UTLA teachers strike for better teaching, learning, living conditions

_{By Alexander P., Julia R., Nadia N., and Lisbeth A.; with additional reporting from Antonio V., Ashley B., Carlos C., and Christopher A.; edited by Antonio V. and Francisco G.}

Before the Strike, by Alexander P.

In Los Angeles, California during January 7th through the 11th, teachers were planning to strike against LAUSD if a reasonable agreement was not met.UTLA and LAUSD met every day during January 7th through 11th to get an agreement to happen to avoid the strike. In preparation for the strike teachers prepared their students by giving them information on how things were going to work during the strike.

Jeter P., a 10th grader said, “teachers provided us on the benefits of the strike and why they were going to go on strike,” then added “they told us they were going on strike for smaller class sizes, a raise on teachers salaries, full time nurses and more staff.” 

“There were discussions about the reason and rational about the strike” said Ms. Cook.

This information let students be aware on how the strike was going to happen and the reasoning of why there was going to be a strike. 

 There was also a mixture of feelings that both students and teachers had. “Lowkey kinda scared but this will be for a good cause,” said Jeter when asked how he felt about the upcoming strike. He then later on said, “ the teachers deserve better”. 

Students weren’t the only ones feeling some kind of way “I felt frustrated, upset worried, concerned, confused, and unhappy,” said Ms. Cook. 

When the strike was moved from Thursday to next week Monday, some students felt unhappy and shocked to why that happened. “Lowkey shocking when it moved from Thursday to Monday but it sucked because we wanted it to happen on Thursday,” said Jeter.  

On the other hand Ms. Cook stayed optimistic when she express how the strike overall was going to be a milestone that we’ve all accomplished together. 

During the Strike, by Julia R.

LAUSD teachers went out and held signs that demanded more sufficient equipment, higher pay raise, smaller class size, more nurses and counselors and better safety. 

While the teachers were standing outside on the picket line with the cold restless rain pouring over them, the entire school of CATS was cramped into the MPR room where it was loud and chaotic. 3 TAs were there to help sign in the students into their advisory depending on their grade level, and they themselves looked hopeless, mad, confused since they had 20 or more kids surrounding them asking endless questions. 

Once everyone was signed in and had taken their seats, Ms.Fordom played a documentary on Ruth Bader Ginsburg and within 20 minutes into the movie students decided to either sleep, play on Super Smash Brothers Ultimate on their Nintendo switch, or even watch Netflix with their friends. The atmosphere was unlively. Students were doing their own thing. They had an assignment given to them before the documentary started but they ended up placing it in their backpacks. 

A handful of students started to call their parents to come and pick them up since there was nothing else to do. It was boring for students and staff.

“I don’t want to be here. This is stupid, I want to just walk out and go home to my bed” said David M., grade 12

“This is ridiculous. I mean, there isn’t school though,” said Stephanie V., grade 9

Once the students were moved to the gym, it became more of a catastrophe. Students were playing volleyball, soccer, football, and basketball all at once. Balls were flying everywhere, some landed on the face of other students. The humidity in there was diabolical. Now this really made kids want to leave. 

There had been reports that students had joined the picket line and had marched along with the teachers to Grand Park. There was an ocean of red shirts, followed with roaring chants, horns, drumming, and whistling from every supporter. There was so many teachers that students reported their feet blistering within every small step they took. People started to bump into each other but that didn’t matter to them. The sound of enthusiasm and rage started to take over the many exhausted people who could’ve walked away but chose not to. 

“Educators Deserve, student’s first! We are LA!” They chanted. It sounded like there was never going to be an end to their chants. 

“My exhaustion took away from the experience, but the rally was for a great cause!” said Antonio V., grade 12.

The Contract, by Lisbeth A.

The nation’s second largest school system of UTLA teachers went on strike for 6 days. Demanding for a new contract that would benefit them and students. Some of the bigger issues that teachers were fighting for include  increase on their pay, smaller class sizes, and more staff like nurses and counselors. After striking, UTLA and LAUSD finally agreed on a new contract, which teachers then quickly voted to approve. Some of the new contract agreement are… 

• 6% salary increase with no contingencies 
• A nurse in every school every day 
• A teacher librarian in every secondary school every day
• Contractual guarantee of student counselor ratios of 500:1 at every secondary school 
• Agreement covers the way for the first real class size reduction program in 25 years by eliminating section 1.5 and creating enforceable hard caps
• More improvement to class size every immediate cap size of 39 in ELA and MATH to hard caps.

12th grade student, Jocelyn G., said “I feel worried because the teachers were not completely satisfied with what they got, but they still agreed to what they were given, even though they weren’t 100% on the agreements. Some of the teachers just agreed so they could go back to their classroom and do their job teach.” Teachers voted with 81% saying YES and 19% saying NO to the new contract. Some teachers believe that the contract is a good start towards the future goal of improving the school system. 

Teachers were on strike for 6 days. During those 6 days they did not show up to their classrooms instead when school started they were outside the school protesting. Around 10 in the morning they would go to city hall to protest there as well joining all other UTLA teachers on strike.

While teachers were trying to get a better contract, some TAs volunteer and help out with the students. While the district tried to send substitutes through out the schools. The substitutes were getting paid more than usual but parents were on the teacher side so most of them wouldn’t send their kids to school. By students not showing up to school, the district lost about 97 million dollars. 

In some districts class sizes are about 30 to 40 students and that was a major issue for students because they weren’t able to concentrate because of the amount of students per class. This movement shows how schools could not function without teachers. 

School is back in session, by Nadia N.

Students and teachers return to the classroom after a week on strike. The week after was a very long week for all teachers and students because most of them were tired from walking and striking.

When the strike was over many teachers catched up on their students and told students about their experiences during the strike. Teachers had students think ,pair ,share, socratic seminar  with other  students  about their thoughts on the strike, how did they feel coming back. A teacher even started catching up on the lesson plan she had in mind before the strike started, it was about reading Hamlet with her 12th grade students.

Some teachers like Ms. Grace for example, was gone for almost the whole week after the strike, because she got very sick, although it was for a good cause. A teacher named Ms.Suarez made her students talk in groups about the new social contract and their opinion about coming back to school. 

After the strike all teachers and the administration had a gathering and all the teachers had comments about the strike.

Ms. Cook, an English teacher, was in the gathering and she said, “Some teachers were satisfied with the new contract and some were unhappy with the new contract.” 

“Overall I think everyone realized that this community needed this kind of strike. When we did a community walk, a lot of parents came out and supported us,” said Ms.Cook

“This was very significant for the teachers to see that it’s an important place and we need to take care of this school and make sure the learning is done properly and the funding is appropriate.” Ms.Cook added.

A lot of teachers were actually glad they to be back. Mrs. Cook stated, “I was very thankful, I was glad that everyone was happily coming back to.” Teachers had missed teaching, and were successfully being able to get into teaching once again. 

“I think it was worth striking in a sense that we did make some changes,” Ms.Cook said proudly.

Most students were actually glad to be back as well and being taught once again in school.

“I am glad to be back, because it was really boring to be stuck into a room with a lot of students doing nothing, it was really frustrating,” said Ruth, grade 11. “So I stopped going to school, and  not to mention at home was really boring too.”

“Teachers make a great impact in our lives, and we need them as much as they need us.”