Students at New Westminster Secondary School joined their counterparts across the Lower Mainland, walking out of school this morning to show their frustration with the ongoing labour strife between the British Columbia Teachers' Federation and the provincial government.
Approximately 40 students gathered in a grassy area at the high school at 9:30 this morning, near the corner of Eighth Street and Eighth Avenue, chanting, "We are not your leverage."
"We are out here in support of students," said Freddie Young, a Grade 12 student who has been accepted to UBC. "We feel both the BCTF and the government are equally detrimental to students."
Young acknowledged there are problems in the education system, but said they need to be resolved without impacting students' education.
"It's not that I'm against the BCTF. I think both of them don't look out for students," Young told The Record during the morning protest.
A Surrey student initiated provincewide walkouts through social media to protest the labour dispute. Thousands of students signed on to participate in the walkout, but at NWSS the response was minimal. Considering the size of the school - about 2,000 students - a small margin turned up to take part, though more were expectd to join the rally after the school's first block.
NWSS principal Phil Cookson said those who did miss school to attend the walkout would be marked absent from class that day, but would receive no other discipline.
He applauded the students for becoming "politically aware," but didn't like that they were missing school.
"I don't think this is a good thing because they've missed so much school," he said.
NWSS parent Wendy Harris happened to be walking by the protest this morning while picking up her Grade 11 son. She praised the students for taking part in the protest.
"It's good to see," she said looking around at the excited bunch of students huddling together to make their point.
Meanwhile, teachers in New Wesminster are set to strike on Friday as a part of the BCTF's rotating strikes. Teachers continue to escalate job action by holding a series of strikes throughout the province in response to contract negotiations between the B.C. Public School Employers' Association - the bargaining agent for the province's 60 school boards - and the union.
On the other side, the B.C. Public School Employers' Association ordered a lockout and pay cut for teachers who participate in job action.
