SVUSD Teachers Protesting Union Contract Negotiations

For the past several days teachers in the SVUSD have been running a silent protest on various different school sites. The teachers union wanted a 7.5% raise and they got a 2.5% raise. Apparently the Union isn’t up to speed that the private sector economy is still in the tank,or they actually believe Jerry Brown when he says that California is back on top.....

Some of the protests include the teachers wearing all black, or teachers walking out with the students at dismissal and leaving immediately. But Cordillera Elementary and those poor teachers got thrown under the bus by their Union and put student safety at risk. You see the principal Ms. Shaver, made a rule that the parking lot is for STAFF ONLY, no parents, even if you happen to have a special needs student you are to park out on the street because the handicapped parking is taken up by office staff. This campus has a small special needs population. Children with cognitive and physical impairments that make it challenging on a normal day to walk up to 2 blocks to get to the campus because of the limited parking in the neighborhood.

Children with autism are notorious for being runners and bolting across streets with no regard for their personal safety. Some of the children are in a physical pain walking that far, but we have tolerated it to go along with the rules. Well this week the Union in their infinite stupidity thought having the teachers take up all the street parking in the neighborhood and making children with impairments walk FARTHER was an appropriate way to protest their inability to negotiate themselves a suitable contract with the district.

I witnessed a child in so much pain today that her mom had to carry her the rest of the way to the car because parents of course were not informed of the infantile protest that would inconvenience them and their children, we would have parked in the lot that the principal has lectured and left robo messages to us about staying out of the staff lot. Well guess what? It’s a public school parking lot funded by our tax dollars, I will be in that lot every single day from now on.

The Cordillera principal or the Union representative for the district do not understand how special needs children’s safety is at risk walking 2 - 3 blocks to their cars, and I was under the impression they were all about the kids, silly me. My own son saw a red tail hawk flying and tried to run across the street, while I was holding his hand. He has autism and has no idea that a car can crush him like a bug. He also has no idea what a union contract is and no idea what a protest is, and the point of teachers not parking in a parking lot and what point that was supposed to make. The principals response alarms me because there are people that just don’t ”get it” when it comes to special needs. Well she is one of THOSE people. She referred to our kids as “special friends”, we were given the wrong start time at back to school night, our kindergarten class is in an old storeroom (because they won’t go home and tell anyone they have no windows in their room but open shelves hanging from the walls, a totally inappropriate space), and the Special Day Class children aren’t included in recess with the rest of the school on the awesome play equipment daily only 2 days a week.

After receiving a call back from the Teachers Union representative Don Moore who said to me ”We needed to make our voices heard to the board by bringing the protest to the school sites, it’s unfortunate a few have been inconvenienced.” Horrible that the position of the teachers union if it really thinks its unfortunate that the kids are inconvenienced. Putting children’s safety at risk to make your political point is offensive, and infantile. I’m sorry, I thought the teachers and the unions were in this for the kids....... that must just be propaganda they spew.

The district has been very good at keeping special needs families quiet, they pay them off they silence their voice, and they move them on because they just want our kids to go away. Well the Union and this school has violated so many civil rights of these kids I can’t even count them, and if the union and the teachers and the district don’t grow up, please do not be surprised when the ACLU knocks on Cordielleras door, I decided to show you how a protest is really done.

Oh!! Teachers at other schools in SVUSD, just keep wearing your black clothes and leaving at dismissal, it doesn’t irritate the parents and put any kids at risk. I want to thank you at those schools for showing a bit of common sense in your no sense protests.