RTA asking for concrete measures to keep teachers safe

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The city school district is setting another record for teacher resignations. Already this year, 165 teachers have quit, and the Rochester Teachers Association says safety is a big reason why.           

The union said they’re putting together a list of changes that they want to see.

Part of what prompted this was the vandalism at a school parking lot just before the spring break. The teachers union says 11 cars at School 33 on Webster Avenue were vandalized and broken into, and one car was stolen.

The union says it’s getting to the point where teachers have their spouses drive them to school, so they don’t have to deal with the parking lot.

Brean: Can you give us a sense of what you’re going to ask them to do?

“Really predictable things. We want good lighting at every parking lot. Some parking lots are now in the dark. We want fencing and gates.” Adam Urbanski, RTA president said. “We want logical consequences for the perpetrators because right now these kids, some of them as young 14 or 15, they’ve figured out that not much will happen to them. That the worst thing that will happen to them is they’ll get an appearance ticket.”

The Teachers Association says the city school superintendent has been responsive. But they want these concrete changes made by the end of the month. The union believes the behavior was partly created by COVID and so the schools and the city can use COVID money to make the changes.