Teacher ‘Sick-Outs’ Shut Down Nearly All Detroit Public Schools
Most of Detroit’s public schools closed for the day on Wednesday due to teacher absences, as disgruntled educators stepped up efforts to protest the governor’s plans for the district, its ramshackle finances and dilapidated buildings. Some marched downtown Wednesday where President Barack Obama was getting a tour of Detroit’s auto show.
In discussing Detroit schools in his State of the State address, Snyder focused on the debt problem facing the district, which is expected to run out of money this spring.
“Many outdated school buildings are crumbling – roofs, floors, windows, doors, and locks that are broken or in desperate need of fix”, says a blog post by Pam Namyslowski, a fourth grade teacher who said she has taught in the district for 24 years.
Wednesday’s sickout was the biggest in a string of similar actions in recent weeks, reportedly organized by a group affiliated with the teachers union called DPS Teachers Fight Back. Last week, teacher absences resulted in three consecutive days of school closures.
The sickouts have not risen to the level of an all-out strike, because such a move is prohibited by MI law. “[Earley] poisoned children in flint with the water, and [he poisons] children in Detroit with inadequate school buildings”.
The Detroit News reports that teachers on Wednesday also plan to hold a noon rally and vote on an ongoing program of calling in sick until their demands are met.
Many of those who chanted and carried signs were Detroit Public Schools teachers who were taking part in a massive sick-out Wednesday that closed the majority of the district’s schools.
“The struggle will continue until we have won justice for the people of Detroit”, said Conn.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan called for teachers to stop staging sick-outs and return to their classrooms while legislatures work on solving the city’s debt problems.
Protesters are planning on handing our fliers to vehicle show attendees that highlight the state of decay in Detroit’s public schools.
“Teachers, parents and students are just fed up with the injustices that are being done to our students”, Cass Technical High School English teacher Joel Berger told the Detroit News.
The district needs what amounts to a rescue package from Lansing soon. Duggan said teachers’ “frustrations are legitimate, but the solution is not to send the kids home”. He has pushed state lawmakers to pass bills to overhaul the school district by splitting it in two, spending more than $700 million over a decade, and warned of a potential bankruptcy.
“This movement has grown, and I think it has grown among the teachers themselves”, Mitchell said.
Teachers again are threatening to skip work on Thursday even though the district is seeking a temporary court injunction in an attempt to stop future sickouts, the Detroit Free Press reports. “The whole next generation relies on it”, Cass Tech teacher and activist Steve Conn told CBS affiliate WWJ.