High school students concerned about impact of a teachers' strike

Leo Dube is worried about his future.

The Grade 12 Hammarskjold High School student says the threat of a looming teachers' strike is weighing heavy on students, especially those expecting to graduate in June.

The 17-year-old hopes to head off to university in the fall, but worries if teachers – who are in a legal strike position, but must give the Lakehead Public School Board five-days notice before walking off the job – go on strike it could have consequences for his post-secondary aspirations.

“It definitely concerns me,” he said on Saturday, after being presented with an academic excellence award at Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute during the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation awards banquet.

“I know I have some APA exams coming up in two weeks and I’m not sure how that would affect them if the teachers went on strike. They might be cancelled and I might not be able to write them.”

Universities look closely at the test results, which can exempt students who do well from certain courses.

“It would just be a lot more work going into university having to do those courses.”

High school teachers in Durham hit the picket lines on Monday, teachers in Peel are set to strike on May 4 and educators in Sudbury announced on Saturday talks have failed and teachers will be off the job starting on Monday.

Meanwhile elementary teachers have said they could walk out as early as May 10 and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association gave its union a 94 per cent strike mandate. 

Superior Collegiate student Nicole Lee isn’t graduating this year, but is still worried about the state of the labour talks between the OSSTF and the province, which has said no more money is available.

“It’s kind of scary, just to know we won’t be in school. It’s the end of the year, so I hope it all works out,” she said.

Classmate Hannah Tabachak had similar thoughts.

“Yeah, exams are coming up, so we’ll see how that works out,” the 17-year-old said.

Chris Perozak is a Grade 11 student at Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute and won an award for leadership in sports on Saturday.

Losing a portion of the school year could be devastating, the 16-year-old said, especially to those looking to pick up their grades in the final semester.

“If someone doesn’t have a good mark right now and they’re going into university, they need those marks to possibly get a scholarship. If we lose part of our school year, that doesn’t give them time to bring that mark up if they can or if they need to,” he said.

OSSTF District 6A president Paul Caccamo was reluctant to discuss the ongoing talks with the province, saying on Saturday he’d prefer to focus on student achievement.

But with Sudbury threatening to walk out, he did offer up a short comment in light of the negotiation struggles his Northern Ontario compatriots are facing.

“I will say this about local talks. They remain on track and ongoing and both sides remain optimistic that a resolution can be found,” Caccamo said.