Victoria parents and children plan to cross a picket line at Lansdowne Middle School next week as a symbolic gesture to stop the longest public-school disruption since provincewide collective bargaining for teachers began. Organizers hope to attract at least 100 people to the school on Sept. 15, citing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, including a right to education, as an impetus to breaking the stalemate. Today marks Day 18 in missed school for elementary and middle school students in the B.C.-wide strike that started June 17. On Tuesday, hundreds of students rallied at the legislature, saying they felt like hostages in the dispute. Jane Johnston, one of the organizers of the planned school occupation at Lansdowne on Monday, said students are suffering the most from the strike. - See more at:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/families-will-gather-at-victoria-school-in-bid-to-break-strike-stalemate-1.1350465#sthash.ouSCStxj.dpuf
The public is invited to join the school occupation on Monday, which begins at 10 a.m. The group will meet ahead of time at nearby Hillside shopping centre. Find information on their Facebook page, facebook.com/EndThe Strike/StoptheFight.
kdedyna@timescolonist.com jwbell@timescolonist.com
David Underhill, a Grade 11 student from Reynolds Secondary School, shouts to the crowd as students rally at B.C. legislature on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014. Photograph By ADRIAN LAM, Times Colonist
