Students fail civility lesson
When teachers strike, communities divide. Usually both the teachers’ union and the school board have reasons for refusing to budge from sticking points. The impasse imposes hardships on more than just the parties involved. The continuity of education is disrupted for students.
Working parents scramble to find daytime child care. Other workers, such as cafeteria staff and bus drivers, are locked out of a job. So it is no wonder that emotions run high for those with a stake in getting the contract settled.
Emotions are one thing, name-calling, derogatory remarks and pelting picketers as occurred this week during the Brownsville Area teachers strike is way out of line. Redstone Township police reported that a group of Geibel Catholic High School students – who attend a private Catholic school and have little at stake in the Brownsville strike – threw candy and condoms at the teachers, held up derogatory signs and yelled out the windows of their bus as it passed a picket line at Cardale Elementary School.
Police stopped the bus on its Thursday afternoon run and lectured the students on the illegality of throwing objects from a moving vehicle. People can get hurt. Let’s hope that lesson sinks in.