Doors Are Closed to Student Walkout

Burroughs High School administrators stood at the doors of their school Friday, refusing to let students leave the campus for a repeat of last week’s walkout in support of teachers engaged in a contract dispute with the district.

“If we hadn’t been prepared for it today, we would have had the same situation as last week,” Principal Tim Buchanan said.

About 500 students refused to return to classes last week after walking out of Burroughs during a morning break. The students then went to Burbank High School and encouraged students there to leave classes. Later, the students went to district headquarters and to City Hall, where they met with the Burbank Mayor Mary Lou Howard.

“We felt we needed to be a little firmer with the kids this time,” Buchanan said. The school was not locked, but staff members, ranging from the principal to custodians, were stationed at the doors and told the students they could not leave.

Students participating in last week’s walkout said they were trying to show the district their support for the teachers’ wage-increase demands and prevent a teacher’s strike.

“A few came out in the front of the school and it started snowballing. We learned from last time. We said, ‘No, you can’t go outside,’ and they didn’t,” Buchanan said.

Burbank Principal William Bertrand said that none of his students tried to walk out Friday. He said about 500 students who had walked out of classes last Friday would receive unexcused-absence notices for the day.

Posters advertising this week’s walkout went up late Thursday at Burroughs. Buchanan said he did not know who posted them, but said he did not feel that the teachers had any part in putting them up. He said the teachers association had helped keep the students from leaving. Last week, however, the students said they were encouraged by the teachers to walk out.

A notice was sent to the teachers asking them to discourage the students from repeating the walkout and asking their cooperation to keep them in class.

Buchanan said nine students who participated in last week’s incident have been singled out because they took a leading role in the walkout or because they displayed unruly behavior.

Those students are being required to get the facts from both sides in the eight-month wage dispute. The students will meet with Supt. Wayne Boulding next week to discuss their findings.

Besides the unexcused-absence notices issued students, their parents received calls from the school telling them their children had missed school.

The goal of the research assignment is to show the students that there are two sides to every issue, Buchanan said, and that “if they are going to base their actions on the facts, they first have to know what the facts are.”

Burroughs students have also organized a group called Students United for Teachers, which had its first meeting last week, according to several students. The group is planning to rally outside district headquarters as contract negotiations proceed today.

The teachers voted March 4 to authorize the Burbank Teacher’s Assn. to call a strike. The teachers have asked for a 5.5% pay increase and a 3.5% bonus. The district has offered an increase of 3.0% and a 3.5% one-time bonus. The contract expires June 30.