(24 Aug 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Columbus, Ohio - 24 August 2022
1. People walking the picket line
2. SOUNDBITE (English): Amy Portis, parent:
"Well, you know, our teachers spend almost as much, if not more time with our kids. And they need to know that the parents are backing them. They need to know that the students are backing them, that we all love them and support them."
4. People holding signs
5. SOUNDBITE (English): Amy Portis, parent:
"You know, it's hard for our kids as well as parents to drop our kids off at the schools every day knowing that we're sending them into unsafe circumstances."
6. People sitting down holding signs
7. SOUNDBITE (English): Amy Portis, parent:
"My kids have gone to schools with leaking ceilings, mold, infestations. We've asked the PTA for money to help provide basic needs like paper. They don't have school textbooks. We've had to drop off bottled water because the drinking fountains don't work."
5. Eva Tweneboagh holding a sign
6. SOUNDBITE (English): Eva Tweneboagh, senior:
"Me being a senior, I haven't had like a normal year because like COVID, hybrid. It's just really crazy how this is going on now that it could have been prevented if the school board just listened to the teachers needs the first time instead of going on strike. This is just so crazy that like they have to fight for basic necessities and stuff that shouldn't be fought over."
7. A person wearing a red shirt with a list of teacher demands
8. SOUNDBITE (English): Eva Tweneboagh, senior:
"Every day they come and teach us and show us and help us grow as people. So it feels like it's our duty to try to support them when they need it most to help us get the best education that we can get."
9. Student holding a 'First Day Of... Protest' sign
10. A person and child holding a sign
STORYLINE:
A strike by teachers in Ohio's largest school district entered its third day Wednesday — the first day of school for some 47,000 students, with some of those students and their parents rallying behind them.
Parents, students, teachers and other employees gathered at schools across the Columbus School District with plans to picket for hours, advocating for safer buildings, better heating and air conditioning, smaller class sizes, and a more well-rounded curriculum that includes art, music and physical education. It's the union's first strike in the district since 1975.
Picketers blasted music on the sidewalks outside Whetstone High School in Columbus and waved to honking drivers. Some held up signs reading, "Columbus schools deserve working air," "a history lesson in progress" and "my feet hurt but I'll walk as long as it takes."
The school district and the union resumed bargaining Wednesday afternoon. The school board said its offer to the union put children first.
Eva Tweneboagh, a senior at Whetstone High School, picketed alongside her teachers, her friends and friends' parents on the sunny Wednesday morning. She said it's strange to start off with another disrupted school year, especially since she "hasn't had a normal school year" through high school.
While she's worried about the strike continuing and affecting things like college scholarships and her grades, she said, her teachers shouldn't be backing down.
"It could have been prevented if the school board just listened to the teachers needs the first time instead of going on strike," Tweneboagh said.
Amy Portis is a parent of a senior. Portis described the angst she feels dropping offer her kids "at the schools every day knowing that we're sending them into unsafe circumstances."
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