Parents rally on first day of B.C. teachers’ strike

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      Parents and students rallied outside B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s constituency office today (March 5) on the first day of a three-day teachers' strike.

      Demonstrators brought letters and held up signs outside Clark’s Point Grey office, with messages in support of teachers and in protest of Bill 22, the legislation introduced by the B.C. government last week to end the job action.

      Ingrid Sulston, the parent of two students at General Gordon Elementary School, brought a stack of letters from parents to Clark’s office.

      “The letters I’m bringing here today are from some of the parents here today that have come to rally in support of our teachers, and in support of fair negotiations with the teachers, and monetary support for our public education system, which is declining by the year,” she said. “We need to put money back in—it’s absolutely essential.”

      Parent Kevin Washbrook delivered letters through the mail slot at Clark’s office.

      “We support the right of teachers to negotiate class sizes and class composition,” Washbrook told the group of parents and students gathered on the sidewalk.

      “We see our teachers as advocates for our education system—they spend 30 hours or more a week working with our kids in our schools. They’re not babysitters, they’re professionals, and we want them to be well-paid, and we want the system to be well-funded.”

      Susan Russell, who is a parent and a teacher at Lord Nelson Elementary School, said the job action is about much more than wages for teachers.

      “It’s so hard in the classroom to deal with all the needs,” she said. “I have three special needs (students) in my class, and I don’t have any support in my classroom—and it’s just going to get worse,” she said.

      “Parents who do have special needs kids, they shouldn’t be the only ones who are worried about this, because when I’m spending extra time on their special needs kids, I’m not looking after the other kids in the classroom—and it’s like triage,” she added.

      The Labour Relations Board ruled last week that teachers are legally permitted to strike for three days this week, and for one day a week in the weeks to follow, after public school teachers across the province voted 87 percent in favour of striking amid a long-standing contract dispute with the province.

      The rally in Point Grey today, along with other demonstrations at Vancouver schools including Strathcona Elementary, took place as MLAs debated Bill 22 in the Legislature today.

      Rallies are also scheduled to take place at the B.C. Legislature in Victoria on Tuesday (March 6) and outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Wednesday (March 7).

      Comments

      27 Comments

      Grumps

      Mar 5, 2012 at 3:13pm

      Well I guess they got nothing else to do since the fuggin' schools are closed and the parents are taking a day off without pay to look after their kids. Thanks a fuggin' lot teachers!

      Lynn Creston

      Mar 5, 2012 at 4:21pm

      What time does the rally start on March 7th?

      10 9Rating: +1

      thinking parent

      Mar 5, 2012 at 4:58pm

      It's surprising that any informed parent would support the teachers, who are objecting to the proposal that they should be competent and suitable. Or that any rational person thinks that a $74,000 salary with 14 weeks holidays and every benefit possible is a problem.

      Roy Ennis

      Mar 5, 2012 at 6:24pm

      I trongly suspect that most people who are opposed to teachers getting paid commensurate with their education like any other professionals, are people who were too lazy or too unintelligent to benefit from what their own teachers tried to offer them, so now they just continue to whine and sniffle like the losers they have been all their lives. Plumbers, carpenters, electricians and everybody else who benefited from school are not the ones who are down on education- only the losers who can't stand to see anybody else succeed.

      Morty

      Mar 5, 2012 at 6:46pm

      It's surprising that someone would accuse those of us who do value our teachers of being uninformed or irrational when he or she apparently thinks that salaries for teachers in BC are competitive or that they spend every minute they're not in class on "vacation".

      jadzia cypress

      Mar 5, 2012 at 6:59pm

      As usual the truth is somewhere in the middle...the brain drain is taking its toll on BC education, especially in the less metropolitan areas. Teachers here are the lowest paid in the country - that is the issue with the 15%. If it were just a question of getting your full salary, I would agree that it seems excessive, but we are talking gross, not net. It is quickly becoming prohibitory for anyone to go through for a teacher with the university cost involved, given that the salary has not kept pace with cost of living for about ten years now. If you want people who are experts in their field to go into teaching and stay in teaching, you need to make it reasonable for them to do so. Teachers are the only professionals who almost never get to leave their "office" for lunch, have no real breaks (except prep time) and work under conditions which most people would not. Anyone who has children would be exhausted to have twenty at a birthday party for a few hours, never mind actually try to accomplish something with thirty. If the teacher's wages were in line with cost of living no one would be asking for more than a cost of living raise. The fact is that Alberta pays on average $16,000 more, Ontario $12,000 and people I know who are teachers are having a hard time justifying staying in BC. My teacher friends work an average of 2-3 hours several nights a week. The 14 weeks holidays are not paid btw... teachers go from June 30 to September 15 with no pay - can most people do that? The issue that is raised about dealing with incompetence on the job is valid however. The union should police its members and it is remiss in not doing this promptly and severely. The government is trying to right this and no opposition on that point. Once the two year probationary period is over and the teacher is a contract teacher, there is little anyone can do to deal with an ineffective teacher. Parents can of course gather evidence and approach the admin or the board and get results, but those within teaching are stuck - they can't say anything against a fellow teacher who is not doing their job without recrimination. Many professions suffer from this same "code of silence" to the detriment of society as a whole. Yes! This should end. Will it? Or is the government just trying to stuff as many students in a classroom a possible and then blame the teacher if the students don't learn?

      Concerned teacher

      Mar 5, 2012 at 7:29pm

      I am a gr2 teacher who has 8 students in my class who are on individual learning plans because they are struggling with the basics. I also have 3 special needs students in my class. I get 1 hour of learning assistance help a week. With the government proposal things will get much worse for every student, not just special needs. I don't get paid 74,000 a year! Every school district pays their teachers a different wage.

      13 9Rating: +4

      Concerned teacher

      Mar 5, 2012 at 7:43pm

      I also meant to mention that 3/4 of my class are ESL students!

      correction

      Mar 5, 2012 at 7:47pm

      BC teachers are not the lowest paid in Canada. The BCTF has the 2006 pay scales on its website to further that myth, but BC rates are actually 4th of the 10 provinces.
      If that's not good enough for you, move to Alberta.

      Pete_Lindonut

      Mar 5, 2012 at 7:59pm

      Let's talk about how these Liberals illegally stripped the teacher's contract 10 years ago, pulled out over 3 billion from education, and decimated public schools. Even now that the Supreme Court found the Libs guilty, they're only putting a fraction of what they stole back in to the system and calling it their Education Improvement Fund. Oh.. and feeding you this baloney with commercials paid for with our tax dollars.