High school students in North Vancouver staged walkouts Wednesday to protest being caught in the middle of the dispute between the province and the teachers.
“We’re in the middle of the fight between the government and teachers and it’s not fair on us to be losing our school time,” said 14-year-old Jennifer Shannon, a Grade 8 student at Argyle secondary.
About 50 Argyle students walked out of classes Wednesday morning and gathered outside the school entrance with signs bearing slogans like “The system is broken.”
Students later marched to North Vancouver-Seymour MLA Jane Thornthwaite’s office nearby to make their voices heard.
Students taking part in the protest said they feel caught in the middle of the dispute, but most who were speaking out said they are more sympathetic to the teachers, and blamed employers for imposing lockout conditions which they said affect their school work.
“I went in to talk to one of our counsellors and it was right before the bell was going to ring. He said, ‘I’m not allowed to talk to you. I can’t help you,’” said Grade 11 student Joelle Majeau. “If I have a question in an important subject like math or science (or) if I have a test coming up, I can’t talk to my teacher,” she said.
Students said they can’t talk to their teachers outside of classroom hours, the library has been locked at lunch and they have no access to the Internet to do research during that time.
Some students worried that they won’t get their yearbooks, or report cards, or that graduation ceremonies could be impacted by the continuing labour dispute.
Hanna Little, 17, said she’s doubly impacted by the situation because her mom is a teacher. “It’s affecting our whole family,” she said.
Grade 11 student Joshua Johnson said the labour disputes between teachers and the province have been going on “since I was in Grade 2. That was 10 years ago,” he said.
Students who walked out said many teachers supported their decision but others didn’t.
The North Vancouver walkout was part of a larger student walkout organized through a Facebook group this week.
In a letter to parents sent out June 3, John Lewis, superintendent of schools for the North Vancouver School District, urged students to stay in school.
In the letter, Lewis said students who leave school property and take part in unsupervised activities “place students at risk and are disruptive to learning and to the community at large.”
Lewis wrote that students could express their opinions and frustrations about the labour dispute in other ways.
Johnson said he replied to the letter, with copies to the premier, minister of education and his local MLA.
Johnson said he thought it was “hypocritical for them to tell students they expected us not to interrupt the learning environment. They along with the government are responsible for the lockout that is interrupting the learning environment.”
Late on Wednesday, the Labour Relations Board issued a ruling that the employer is legally allowed to continue the lockout, including cutting teachers’ pay by 10 per cent.
