Saying they were tired of academic policies they don't trust and what they call hostile workplaces, 100 teachers from 35 HISD campuses called in sick Thursday to draw attention to their complaints.

In a quickly organized action, the teachers are protesting the reforms engineered by Superintendent Mike Miles that not only have been installed in his New Education System schools but have a ripple effect throughout the district.  It was a quiet protest unlike others with picket signs outside schools and the HISD administration building.

One of the organizers, Carly Padget, a former 5th grade HISD teacher in reading and math who resigned her position in December, said that by teachers taking this action — under the fear of repercussion — they  hope to draw the attention of Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath as well as state lawmakers.

Attempts to talk with the appointed Board of Managers or Miles have gone nowhere, Padget says.

We contacted the HISD press office and asked if they had a statement to make and will update this story with that when we receive it.

The school district do not have the legal right to require a doctor's note from employees until the third day someone is out sick, Padget says, adding that she expects some principals may apply pressure to find out exactly why anyone was out Thursday.

In November, most campuses sent out notices that they did not have funding for substitute teachers. Coverage would have to be found from within. Even retired teachers would not be brought in.

Miles has often said that no class would be left uncovered when a teacher is out, but that the district will be avoiding the use of substitutes. Having learning coaches, interventionists or teaching assistants step in for missing teachers means far less of a learning curve since these employees already know what's going on in a class, he says.

The problem with this approach, Padget says, is that it takes these other employees away from their assigned duties and put them in charge of an entire class, often before they are ready for that responsibility.

"If there aren't enough of those non-teacher staff members then the follow-up is you're going to split classes and now you're going to have 35 kids in multiple classes," Padget says. This  results in bigger classes throughout the grade level which can also mean there aren't enough desks in a classroom to accommodate the add-ons. Making it tougher for the teachers handline these larger classes.

Reasons vary for why teachers are participating in the sick-out, Padget says. Some resent being instructed to teach in a way that they believe is bad for children. The second reason:  "We're watching really, really good teachers be removed from the classroom or recommended for termination things that have nothing to do with their instructional strategies. We have really good teachers who are being removed from the classroom for having an environment where the kids learn but it's not what has been prescribed by Mike Miles."

The third reason is a continuing dispute over FMLA — the Family Medical Leave Act — a complaint that has been brought up repeatedly by public speakers at board meetings, who say their legitimate claims to take care of family members are routinely denied.

Every morning, Nico Abazajian calls in to school to see if they need him. "They do not." Thursday morning he called in sick, but was over at HISD Human Resources to try to see what his status actually is with the district.

Abazajian was walked off the Sharpstown High School campus for playing chess with his students and playing music after the kids had  finished their final exam. He, however, believes the real reason was "for refusing to leave my door open, for telling the principal that he's wrong for not letting them go to the bathroom."Since then the teacher of U.S. history and world geography has been in limbo, a teacher who is not teaching.

Before he left, he said he heard principals in training tour the school commenting that "none of these teachers want to work." As he understands it, that's the mantra of the HISD principals academy, that the problems in HISD are due to lazy teachers.

"Teachers are doing this [sickout] because they are sick of being treated so poorly. Teachers are doing this because they're sick of their students being treated so poorly." Their needs not being met. Their rights being infringed. Teachers are so tired of being treated like we are the problem."

Asked if this quiet protest would have much of an impact, Abazajian says, "I think schools are already struggling so much, even a few teachers leaving disrupts the entire day. And I hope that other teachers and administrators realize that teachers are the reason this whole thing functions. So on one hand Mike Miles and the administration may blame us for being lazy but without our participation none of this is possible."