Gag Order

As I mentioned in the previous post, Assistant Principals are soliciting statements from my students for the purpose of bringing me up on charges of verbal abuse. These charges, of course, are ridiculous, and I am convinced that I could beat them in a 3020a hearing. But in the mean time I am the target of an ever growing witch hunt.

I live in the neighborhood where I teach and often bump into parents of my students on the street or in neighborhood stores. I am convinced that these parents have no idea that their children have been asked to write these statements or that the children can be called to testify in a 3020a hearing. The children themselves just think it's a game, and have no idea of the serious consequences of their actions.

In order to be able to read the statements which are the source of the charges, I have been forced to sign confidentiality agreements prohibiting me from revealing the contents of these statements to anyone but my counsel. In other words, I can't talk to the parents of a student about a problem in my class if the problem is mentioned in the kid's statement or in another kid's statement.

I suspect that if most parents knew that their children were writing and signing statements like these without their knowledge, they would be very upset.

I would like to know if anyone out there has had any experience with tactics like these. Is it legal to ask kids to write these statements without the knowledge of their parents? It seems to me that confidentiality agreement or not, I should be able to report this abuse of parental rights to someone. Would talking to my elected representatives in my district constitute a violation of the confidentiality agreement? How about the ACLU? How about Parent's Rights Groups?

I really need help, because these statements are interfering with my students' science education.