Students Demand That Labor Dispute End

About 300 Huntington Park High School students walked out of classes Friday morning to demand an end to a protracted labor dispute between Los Angeles Unified School District teachers and the administration.

Citing concerns that graduation and college applications could be disrupted because of a teacher union-backed strategy to withhold official grades, the students staged a peaceful demonstration for several hours, beginning at about 7 a.m. It was similar to the student protests that erupted in January at more than two dozen junior and senior high schools throughout the district.

Said Brandon Moore, a senior who helped organize the protest: “Hopefully, the union and the district can work faster (to reach a settlement) so we can graduate on time. That’s the main thing, to graduate.”

Year-Round Classes

Huntington Park operates on a year-round calendar, which divides the academic year into staggered terms running generally from about July 1 to June 30. About 140,000 of the district’s 595,000 students attend year-round schools. A prolonged strike could interfere not only with graduation and promotions for all students but disrupt the start of year-round classes in July. School ends June 23 for students in regular schools.

Midterm grades were due in district offices on April 7, but a district official said that about half of the district’s 26,000 classroom instructors failed to turn them in. The union has advised its members to send grades home with students on a report card supplied by United Teacher-Los Angeles.

Support for Teachers

Most of the Huntington Park students said they support their teachers’ contract demands, which center on the size of a pay increase and proposals to give teachers greater decision-making authority in schools. But some expressed irritation at the tactics--chiefly, the refusal of teachers to file official grades with school offices.

“They can strike, but they can still give us our grades,” said Alma Acosta, 17. “Why are they involving us?”

“We’re trapped in the middle,” said Abigail Aguirre, 17, who plans to graduate in June. “They’re not giving us our grades, so we won’t graduate. But we think teachers deserve respect and a raise.”

Some students said their teachers encouraged them to join the walkout. One student said her teacher, whom she declined to name, excused her from class to participate in the protest.

Another student said she learned about the protest in class Thursday from one of her instructors. The teacher “didn’t tell us to do it but said, ‘Do what you think is right,’ ” said Carla Mundy, 18.

Catherine Carey, a spokeswoman for UTLA, said Friday that the union does not approve of student walkouts and “in no way encouraged” the protest. “I would hope that teachers would not encourage it because that’s not our official position. We want kids to stay in school and get their education, and let UTLA and the district do the best they can to get a contract.”