FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Over a third of the teachers at St. Thomas Aquinas High School have called out sick in protest of the rising costs of their health care.
A total of 44 of the school’s 123 teachers called out sick Friday, leaving many students grouped together for their classes.
One student, who said his mother works at the school, said the health care costs eat up 20 percent of his mother’s take home pay.
“My mom came home and basically said, ‘We don’t have insurance anymore. We can’t afford it,'” the student said. “Teachers in the Archdiocese haven’t gotten paid a raise in pay in the last 15 years, so if you count inflation, that’s two percent a year in a normal economy.”
“They put, like, all of us in the gym,” a student said. “Teachers work hard. They deserve the money they should be getting.”
Students said the incident is a protest from the teachers in response to changes to their health insurance that led to an increase in cost. Students also said that teachers at the school haven’t received a raise in many years, leading to increased financial issues.
“They had a teacher meeting recently with the Archdiocese where they cut their health plan,” student Liam Lord said. “I mean, these teachers here don’t have pensions. They’re very under-covered, underscored, and they just keep taking away from them.”
Some students said their families pay good money for them to attend the school and to have such a situation going on is disheartening.
“There wasn’t much being taught from many classes,” Lord said. “A lot of teachers were missing. There wasn’t enough substitutes. It was basically mass chaos. I think it’s up more to the parents of the students to go and send a letter to the Archdiocese and say, ‘Hey, listen. This is what’s going on. We need your help. We’re paying you guys money. Why are you guys disrespecting your teachers like this?'”
The Archdiocese of Miami confirmed that the teachers were out. However, they did not say why.
“All I know is that not a lot of teachers are here,” said student Garrett Perraud. “They let us know where we should go instead of classes, but they really haven’t said much about the whole problem, really just today only. [They] haven’t really said anything about the teachers or the health care, the strike at all really. I know teachers here that they can’t have kids now because of it, and it’s sad. Stopping someone from having kids just because of health care.”
The Archdiocese released a statement Friday which read, “While in the next fiscal year the employees will see a modest increase in the costs of their health care benefits, no changes in any other benefits will be made.”
The Archdiocese also said they have offered teachers three separate plans to choose from, and they will return to the school next week to talk the plans over.
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