"Are we like the whales, in our territory. who recently lost their way?" Glen Smith, American Federation of Teachers president, asked the approximately 1,000 teachers at Friday's annual Mini-Quest Conference.
"No, but we've been treated like dogs!" replied someone in the audience.
The daylong conference for St Thomas and St John teachers was held at Frenchman's Reef Hotel.
After decrying Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's lack of support to the island's schools, Smith alluded to a metaphor used by Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds that referred to being lost in the local "ketch and keep" thorns.
Smith blasted Turnbull, the governor's chief of staff Juel Molloy and local businessman Jeffrey Prosser, saying the three had stolen the "genips from the trees" while the teachers are stuck in the thorns.
Smith said the first month of school in the Virgin Islands has been tumultuous due to the successive school strikes to protest working conditions and salary. But he urged the educators not to give up.
The keynote speaker, Patrice Wallace-Moore, urged the audience to realize that the young people are in a time of crisis. Wallace-Moore is a clinical social worker and director of Arms Acres drug and alcohol treatment-rehabilitation center in New York. She is also the wife of former NBA player Lowes Moore. Wallace-Moore has been a guest on the Montell Williams and Roland Watts talk shows.
A variety of 13 workshops, including Aids Programs that Work, Science for the 21st Century and Managing Student Behavior, were available for the teachers to attend. Several teachers reported that the workshops were "timely," inspiring" and "helpful."
Although all teachers were expected to attend the conference, some did not.
"I feel it is hypocritical for the union to fly speakers here using our union dues, when we are in such dire straits now," said one high school teacher who declined to attend the conference. "My students did not need to miss another day of school."
"I've had it up to here. My school day begins with cleaning. I'm not interested in motivational speakers right now," commented a teacher from Addelita Cancryn Junior High School, who also chose not to attend.
Both asked not to be identified.
