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Student Gets On-the-Job Training in Firing
By Yolanda Woodlee
A few days after Christopher Pinckney started his internship at D.C. public schools, he learned what it's like to be downsized, terminated, let go.
A senior at the School Without Walls, Pinckney found himself caught in the whirlwind of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's mass dismissal of 98 workers in the central office Friday.
He had scored the unpaid internship in the school system's information technology office this month. Before he started officially, Pinckney had interviewed with staff members and expressed his desire to pursue a career in computer systems engineering. This week, he expected to get a login and password so he could start downloading applications on laptops and checking for viruses.
"I was quite shocked. After my first day on the job, I was fired," Pinckey said yesterday. "I heard about the people fired. Chancellor Rhee always talks about 'for the children,' so I didn't think I would be affected."
Pinckney, the son of schools activist Jackie Pinckney-Hackett, found out Tuesday that his internship had been canceled when his school's principal, Richard G. Trogisch, came to his classroom about 2 p.m. He told Pinckney he would sit in the principal's office on Wednesdays instead of working in the technology office at the school system's headquarters at 825 North Capitol St. NE. The internship was to run every Wednesday for five hours until mid-May.
"I was looking forward to it because I was getting ready to be part of a workforce," said Pinckney, 18. "I'm kind of worried because I need the internship to graduate."
When Rhee's office was contacted about noon yesterday about the status of Pinckney's internship, spokeswoman Mafara Hobson said it had not been canceled. She said Pete Olle, the information officer for the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, said the position would be moved to another supervisor. Hours later, Hobson said Pinckney would report to Judiciary Square on Wednesday, where Olle and the Office of the Chief Technology Officer staff would introduce him to the various aspects of information technology in the District government.
But that information differed from an e-mail that Olle had sent to other school officials and Pinckney's mother Tuesday.
In the e-mail, Olle said he had let Pinckney's adviser, Zillah Wesley, know that "we need to cancel the internship. The people he was assigned to work with are no longer working here and we are unable to provide him a productive work environment at this time. I am very sorry for the inconvenience."
The e-mail left Wesley, a D.C. schools social worker who had helped coordinate the internship, perplexed and Pinckney's mother annoyed.
School internships are an important fabric of a graduating student's life, Wesley said, adding that about 50 students in Pinckney's Class of 2008 have jobs at businesses across the city. Wesley said she and Pinckney-Hackett had "put our heads together" to help find the technology internship at the school's headquarters.
"It's very important," Wesley said. "It's a requirement for graduation. And summer job placement can be based on that. Internships are important before college to help students decide what they want to major in."
Pinckney shares the experience of being let go with his mother, Pinckney-Hackett. She was the director of parent and community involvement in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education for the first 10 months of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration, but was cut in November when Deputy Mayor Victor Reinoso reduced his office's staff.
"This should serve as a lesson to the school district," Pinckney-Hackett said yesterday. "Whether they're closing schools, terminating employees or restructuring, they must first think about how it will affect the children."
By late yesterday, she had received several e-mails from school officials and a phone message from her son's principal. "We revisited Christopher's internship and decided we can accommodate him after all," Olle wrote.
Pinckney said he was excited about the news. "I'm actually surprised how quick this whole situation changed," he said. "I'm happy."
— Yolanda Woodlee
Washington Post
2008-03-13
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