YAKIMA, Wash. – High school students in Yakima continued their protest of proposed staff cuts in the Yakima School District with another public protest on Tuesday and a petition.
Students took to the streets on Yakima Avenue from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with posters and signs.
Protests began on March 28 with a walkout at Davis High School and Eisenhower High School which followed a March 25 school board meeting where 124 YSD staff members learned that they were losing their jobs to support the district’s budget.
YSD noted on March 26 that despite staffing cuts, the district is still set to be well staffed, with Superintendent Trevor Greene stating that a lack of student enrollment and lingering effects of the pandemic were parts of the reasoning behind cutting staff.
In an online petition created by YSD students, they argue that “firing all these teachers and YSD staff is not the answer or reason” and that “it’s because of the poor choices our board has made to spend/budget the district’s money.”
As of writing this article, the petition has a total of 1,290 signatures.
“I feel like if the money wasn’t unnecessarily spent, then there wouldn’t have been teachers that had to be let go,” said senior Daeshjia Watley at a March 29 protest. “So that’s why we’re out here protesting. We’re protesting for the justice of teachers.”
