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Thursday, June 5, 2014
The Agassiz Y Harrison
Grad 2014
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RELAY FOR LIFE Images from the 12-hour relay around Harrison Lagoon
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JESSICA PETERS / OBSERVER
Students at AESS made T-shirts to let passersby know they were walking out of school on Wednesday as part of a B.C.-wide, student-led protest against the BCTF job action and correlating government lockouts.
LOGGING RESISTANCE Opposition grows against plan to remove road from provincial park
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Students take turn walking out Agassiz kids tired of strike action and lockouts Jessica Peters THE OBSERVER
At least a dozen students walked out of their classes Wednesday morning in Agassiz, taking what homework they could carry down the halls of AESS, passing their teachers and administration and heading out the front door. Once out, they said they were told they wouldn't be allowed back in. Some tried to sign out properly, others knew it would be futile, as #walkout2014 got underway across the province. Thousands of B.C. students were expected to participate in the
walkout, many of them fed up with their teachers' strike action and the government lockouts. "I think all of this could have been done without a strike," said Cassandra Grand, a Grade 9 AESS student. Students in the Fraser Cascade have been told those participating in the walkout will have to make the missed class time up through detentions. But they wonder, with teachers unable to help students before and after school, or during breaks, when that extra class time would happen. "They're the ones ruining our class time in the first place," Grand said.
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"They're ruining our chances to get good grades in our final exams." Jessi Sparks will be crossing the stage at AESS on Friday night for commencement, along with her 37 fellow grads. She said the threat of punishment for walking out is "hypocritical" considering the confusion that exists in their learning environment. She was among the dozen or so students who walked out and set up a protest in front of the Agassiz library. As they danced and screamed for support, passing cars honked in support. "I'm mostly here because I'm tired of being stuck in the middle," Sparks
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said. "Teachers are supposed to be helping us but they're hindering us. They say it's all for us. It's like being stuck between a divorce." Wednesday was the only day this week that B.C. schools were not affected by the rotating strike action implemented by the BCTF — a strike action that has now gone on for two weeks. The students who walked out in Agassiz on Wednesday aren't just upset about the strike action and lockouts. They are also tired of crowded classrooms, cutbacks, teachers without resources, and what Continued on 2
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