Teacher Contract Dispute Sparks Student Protest

Like a fresh uprising in the Arab Spring, students at Watchung Hills Regional are using a Facebook page to coordinate two protest events to impress school and teacher association representatives of their frustration over the impasse in teacher contract negotiations.

"I have been annoyed for far too long at the extent of what the school had been doing to students via the budget, protests, and other related stories that just in the end was just dumped onto the students," WHRHS student Gabe Waldman said.

Out of that annoyance, on Tuesday he launched "Protest the BoE Day" page on Facebook to rally students to two separate events aimed at demonstrating their disappointment and frustration at what some call "the situation" at the school.

Much of the student anger stems from the teachers' institution of work to rule, which limits the students' access to teachers to the specified hours of the last contract negotiated between the Watchung Hills Regional Board of Education and the Watchung Hills Regional Education Association.

"The board has flat-out ignored the plea of students," Waldman said. "We hope, as the student body, to show the board of education and unions, that even if they're in a battle, that they have no right infringing on a human's right to the best education they could get, thanks to the WHRHS teachers and staff."

About 250 students have pledged to participate by wearing black to school on Friday, and to participate in a "human chain" around the school Monday after classes. The page also shows another 1,221 students have been invited.

The students have already vented much of their anger on the page, which notes "the WHREA and the Board of Education do not know students well." In assessing blame, the students appear to wish a pox on both houses involved, evenly splitting blame between the board and the education association.