Health & Fitness
Updated: A student’s thoughts on Lake Forest High School being run by “temporary replacement staff” during negotiations
A student's perspective on the Board's decision to have students return to school without their teachers.
As stated in the September 14th update on the Lake Forest High School website regarding the negotiations between the Board of Education and the Union, bus service and days of mandatory student attendance are to be resumed as of September 17th in spite of the strike. To make up for the absence of educators, the school explains that they “will initially be using temporary replacement staff” to fill the void.
The Chicago Tribune reports that a number of parents have said they were approached by the school to help run the day's operations and that the regional superintendent will be overseeing operations to determine whether or not the day is to count as an official day of attendance.
While it is impossible to say exactly what the makeup of the facilitators will be for Monday -- and any subsequent days where students are present and district teachers are absent -- until the event takes place, based upon the information available, it is a perfectly reasonable assumption to make that come Monday, the school will be filled with stay at home parents and well to do community members attempting to run a school filled with roughly 1,700 students.
Other than what has already been referenced above, the school has failed to provide even basic information regarding what is to take place once the students arrive on campus Monday morning.
In addition to the fact that any plan utilizing hordes of homemakers and retired persons who are able to pass a background check to run a midsized school simply reeks of stupidity and presents itself as a potential disaster, the idea of youth being kept in school during union negotiations by volunteers who are most likely unable to provide legitimate instruction to them seems morally questionable at best.
Regardless of whether or not the regional superintendent declares the day to be one of legitimate attendance, I can attest, as a high school student, that there would be too much educational interruption occurring in the aforementioned situation to learn from a trained and experienced educator, let alone an individual who may not comprehend the information contained in the lessons they have volunteered to teach.
The BOE claims that their plan is intended to prevent us from being affected academically, but I feel as though the board know as well I do that my peers are not going to benefit from coming in on Monday -- this doesn't seem to be about us.
The school board is sending a message to the teachers by bringing us in on Monday and having us taught by volunteers: you’re dispensable.
Bringing us to school for political motives does not make us students, it makes us bargaining chips, and forcing us to be there while not providing a legitimate education in the process equates to little more than warehousing us.
Update:
The Tribune reported satuday that inorder for the day to count for attendence, eveyone providing classroom instruction must be a cerfied teacher or substitute.
