By Donna Gorden Blankinship
The Associated Press
SEATTLE — A judge Friday ordered striking Pasco teachers to return to school Tuesday, one week after their walkout began, while contract talks continued in Seattle under threat of another strike.
Teachers were also on strike in the South Whidbey Island school district, while Spokane narrowly avoided a walkout by all school employees when a tentative contract agreement was reached Thursday.
Called illegal
Calling the Pasco strike illegal, Franklin County Judge Alex Ekstrom granted an injunction requested by the Pasco School District to force teachers back to the classroom.
Union president Greg Olson told teachers after the ruling was announced that the union had not decided whether teachers should return to school after the holiday weekend. He said a decision would be made in the next few days.
Ekstrom wrote in his order that failure to fully comply might subject violators to contempt of court sanctions, but he did not set a fine. Another hearing was set for Tuesday.
“The continued strike activity by the association and its members is causing great harm to the district, its students and the public, which is substantial, immediate and irreparable,” the judge wrote.
Classes had been scheduled to begin Tuesday in Pasco, but schools have been closed all week as negotiators met with a state mediator to try to reach a new contract agreement.
The district serves about 17,000 students in southeast Washington.
Seattle strike?
In Seattle, teachers voted Thursday to go on strike Wednesday if they do not have a tentative contract by then.
The walkouts in Pasco and on Whidbey Island were the first teacher strikes in Washington since Tacoma teachers went on strike in 2011. Kent teachers went on strike in 2009.
In Seattle, the state’s largest school district, teachers have not gone on strike for 30 years.
