Students for ACT threaten not to attend class

Students consider not showing up to class if teachers go on strike - News 11's Wiley Jawhary reports

CALEXICO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - Some students within the Calexico Unified School District (CUSD) say they would consider not showing up to class if their teachers do not get the pay raise they deserve.

Currently, negotiations between the teachers and the district are at an impasse and this part of the process now goes through fact-finding.

An impasse is a process that can take up to 6 months, but that's not stopping students from making their voices heard. An unhappy crowd full of parents teachers and students attended the last Calexico Unified District School Board on Tuesday.

Angel De Dios is a senior student at Calexico High School. He explained students were not given enough time to speak at the meeting.

"They enforced the 20 minute rule, the 20 minute rule according to the CSUD constitution is that on public agenda items they cant go over 20 minutes," he said.

Students are also outraged with the district and say teachers deserve a raise, going far enough to say they wont attend class if their teachers strike.

"It is a discussion underway, we have thought about it, we have kept in mind, of course, we would love to do that but we would love to do it later on in the year when the teachers are ready to move on with a protest like that," he said.

Teachers have followed through with their promise to not offer extracurricular activities since their demands have not been met. 

With about ten thousand students in the district, the impact of stalled negotiations is starting to hit hard.