Detroit Teacher Sick Out Closes 60 Schools

More than 60 public schools in the city of Detroit, which is

more than half the district are closed this morning, as rolling teacher sickouts continue to move through Michigan’s largest school district.

Teachers are upset by large class sizes, pay and benefit concessions, and a state plan to create a new, debt-free Detroit school district.

These actions by the Detroit teachers are actually illegal in the State of Michigan and could and should warrant legal action including the dismissal of these teachers and the revocation of all Michigan certificates.

Here is how such actions are defined by the relevant law, the Public Employment Relations Act:

(j) "Strike" means the concerted failure to report for duty, the willful absence from one's position, the stoppage of work, or the abstinence in whole or in part from the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment for the purpose of inducing, influencing, or coercing a change in employment conditions, compensation, or the rights, privileges, or obligations of employment.

The next paragraph of the statute does state it allows for a public employee to express a grievance or opinion as long as it "does not interfere with the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment."

However, the law also states that enforcement of the law requires the public employer ,  which in this case is the Detroit Public School System, to initiate proceedings with the state Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

The district has 46,325 students in its 107 school buildings.

Schools closed on Monday

1. Bagley

2. Bates

3. Blackwell

4. Bow

5. Burton International

6. Carleton

7. Carstens

8. Carver

9. Chrysler

10. Clarke Preparatory

11. Cody - APL

12. Cody - DIT

13. Cody - Medicine and Community Health

14. Coleman Young

15. Communication and Media Arts

16. Cooke

17. Davidson

18. DCP at Northwestern

19. Detroit International Academy

20. Detroit School of the Arts

21. Detroit Lions

22. Dixon

23. Dossin

24. Douglass Prep Academy

25. Earhart

26. Edison

27. Emerson

28. Fisher Lower

29. Fisher Upper

30. FLICS

31. Gardner

32. Gompers

33. Greenfield Union

34. Henderson

35. Hutchinson

36. Jerry L White

37. John R King

38. Ludington

39. MacKenzie

40. Marshall, Thurgood

41. Marquette

42. Mason

43. Maybury

44. Moses Field

45. Munger

46. Neinas

47. Nichols

48. Osborn College Prep

49. Osborn MST

50. Palmer Park

51. Pasteur

52. Pulaski

53. Randolph Center

54. Robeson

55. Sampson

56. Spain

57. Thirkell

58. Vernor

59. Wayne

60. West Side Academy

61. Wright, Charles