Student Rights During A Teacher Strike

At the time of this article, Ontario's education workers are on strike and Ontario's public schools are closed to students. It is important to note that teachers (licensed teachers) are not on strike and are not doing anything to close the schools. Ontario's school board's have decided that they cannot allow students into the physical school buildings without the education workers present. This is because education workers perform many essential tasks in schools. Some are custodians, who keep the buildings clean, heated and maintained. Others are educational assistants and child and youth workers who provide critical assistance to students with special needs that allow those students to attend schools. The presence of early childhood educators (ECEs) was factored into the determination of how large kindergarten classes can be, so the size of some classes is too large for a teacher alone to manage safely. Other workers provided supervision of students, prevent bullying,