Hi, I’m a ninth-grader at Southwest and this is my opinion on the whole strike. I one hundred percent agree with the teacher’s reasoning for going on strike. The wages for teachers are small and they need to be improved to be more liveable. Some of my classes are too big and it is hard to keep a class that big of the class under control. In my English class, we were talking about how some schools don’t even have nurses or social workers, so striking for extra mental health support for students is necessary. So in simple terms, the reasons for the teachers going on strike are very valid.

That was a list of stuff that I agree with. Now, I will list and talk about some things that don’t really sit right with me. For instance, a kid in one of my classes said that adding extra minutes and days to the school year was built to turn the students against the teachers. I don’t fully agree with that statement but I do think that it is true because they are trying to make it feel like,¨the teachers went on strike so they can get what they want, now the students will have to miss 3 weeks and end up having their summer shortened and having their days extended.” I obviously don’t believe in that, but I woudlnẗ be surprised if Ed Graff wanted us to think that way. One thing that I question is how in the school year of 2020, we missed a good month of school from March 13 to before we started distance learning. Our days never got extended or got our school year cut into our summer vacation.

If we have to spend 42 extra minutes in school, how will that help improve students’ mental health? Personally, for me, I am very ready to be done with school at the end of the day, I don’t know if I can last until 3:42! Some people have to stay home and take care of their siblings, people have planned trips, planned camps, or have jobs that they have to attend to support their families. I think that if the MPS board was planning on doing something like this they should have gotten input from the teachers and students, and spent more time because it took them about 2 weekend days so they could get the votes in and start school on Monday.

Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if a large number of students aren’t at school after June 10th. I also would not be surprised if students decide to go on strike themselves. That is all I have to say, if you are still reading this, I hope you take my opinion into consideration.

Thank you

A 9th grader that attends South2est

*Published anonymously per writer disgression