Alberta High School Students Plan Walkout to Protest Order Sending Teachers Back to Work
Students in high schools across Alberta are planning to walk out of class Thursday in protest of Alberta teachers being ordered back to work, hoping the provincial government will hear their concerns #yeg #Alberta #Edmonton
As Alberta schools reopen Wednesday, some Edmonton students are already planning to leave their classrooms.
Teens are planning walkout protests for Thursday, meant to support Alberta teachers who were ordered back to work by the province this week,
and lobbying for better standards in their classrooms.
They need to listen to our voices and realize that they need to give us what we want.
Students at Southwest Edmonton's Lillian Osborne High School and Mother Margaret Mary are planning to walk out Thursday morning.
School is definitely really important.
This isn't something that we're doing just to miss class.
It's something that is purposeful and impactful, and we wanted to show that way.
These students in touch with students in more than 40 other schools across Alberta,
planning something similar Thursday, a new kind of action for them, but feeling compelled to do something.
Really, history is happening right now, and this is an important thing that's happening.
It's affecting all of the students across Alberta.
This affects students, because we are the victims of these conditions that are caused by lack of funding to the education system by the Albertan government.
Student groups organizing through social media, about 20 Instagram accounts dedicated to walkouts in Edmonton alone,
these teens hoping to send a strong message motivated by the province invoking the notwithstanding clause this week
to halt negotiations with teachers for the first time in Alberta labor history.
If they can take away the constitutionally protected right of the teachers to strike,
they can take away any rights in the constitution.
If the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is an option, that's not just for the teachers, it's for everyone.
Alberta's Education and Child Care Minister Dimitrios Nicolades asked Wednesday when students will get what they need,
said the first thing students need is to be in school.
Their best interests and their well-being must be paramount in everything that we do,
which is why Bill 2 was necessary so that our kids can get back to the classroom.
The walkout in southwest Edmonton is planned from 11 a.m. to 1.45 p.m.
From Edmonton, Lauren Boothby, CityNews.