Support the class suit!

Lulu Navarro and her cohorts are now realizing (if they still haven’t realized) that indeed we, teachers, have the capacity to seriously fight back. Lulu, do you really think that you can just rob people, threaten people, step on people and expect that they will cower in a corner and shut up? Do you really think that you can get away with your oppressive and illegal operations? Do you really think that you are untouchable that by flaunting your money, your connections, and your equally corrupt lawyer, that you can do anything to exploit others and enrich your gluttonous self? Probably now you know the answers to those questions.

Well, you have underestimated us. You have underestimated the power of our unity. You have underestimated the strength of our resolve to get justice. You have underestimated the depth of our determination to bring a stop to your oppressive schemes.

Now that we, together with hundreds of our colleagues, have filed a class suit, we have opened another arena to expose your excessive modus operandi. We are looking forward to meet you (and all your lapdogs especially your officer-janitor-painter-husband) in court and expose the truth about your shady operations.

To our fellow teachers, let’s keep the broadest unities possible. We know that there are a few others, who may not agree with or do not understand fully the rationale behind our efforts. We know that some are not comfortable with the fact that we are including the EBR school district in the complaint. But please bear in mind that the main reason behind that are the actions of some personalities who represent the district which is tantamount to supporting the illegal operations of UPI and Lulu Navarro.

“We, members of the Filipino Educators Federation of Louisiana, would like to make it clear that we harbor no ill will towards the Louisiana School System. We want to emphasize that we love this community and we now consider Louisiana as our home. We think of our students as our own kids. The new superintendent has paid attention to our concerns and has closely monitored the problems we have encountered. And we have had tremendous support from the East Baton Rouge community. We will continue to give our 100 percent to our teaching vocation as we strive to push our students for a brighter future. Let me also use this opportunity to declare once again that we continue to have a strong commitment to our students, and will continue to serve the district for we believe that the actions by some individuals within the EBR School District do not represent the values of the institution and the people of Louisiana.” This is an excerpt from the statement of the Filipino Educators Federation (FEF), which we are part of. Please read the full statement now posted on the FEF website (click here).

So, we are not against the district per se but we are against the involvement of those people who represented the district. If these people are found guilty conniving with the criminal Lulu, it is but proper to include them as well as the institution they represent because clearly, the district benefited financially as the fees that they are supposed to pay as mandated by law were illegally charged to us.

Also we expect that Lulu and UPI will also mobilize her minions to counter our efforts. We fully know who these people are. We expect them to come out and say that they are very happy with how Lulu treated them (rightly so because they were paid and given perks to implement Lulu’s policies) and that the events stated in the class suit are all lies. But we are not even worried about those unprincipled people for we know that the foundation of our action is the truth and we are standing on moral high ground.

To all our fellow teachers, this battle is part of our continuing efforts to get justice. Let’s bear in mind that this is not for our individual selves or our own families only, but as teachers, as responsible Filipinos, it is our obligation to help our fellow teachers here and those who stand to be victimized if this exploitative scheme is not stopped.

Please read the full class action complaint here.