About a dozen parents turned up on the picket lines at Richard McBride Elementary Thursday morning to show their support for striking teachers.
The parents, along with their children, carried signs in support of the teachers, waving and cheering when the occasional passing motorist honked in support of job action.
“We wanted to get a few parents together before the end of the school year just to express our appreciation to the teachers and show them they’re not alone and the parents are with them,” said parent organizer Maya Russell, who has three children at McBride. “As a parent, I would like the government to fix this and get a deal.”
Russell is a member of the district parent advisory council, along with Parents For Public Education (P4PE), a new political parent group that is considering running candidates in the upcoming school board elections.
“Of all the priorities of the provincial government, this has got to be at the top of the list because our children do not have another chance at their education, so it should be funded properly,” she said.
Another parent, Andrea Mears said in her child’s class of 22 there are two students with special needs and two students whose first language isn’t English. She questioned how the government expects teachers to do their job in the current constructs.
“That you could, one, keep 25 five year olds safe all day, let alone teach them anything, is completely insane,” Mears said. “I would like to see them properly address class size and composition.”
“Just get back to the bargaining table. The teachers need a fair deal, the kids need to get back to school,” parent Danielle Connelly said.
Sheryl Harrop, who has one daughter in McBride and twins entering kindergarten in the fall, was also concerned about how classrooms are made up.
“Class size and composition directly affects my daughter, and therefore it directly affects me. I’ve been on field trips and I’ve seen the difficulties that teachers have to deal with, and that’s why this fight has to happen,” she said. “It needs to be resolved. This needs to be fixed.”
