Striking for a better future

Written by Moses Espinoza, Kevin Alas, Sonny Barker, Ernesto DeSantiago

The Los Angeles Unified School District have been making it harder for teachers to maintain a classroom by raising the class sizes. Therefore, there is very limited space within the classroom and can cause a student to have a hard time learning at a place where learning is supposed to be easy. There is also a scarce amount of nurses and counselors at each school and the teachers are also fighting for that as well. In our case at SJHA, we have a nurse once a week and if there were any incident nothing can be done because there is no nurse on duty. If a student needs to talk to someone, he or she cant because we only have 3 counselors and they are busy so it can lead to a student doing something unthinkable.

​

To other people the strike may see like it is for the increased salary but to the teachers it is more than that. It is about the healthy learning environment for the students so they have every possibility of being successful at school. The students also believe in them because there were students on the picket line with the teachers because they believed in their fight. It has been 30 years since the last teacher strike and this one has had a tremendous impact on others. For example, the state of Colorado has a school  district that is voting whether to strike or not and it might happen there as well. In Oakland, teachers are preparing to strike as well. It is clear to see that change was much needed to help save the public education system and this strike on LAUSD is only the beginning and there is much more to be done.

​The strike ended last week and to the teachers and students it was a tremendous accomplishment. The teachers got what they demanded and maybe even better than what they asked for. The schools will now have a nurse at school everyday out of the week. The class sizes are going to be reduced so the teachers are able to effectively teach their students. Keep in mind that this is only in the Los Angeles Unified School District, but the outcome of this strike has pushed other districts to rise up and help the public education system. All in all, the 8 day strike was a huge success and a big victory for the teachers. Students should not feel safe due to the fact that there is going to be a nurse on campus everyday. Students shall feel comfortable within their learning environments because it will not be so claustrophobic within the classroom. This strike really showed the voice that a unified union has and what it can accomplish. This was just a small step towards saving the public education system.

​