School strike injunction sought
67% of teachers, many students out
By JASON EBERHART-PHILLIPS
The Arizona Daily Star
Only hours after a teachers' strike partially paralyzed its schools, the Tucson Unified School District board yesterday told its attorney to seek a court injunction "in order to try to return the schools to normal and protect the rights of the students and taxpayers."
The school board took the action in a five-minute public session after 1,860 ─ almost 67 percent ─ of 2,780 district teachers stayed off the job, according to official district tallies. The Tucson Education Association, which represents about 2,400 district teachers, said 2,200 teachers were supporting the walkout in its first day.
People are also reading…
William Brammer, the district's attorney, said he would file for a 10-day restraining order against the striking teachers in Superior Court today. A hearing is planned for 4 p.m. before Judge Jack Marks.
The district administration calls the walkout illegal, on the basis of a state attorney general opinion made during the 1971 Scottsdale teachers' strike.
The trustees also instructed Brammer yesterday to get a court ruling in whether the board can "summarily dismiss" teachers and classified employees for striking, on grounds of "abandoning their contracts." The last part of the board's motion calls for Brammer to seek compensatory and punitive damages against officers of the TEA, the Arizona Education Association and the National Education Association.
Brammer said compensatory damages would cover the district's legal fees, overtime pay, expenses for substitutes and possible vandalism of school property caused by the strike. He said punitive damages of $50,000 or $100,000 were "not unreasonable."
'We ain't gonna learn nothing'
(Arizona Daily Star reporters Keith Rosenblum and Jerry Mahoney were among the emergency substitute teachers hastily put into classrooms yesterday by Tucson Unified School District officials in the wake of the teacher strike. Neither reporter is trained or certified as a teacher. Neither reporter will collect the $55 per day pay that went with the job.)
"Mr. Rosenblum, you're a bore. This class is boring. This whole day has been boring. You mean to tell me they're paying you $55 to sit here and do nothing?
Unfortunately, what the question lacked in tact it made up in accuracy.
For the 30 percent of Cholla High School's student body who showed up for classes yesterday, school was boring.
It was boring because students sat idle. They sat idle because teachers had told them Friday to leave their books at home. Most students were bookless, and they accused teachers of being brainless.
In my case, my first day on the job as a substitute math teacher, I concurred.
"This algebra you're learning," I said grabbing one of the few texts I saw in my first class, "it looks rather peculiar to me. But I'm sure it's nothing too difficult; let's give it a try."
I had told the district I could handle a physical education or an English class.
"Well, you're a math teachers now," said an administrator at Cholla as if he were the Wizard of Oz handing me a brain.
It made little difference. It quickly became clear that maintaining order ─ "babysitting," the students called it for seven straight periods ─ was the true objective of Strike Day 1.
"We ain't gonna learn nothing in here," yelled a student. His peers concurred boisterously.
I admitted that we weren't headed for any algebraic revelations, so we tried a number of round-table discussions. Why had the students crossed the picket lines? How could they come to class unprepared? I tried to turn the tables.
A show of hands indicated that all of the students in class had been told to come by their parents. All said they would be on the picket line or at home if not for parental wishes.
