Ariel Levy, an 11th-grade student here at Taft, is the president and founder of True Vision, a social justice and activist club for high school students. It is to empower students to create social change, including (their current focus) the looming Los Angeles teacher strike. The members of the club are assisting the LAUSD teachers, nurses, librarians, counselors (all these positions under the umbrella term “teachers”), in their fight. Not for what they “want,” but for what they need. These needs range from teachers receiving a cost-of-living pay raise and smaller class sizes that’ll benefit students’ successes, all the way to using school funds more effectively, and even less standardized testing. True Vision believes that with their contributions, along with the United Teachers Los Angeles labor union, the education members themselves, amongst many other organizations and parties, they will be able to provide faculty in the LAUSD school system with a satisfactory and appropriately justified way of living and provide students with quality education.

The True Vision club is currently working on preparing for and spreading the message of encouraging students to attend the UTLA demonstration that will be happening on December 15th. The organized demonstration begins at 10 am and is a march from Grand Park down Beaudry Avenue. The purpose of UTLA’s event is an attempt to finally receive the needs teachers and students have been starving for. At the event, Ariel Levy plans to give a speech to discuss the issues he has been receiving from various teachers via the data collecting he has been executing. He has reported that nearly all of the teachers’ issues directly align with the LAUSD school system matches what UTLA supporting.  1. Smaller class sizes; 2. More nurses, counselors, psychologists, and librarians; 3. Less standardized testing and more teaching; 4. Competitive wages; 5. Charter and Co-Location Regulation; 6. Real support for school safety; 7. Community schools and support for families; 8. Greater investment in adult education, early education, and bilingual education. Ariel holds great value in the stance that LAUSD is not providing ethical treatment to faculty and students of their school system. Students who plan to attend the demonstration on December 15th can expect to see lots of signs and posters with apples and teacher-student supportive messages, hear lots of positive chants, witness a sea of red clothing, which is the color of choice for teacher movements across the nation.

Furthermore, did you know that there is the possibility of a strike occurring in January next semester?! As the LAUSD faculty members continue their fight for themselves and students persistently, the school district does not always provide to satisfy teachers, librarians, and other school members’ callings. If the school system were to not provide the necessities its educational members are asking for between the time frame of December 15th to January 15th, then an LAUSD-wide “teacher strike” would be held to further present the importance of what they are so deeply fighting for. During strike time everyone can expect to see various school members from all sorts of LAUSD schools, along with supportive family, students, parents of students, and other parties picketing and leafleting on the perimeters of their schools, encouraging passersby, and non-participating parents and students to be aware of the current situation, and how they can help out. You can also expect to see a great portion of students absent from school during strike time, another way students can support their teachers. However, seniors should take extra preparations to ensure that they can afford to miss the number of days that the strike will be active, as they should not object themselves to being ineligible for graduation for being absent from school for more than 7 days throughout the year. The value of teacher strikes fairs to be very important because when large portions of teachers and students are not participating in school, the LAUSD loses money because they are paid in coordination with how often students attend school daily. This means that the more students who support the strike by not attending school during strike urge LAUSD to supply their schools with what members are in need of. Teacher strikes empower students, faculty, and educational members alike with an opportunity to push the LAUSD to finally give them what they need when demonstrations aren’t sufficient enough.

A big effect this will have on students is that they will be missing out on the education they were promised when they joined the public education system. Being that there will be a massive decline of teachers at the school, students will most likely be put into Taft Hall and given Edgenuity work to complete their classes. As most students know Edgenuity classes are hard to do if you don’t have a teacher helping you understand what you’re working on. A large majority of these students will probably just look up the answers and not learn anything, which is not the goal of the LAUSD. If the district refuses to meet these demands then the strike will continue on and students quality of education may begin to decline. This isn’t just a fight for the LAUSD teachers, it’s for the students, for future students, and everyone who expects excellence from the school district. As a final reminder, Ariel wants you to know “to come to participate in and support these upcoming events.”

For any additional information about the demonstration, strike, or future events in regards to UTLA, please visit https://www.utla.net/campaigns-issues/campaigns/give-kids-chance.