and says her son was taken out of special needs classes as a result of her speaking out. The suit also says the district took away a $4,000 stipend for teaching in a bilingual program.
Thursday, Dallas ISD said it had not yet received the lawsuit and could not comment on pending litigation.
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