This is a true story….

Some of the names have been omitted to protect the innocent and some names have been deliberately used to point a finger at the guilty.  First, as some here may know or not, I have a beef with the District concerning the 3 Cafeteria Managers.  There used to be 4 and now there is 3 with the same amount of students, more work, more responsibility and yet these 3 women haven’t seen a raise in 4 years because of a little loop hole in the system that closed and no one seemed to notice. I post a comment over on the Chronicle which you can read here but I will also post one of my comments here so you know the background of THIS post and my interest in this.

“As for my causes, yes, we all have our battles. Mine has been for the overlooked, overworked, under paid Cafeteria managers who run the Districts 3 kitchens. They fell through a loop hole no one noticed and haven’t had a raise in over 4 years yet, they did away with one manager (used to be 4) which means they have taken on way more work. The secretaries got a huge raise for taking on more responsibilities some even obscene raises. They were mostly rescinded but still, they got a modest raise. The cafeteria workers have a union and they got a raise. The managers aren’t union but considered Staff although they are often excluded from school staff meetings and directories. Look on any high school web site and they list Staff but not the person who is responsible for feeding over 1000 kids plus feeder school children everyday so they can be alert and fed in class. The Manager is a second class citizen in the schools yet when Johnny pukes 20 minutes after lunch because is mom sent him to school sick, the school and the media run in and scream food poisoning from taco meat or whatever. Remember Loucks? Kid throws up in office, little girl sees kid puke, she pukes. They then go classroom to classroom as ask “Who is feeling sick?” Guess what? Half the kids said they did and got out of school. There’s a surprise. The news say it’s the food at lunch, the mothers, (when they could find and get a hold of them) threatened law suits, threats were sent to cafeteria workers including my wife who as been a manger for 14 years. The health department investigated as by law, they have to keep samples of all food served and labeled. The findings a few weeks later were no food poisoning and the kid was simply sick with the flu. Did they get an apology from the Admin? From the media? No. They got nothing but more bad press which if people hear bad things long enough, they tend to believe nothing can change or ever will.  BTW, my wife manages 26 people and some of them make more money than she does. What company pays their bosses less than the workers?”

Now here’s my other beef.

Dateline: Manual High School Cafeteria, January 7th, 2011, approx. 9am.  Three girls, students, arrive late at the main entrance to Manual carrying McDonald’s bags.  They are told by the guard they need to get rid of the McD bags and report to the office as classes have started already.  Instead, the girls go to the cafeteria and demand they be served breakfast.  The Cafeteria manager tells the girls breakfast is over (the staff is starting to ready the kitchen to feed 3000+ students for the day) and that they need a pass anyway as school has started. 

Now the manager is no dummy and has worked in this District well over 18 years and she knows these girls one of which is pregnant. She also knows these girls, especially the pregnant one are late almost every day.  So, the girls head to the Principal's office.  The Principal , Ms. Kherat is still on vacation visiting family so guess who is large and in charge?. Mrs Jenkins.  This is the same Mrs. Jenkins that has been ferried around this district after each of her fuck ups like the missing money problem at Roosevelt.  I remember when Farkash, the old Principal at MHS was promoted and the District wanted to move Jenkins in and so many parents show up to protest, the District gave the job to Salzman.

I have dealt with Jenkins in the past and I have been told by countless teachers, staff, and parents.  This woman looks down her nose at you and she especially doesn’t like you if you are white.  Yes, IMO, Jenkins could be the poster child for reverse discrimination or a pure racist.  Like Valda Shipp, this woman has no business being in the command at anything in this District.  The District needs to get rid of this woman instead of transferring her out and reassigning her every time she screws someone.  Case in point…

Back to the poor hungry late 3 girls, one pregnant.  Remember, they had time to stop at McDonald’s that morning.  The guard will attest to that.  So here comes a stomping mad Jenkins looking for the manager that denied these wonderful kids their breakfast demanding that everyone in the cafeteria stop what they were doing and serve them.  The manager already had did just that and had prepared the girls a small cereal breakfast with milk thinking the girls would come back with the required pass.  Their pass was apparently a mad Mrs. Jenkins who in front of the girls, got right into the face of this manager and started to berate her on treating these students and denying them a breakfast.  Then Mrs. Jenkins held a carton of white milk right in her face, and screamed that one of the girls wanted chocolate milk.  (I mean what was the mgr. thinking.  White milk with cereal??).

Mrs Jenkins berated this 18 year manager in front of these girls and in front of her workers using words that were not very, well, simply not professional at all.  If Jenkins had done this to me, I would have had to make bail as I would have punched her in the face.  I’m not a professional. The manager was beside herself.  She was following the rules of the school and knew if Principal Kherat was there, this simply wouldn’t have happen.  Instead the girls would have been told, tough, late for breakfast and class, go to class. I think this manager should file a race complaint against Mrs Jenkins and I am seriously considering filing one myself on her behalf. 

This woman, Mrs Jenkins (Did I mention Jenkins is black??) has no business being in charge of anything other than a glass of water.  I personally know this manager at Manual.  She doesn’t have a racist bone in her body. (well after Friday I hope she still doesn’t) She is probably one of the best mangers this District has and works hard. Never misses a day, gives over 10 hours a day many days.  She managed Woodruff for years and never ever had an Administrator get in her face and scream at her.  BTW, Jenkins, she says you could use a mint.

I am going to the next Board meeting with a carefully worded response.  I want to know why the promise way back in September by Lathan to look into and meet with these 3 managers was never met nor even acknowledged and I want to know why a tyrant racist Ass’t Principal is allowed employment at Manual High School. 

You simply do not berate your staff in front of students and workers. That’s professionalism 101.  You have a problem, you do it in private and if privacy doesn’t afford itself, you shut the fuck up.  As a professional, you find out the facts from both sides before going off half cocked thinking some white woman in the cafeteria is not feeding her black girls even though they are late and missed the breakfast, which is free, that day.  Hell almost everyday these 3 are late.  Jenkins actually belives that these girls got nothing because they were black. Never mind that the manager herself set up a table and broke out cereal and milk for them upon their return. 

Yes. Jenkins doesn’t deserve to practice this kind of shit at the trough of the public dollar.  She needs to become unemployed as a soon as possible.  But wait.  Doesn’t Jenkins deserve her side of the story?  The facts from both sides to be weighed?  Yes and I welcome it.  I was there which is why I am writing.  Still bring it on Jenkins.  I would love to hear how you didn’t scream in this woman’s face demanding chocolate milk and berating this woman for following procedures of late students and I would love to hear from the many staff members who over the years have suffered from Jenkins. Once again I am not a professional so I don’t have to play the fair rules.  I think a fat lip in this case would do wonders and hell, might even bring to light some of the shit this Jenkins woman has been handing out over the years. I can’t believe upper Administration doesn’t know how Jenkins operates nor hasn’t heard a complaint from the staff.

It’s time we get together and get rid of this person too.  Maybe her and Shipp could start a school of humanities.  Lord knows they could use some.