Union releases full schedule of walkout events
No school district-wide May 18
May 14, 2015
Teachers will have a full schedule of events to make themselves heard on May 18, the day they will walk out from teaching.
The teachers will report to the school at 7 a.m. to check in, grab signs, and arrange for transportation to the areas they will be protesting at. The teachers will be sign waving from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Wenatchee Avenue and the foot of George Sellar Bridge, north on Mission Street. The teachers will be divided by schools to determine their area.
The legislature is short-changing the education system.
— Wenatchee Education Association President Kris Cameron
The teachers will hold a rally and a sack lunch picnic from noon to 2 p.m. to write postcards to the legislature and to collect donations for YMCA summer camp and the Women’s Resource Center. The final event of the day will be another sign waving in the same locations, with the teachers locations being reversed.
While many members of the community has been supportive of the event, some members of the community have raised concerns about the inconveniences the walk-out presents.
“Concerns that parents have brought up have been arranging mostly child care arrangements,” Wenatchee Education Association President Kris Cameron said. “We hope that a single day of inconvenience will be worth a lifetime of equality in education. Some of the misconceptions in the community are that we’re [going] on strike against the Wenatchee School District … I can’t emphasise enough that we are walking out on the legislature, not the Wenatchee School District.”
Cameron hopes that providing more information on the event will ease the minds of concerned parents.
“We’ve been responding with the facts, the history, and the information. Nine times out of 10, when [the parents] know the facts and know how the legislature has short changed their kids, they support it,” Cameron said. “We will still work 180 days. We are not being paid on Monday, May 18. We’re volunteering our time to get our message out.”
Despite concerns, community support has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive.
“We have been really heartened by the amount of community support we have received. Our community loves our kids and so do we,” Cameron said. “The legislature is short-changing the education system. This is what our walkout is about, standing with our community and making ourselves heard.”
