Posted on 03/20/2013 6:38:46 PM PDT by markomalley
Now in its third week, a teachers strike in Strongsville, Ohio has parents, teachers and administrators at wit’s end, after several tense exchanges between the strikers and the substitute teachers filling in for them.
Earlier this month, Strongsville public teachers went on strike following failed contract negotiations between their union and the city. The city wants to cut the state’s contribution to teacher pensions; in exchange, the union wants a compensatory salary increase. The current average salary for a Strongsville teacher is $64,450, according to local reports.
Since then, the strike has occasionally turned ugly.
Video footage showed striking teachers gathered around the police station, harassing substitute teachers who were applying for interim positions at Strongsville schools. The teachers shouted “scab,” and “go home,” at several applicants, who were escorted into the building by police.
One protester shouted “Rosa Parks would be ashamed” at a black woman attempting to enter the building, prompting a police officer to inform the crowd that that woman was on police business, not applying for a job.
The spectacle has angered some parents, who say the teachers are setting a poor example for their kids.
“This strike is embarrassing the community, and it’s been going on too long,” said Paul Komarek, who recently organized a counter-protest to encourage teachers to end the strike, in a statement.
Even some of the students agree.
“Maybe they’ll get a little more mature about it and come back for their students’ sake,” said high school senior Lydia Kareha. “I hope they see this and understand that what they’re doing is ridiculous, to an extent.”
The union representing the teachers, the Strongsville Education Association, maintains that the city is deliberately prolonging the strike to save money, because substitute teachers are cheaper than regular teachers.
“The Board wants to prolong this strike to make money, while the students of the district continue to suffer,” said SEA President Tracy Linscott in a statement.
Are you JUST NOW beginning to discover this? I could tell you stories that would make your hair curl.
The stiking commie piggies are the same morons who tell us how much they love “teaching the churldren”. There isn’t a REAL teacher in the bunch.
Mass firing and mass hiring.
““Maybe they’ll get a little more mature about it and come back for their students’ sake,” said high school senior Lydia Kareha.”
This kid, I guess, is going to have to LEARN THE HARD WAY what 15% of us FReeper-parents already know - which is that the LAST THING public school teachers care about is the students.
(by the way, the other 85% of Freeper-parents think like this girl, which is why they STILL CONTINUE to send their kids to these government facilities)
Would’nt you be mad as heck if your $64 thousand salary for 9 months work was in jeopardy?
And the teachers are just innocent bystanders?
The “professionals” showing their “professionalism.”
So....the SEA President is saying one "teacher" isn't as good as another "teacher"!
Got it!!
But, it’s for the kids. /sarc You can throw all the money in the world at them and it won’t be enough and it certainly won’t make them better teachers. Fire’em.
The Teachers Union is so big that their students fail.
The Teachers Union is so big that their students fail.
Just one of several reasons why I have an extreme dislike of unions especially public sector unions such as this.
The Union's teacher/employees invested their money, time and faith unwisely.
It's never wise to trust any government at any level.
One would think educated people would know that....LOL!
wisconsin redeux
Based on my experience with unions it is virtually impossible to embarrass a union. The sense of entitlement is staggering at times.
The MAIN holdout is a 2-year freeze that was implemented when revenues couldn't sustain the step salary increases. Now, the Teachers will ONLY accept a new contract that gives them pay increases going forward, AND, MUST INCLUDE THE "BACK PAY" that was the frozen step increase portion. They want "BACK PAY", and their average current salary is $60K plus, AND, their Benefits (Medical/Retirement/etc.) puts them in the $80K+ range, for a 9-month job. NONE of them will allow skills testing for competency, because they have Tenure, and can't be dismissed for incompetence that way. Public Sector Unions should be BANNED; they are EMPLOYED by the TAXPAYERS.
Union thugs from outside Strongsville have been on the picket lines, and they have had Teachers arrested for disobeying police orders, AND, for doing Criminal property damaging.
I hope the School Board keeps them out for the remainder of the School Year, and in the summer, they should just hire ALL new non-Union Teachers (plenty of quality Teachers would LOVE to come to the School System, where pay and benefits are FAR BETTER than nearly every school district in the State of Ohio).
Somebody needs to make up a good compilation of these spitting union-thug “educators” to be viewed at the next Town meeting.
Put them in ads on cable TV, action shot posters. The public should be getting a quality education about “education” from this “teachable moment”.
bfl
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