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Students Rights!

Students Rights! image
Parent Issue
Day
27
Month
April
Year
1972
OCR Text

STUDENT'S RIGHTS!

An average day in the Public School in Ann Arbor includes many things. Among them are locked bathrooms, tardy slips, arbitrary suspensions and classes that divide the students into different levels according to their class background. It was for these reasons and more that the Ann Arbor Student Union was formed. The Student Union is based on the premise that if students get together around specific changes in the conditions they live in, that they would be better off. The Union is a city-wide union with members from all of the Ann Arbor Secondary Schools as well as some of the Elementary schools. Though there has been organizing going on by the unions in each of the schools all year it has not been until recently that the union got together city-wide.

At the first meeting of the city-wide student Union it was unanimously decided that the union should adopt the 3 point program that had already been adopted by the Tappan branch of the union. This program includes: 1. Union Recognition 2. Teacher-Student Equality and 3. The End of Tracking. The union is now working on getting together a united front of all the students around these issues.

The full demands are:

1. Union Recognition-The Ann Arbor Student Union demands recognition by the Board of Education of Ann Arbor. The student union is not just an "interest group" but rather the organization that many students in the schools wish to collectively bargain for them. Recognition would mean that the Board of Education would recognize the Student Union as the collective bargaining agent of the students it represents.

Collective bargaining is the process of all unions. By negotiating out the conditions under which union members will stay in school it is possible to reach an agreement which is acceptable to all sides involved. However without such a bargaining process conflict between students and school official is inevitable.

Union recognition can not be a negotiable demand because if there is no union recognition there can be no collective bargaining and if there is no collective bargaining no reasonable agreement can be reached.

2. Teacher-Student Equality - The Ann Arbor Student Union demands that teachers and students get equal and just treatment in the following areas:

   1. Treatment as far as unionization and collective bargaining;

   2. Facilities, this includes; open bathrooms lounges and lunch facilities;

   3. A voice in school wide decision making;

   4. Arrangements for business and sick leaves, and the end of tardy slips;

   5. A voice in curriculum planning;

   6. A voice in evaluating teachers and administrators, particularly those coming up for tenure.

All the points mentioned above are negotiable and can be worked out as long as the union is recognized as the collective bargaining agent for the students who want it. Without this as a basis for negotiations they can be neither equal nor reasonable.

3. End of Tracking- The Ann Arbor Student Union demands the end of tracking in all Ann Arbor Public Schools. Tracking or the placing of students into ability groups, divides the students by making then feel better or worse than each other and by pushing them into jobs corresponding to their class status. From Elementary schools on up tracking has become a basis for the Ann Arbor School System. It is used to divide the students into separate racial, sexual or class roles and is not in the best interest of either student or teacher.

The end of tracking is a negotiable demand. Much investigation of this practice must be made before it can be totally dealt with. But until the union is recognized and the conditions of this investigation can be worked out, the tracking issue can not and will not be properly dealt with.

These demands are now being brought to each of the individual student unions and to other community organizations asking for their support and for help working on these issues.

Some of the actions talked about in relation to the demands are: a city-wide strike of all the schools, a rally at the temporary administration building (now Jones School), and having assemblies in each of the schools explaining what the union is about, to be followed by school-wide referendums on recognition of the Student Union. A benefit will probably be necessary in order to raise money for the communications work needed.

If you are interested in working on these demands there are two main things that need to be worked on now. Communications and negotiations. Communications will involve all of the publicity work necessary, including leaflets, press conferences and posters. Negotiations will be involved in contacting other groups and dealing with administrative problems. For more information about these committees call 662-9229 for the Negotiations Committee and ask for Sonia or if you're into communications call 769-1442 and ask for Dave.

YOUR POWER LIES IN YOUR ORGANIZATION! SUPPORT STUDENT UNIONS!