Last Friday at one o’clock, the sounds of chants could be heard across campus as Las Vegas Academy of the Arts (LVA) students flooded the front of the school to participate in a student organized walkout in protest for their teachers and their pay.
Talks of the teacher contracts in CCSD have been going on since March over issues like pay, benefits, and working conditions. Tensions have only gotten stronger though, since the union pushed for action to be taken before the 23-24 school year. Because of this, some teachers have even refused to work past their contracted hours.
Under Nevada state law, public employees, including teachers, are not allowed to strike. But that hasn’t been able to stop students from using their voices to stand up for their teachers.
Although it was easy for some students to walk out, others longed to show support but the thought of consequences caused them to be hesitant. However, once they realized that the weight of the cause was heavier than their fear, they pushed past it and joined the crowd.
“It was nice to be a part of something and to protest for your teachers because I love our teachers here. All the teachers were so nice about it too, which was crazy. I was expecting people to be like detention, detention, detention, but they were like “do what you want to do”, said Junior Evelyn Nichols.
The support of the administration and staff helped the protest to remain peaceful and allowed students to have their voices heard. Because of the common misconception that the movement was arranged by the teachers, junior student body vice president Emma Truman clarified that it was all the students.
“Teachers had nothing to do with the walkout,” Truman said. “I would say I was more inspired from teachers when they had a protest before school, which is completely legal. But teachers are not allowed to strike or encourage strikes, so there was no teacher participation at all. It was all just students helping students, and I think that’s what was really beautiful about it.”
LVA was one of two schools where a walkout for the same cause occurred on Friday. The other, Mojave High School where students did similarly, holding up signs and rallying earlier in the day. All around students are making efforts for their message to be heard. Junior Mo Lima Truong explains what that message is and why it’s important to him.
“As students we need to advocate for our education,” Mo said. “Teachers already put so much effort and time even outside of their contracted hours to work and provide so much for us. They’re even using their own money to pay for things that students are using, and I feel like that’s so unfair.”
In early September an impasse regarding the negotiations of teacher pay was declared by CCSD. The Clark County Education Association (CCEA) in turn, made a response, pointing out all the unaddressed issues that they had presented to the district, showing that all of these proposals were turned down. This included the growing issues of the lack of cost of living in their pay, compensation for increased instruction time, and the increasing number of teachers leaving the district, creating imbalances in the number of teachers for CCSD students.
The response stated that, “There are currently nearly 2,000 vacancies and more than 35,000 students without a full time teacher.”
Still at an impasse, meetings continue to be held, while an agreement has yet to be reached. As the fight continues, many students are left without educators, and as more time passes the prolonged issue will continue to damage the district and the students affected.
