March 3, 2009 — School was released early at St. Croix Central High School Tuesday when a group of teachers and other employees walked out in protest over the reinstatement of students suspended a week earlier.
Details were sketchy Tuesday, and phone calls to the school and to the St. Croix Federation of Teachers were not returned.
Teachers' union president Tyrone Molyneaux told Radio 1000 that all the school's teachers were involved in the walkout, but it was not a union-sanctioned event. Molyneaux did not return a call from the Source.
A press release sent by the Department of Education said the school was being closed early on Tuesday due to "a walkout by school staff, to include teachers, around noon. School personnel are protesting the overturned suspensions of several students alleged to be involved in an incident which occurred at the school last week."
According to Juel M. Anderson, public relations director for the Department of Education, a group of students had been suspended last week for a fight, but she did not know the number.
But after a disciplinary hearing, the administration "couldn't validate that they were involved in the incident." So the suspensions of all but two of the students were overturned.
This caused concern among school personnel, who walked off the job Tuesday in protest. Anderson did not know the actual number involved.
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