Students are wondering whether or not teachers are showing up to graduation. The truth is: they aren’t, because the teachers are engaged in a district-wide protest against Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS).
Teachers have been at battle against AAPS all school year, and the teachers’ way of protesting is a work-to-rule action. Essentially, a work-to-rule action is performing minimum required work and not doing any unpaid extra labor, like clubs after work hours, or attending a graduation ceremony in the middle of the weekend.
Office professionals aren’t going to be attending the ceremony either. However, a small number of CAs will be there, working on paid time.
There is a small selection of teachers whose contractual obligations include graduation events, as well: all of the music teachers, along with the journalism teacher.
According to Heather Schimmel, Skyline counseling lead, around half of the counselors are going to attend graduation. They are being paid with compensations such as time off.
Also, if a teacher has a student graduating high school, they will be there to hand their child(ren) their diploma(s).
While most teachers aren’t going to be at graduation, they still want to show support, even in the midst of the protests.
Teachers plan to be present on Monday, June 8, when seniors pick up their paper diplomas at Skyline. This time overlaps with teachers’ contractual hours.
“Our plan is to be there [from] 12:30 to 1:30, or 1:30 to 2:00,” says Skyline teachers’ union representative Gabriel Rettaliata. “We’ll certainly try to stop by at the senior celebration picnic, as well as the senior send off.”
A small fraction of teachers still could come to the ceremony, Rettaliata says. “Some teachers are going to be attending the graduation ceremony in the crowd, but they won’t be helping run the ceremony.”
