Schools
DPS Student Activists Are Backing Denver Teachers In Strike
From sit-ins to social media, students are creating videos, attending district and union bargaining sessions, as well as marches.
DENVER, CO – By Lena Novins-Montague for The Colorado Independent At Denver’s East High School, teens made a two-minute video that opens with a sober-voiced male student asking pointed questions of Denver Public Schools administrators: “Our question to you, DPS, is what is executive management? Why are there 38 people in DPS with this title, and why are they making at least $136,000 a year?”
One after one, a dozen more students, all dressed in red, follow him in the video, “RED FOR ED,” expressing frustration with the DPS administration in its current pay dispute with teachers.
Two weeks ago, after months of negotiations, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association voted to strike. Gov. Jared Polis declined to intervene in negotiations, an option that would have postponed the strike for 180 days. Hours later, DCTA celebrated Polis’s decision and announced the strike will begin on Monday.
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As the strike looms, many DPS students, especially high schoolers, have taken action to support their teachers. Students have attended district and union bargaining sessions, as well as marches and rallies. Others have gone a step further, staging sit-ins, writing emails to the state board of education and encouraging their peers to do the same, creating videos to voice their criticisms, and even posting memes on Instagram about the strike.
One student told The Indy she knows of a few fellow students who are quietly supporting the district, but she was unaware of any organized pro-district events.
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East High School student Oneccia Garcia (photo by Lena Novins-Montague)
At East High, a group of students met during lunch to create the RED FOR ED video. In the video, students reel off statistics which strongly suggest the administration is bloated and teachers are under-compensated. “Teachers in other Colorado districts are receiving an average of $15,000 more for having the same credentials as DPS teachers, and doing the same exact job,” one student says. After filming the video, the students posted it to YouTube, shared it on social media, and sent it out to news stations.
READ MORE in The Colorado Independent
Image: Students at Denver School of the Arts stage a sit-in in solidarity with teachers. (Photo by Molly McGrath)
