Our
story thus far: When the district superintendent refused to
comply with more than 30 union demands, the teachers of Marysville,
Washington, voted to strike on September 1 to protest the new
three-year employment contracts. At that time, many parents
expressed their support for the union and some students even locked
arms with their teachers on the picket lines outside the school
grounds.
In my last missive, I posed the idea that, perhaps, the teachers
chose to strike to remind the public and the school district
officials who is really in charge. This seemed reasonable because
the teachers were aware of the school board’s non-cooperation since
the beginning of August but chose to wait until the first day
of school to strike, under the ruse of allowing the maximum
amount of time for negotiations.
Time dragged on and, though it may be uncool to want to
go back to school, the students started to get antsy. It began to
dawn on seniors, in particular, that they will be competing with
the rest of the nation’s graduates for admission into colleges and
universities.
Of course, it gets worse. Not only are they missing class time;
they are unable to meet with academic advisors to discuss their
college applications. Advanced Placement students, who have spent
years working overtime to gain college credit in high school, are
beginning to panic over the daunting national exams in May.
Putting their parents to shame, the students at
Marysville-Pilchuck High School decided that, after a month of
striking, enough was enough. They kindly requested that their
teachers return to class. The teachers refused.
So: The annoyed students held an all night sit-in to protest the
work stoppage. The media was notified, the students blasted Pink
Floyd’s “We don’t need no education” from loudspeakers (it’s called
irony), and the teachers continued to strike.
Frustrated young scholars, led by the senior class president
Dustin Dekle but by no means limited to the senior class, begged
governor Gary Locke to intervene. Locke said there was nothing he
could do but he would talk to some people, which led precisely
nowhere.
The exasperated students then made good use of their
media-saturated upbringing. With the support of the Evergreen
Freedom Foundation (EFF), they called a press conference. The union
responded by calling the EFF an “evil band of zealots.”
EFF Communications Director Marsha Richards reported that rather
than discouraging her colleagues, the insult has spurred them on to
love and good deeds. “We didn’t want to disappoint the union, so we
thought we should do something zealous,” said Richards. EFF staff
“cover[ed] up their horns” and went to Marysville to hand out
literature on school funding to teachers, students, and
parents.
Among other things, the fliers pointed out
that the average Marysville teacher makes over $54,000 a year, and
that school strikes are illegal under Washington state law. Rather
than using the children as a “pawn in this conflict,” Richards
said, teachers should return to school and work out their
differences like grownups.
And in the background, superintendent Linda Whitehead, whose
meek voice could barely be heard over all of the flying venom,
whispered that, perhaps, one of these days, the district
would go to court and have a judge enforce the no-strike provision
of the teachers’ contracts, and order them back into the
classroom.
Oh, now they’re scared. Shaking. Really.
