Students petition admin to rehire science teacher

After rumors began to circulate that science teacher Graham Lockett’s contract would not be renewed by the district, two students, Anastasia Barbato (’16) and Cindy Yen (’16), created a petition on change.org to urge administrators to “Save Mr. Lockett’s Job.” After a little over two weeks, 214 students, parents and colleagues have signed the petition.Under California Education Code, new teachers must be hired for a period two years before they may be granted tenure status. At the end of these two years, the school district may choose to rehire the teacher with added job security or let him or her go.  In Mr. Lockett’s case, the district chose not to offer him a new contract.In order to reach these kinds of decisions fairly, school districts are required to administer yearly performance assessments of new teachers. According to education code, the decision not to grant tenure to a teacher cannot be based on the financial need of the school district. Instead, this trial period is designed to be an assessment of competence.After Lockett told his sixth period class that he wouldn’t be teaching at Samo next year, Yen and Barbato created the petition to advocate on his behalf. Yen believes that there is a lack of communication between administrators and students on issues of teacher performance. Yen hoped that by creating this petition, some students could expose to Samo’s administration their own convictions about Lockett — a teacher they believe is deserving of a teaching position at Samo.“We wanted the admin to see just how great Lockett was before making an decision to let him go,” Yen said.In addition to signing the petition, some advocates opted to also leave a message on the website explaining why they support Mr. Lockett’s rehiring. Nigel Haworth (’16) explained his reasoning on the petition.“Mr. Lockett is genuinely one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. He knows how to connect with students. Within his first year he managed to bring a new class to the school,” Haworth wrote.Last year, Lockett created a petition of his own in order to urge the school to begin offering AP Environmental Science. Lockett collected 400 student signatures and designed a course outline which he then presented to Mrs. Mayoral. As a result, AP Environmental Science is now taught by Lockett and fellow science teacher Benjamin Kay. In addition, Lockett teaches chemistry. Haworth, who was in one of  Lockett’s chemistry classes last year, also cited his expertise in his petition message.“He is an amazing chemist and he actually makes students eager to learn and show up for his class. Letting him go would be a horrible mistake,” Haworth wrote.After reading through the petition, Lockett was both humbled and gratified.“I was so flattered, I cried when I first [read the petition] … The level of student involvement, first of all, is really commendable and also it’s really flattering that to feel like what I’m doing here at this school is making a difference and I am helping some people out. Having that level of student interest and involvement on my behalf is really humbling.”Administrators and district officials legally cannot comment on matters of school employment.