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B.C. Teachers Strike 2014: Parent Takes Over Classes While BCTF Pickets

Parent Takes Over Classes During Teachers' Strike

As teachers walked the picket lines in Langley, B.C. on Friday, one parent was inside a school teaching some students herself.

Brigitte MacNamara set up a Facebook group to notify other parents that she was entering Simonds Elementary to continue classes for her two children — and other kids whose parents signed them up through the site.

MacNamara is running classes according to the school's regular bell schedule from 8:51 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., according to the group. She said she decided to act because she does not want students to suffer from the ongoing union-government contract dispute.

B.C. teachers are set to begin a full-scale walkout on Tuesday if the two sides do not come to an agreement by then. They've been holding rotating strikes, while the government has also partially locked them out.

"This is not an attempt to choose a side in the dispute. We are not for or against the teachers," MacNamara wrote in the group. "We want what is in the best interests of the children — that is for them to continue to attend school on any set walk out days or continued strike."

MacNamara has been criticized for crossing the picket line, but she told The Province: “I’m not a member of that union. It’s not my picket line ... I’m not looking to replace them (teachers). I’m looking for a solution like everyone else.”

MacNamara's kids are in Grades 3 and 5, said the newspaper.

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