CACHE, Okla. (KFSM) -- An Oklahoma high school student's post about her trip to the Oklahoma Capitol has gone viral.
Our affiliate KFOR reports that Madison Marshall, a student at Cache High School, visited the Oklahoma State Capitol with some of her classmates.
She said in a Facebook post that what she witnessed during her trip disappointed her.
“Today I went with a small group of my peers up to the capitol to support our teachers, and watch the legislative process in action. We sat in on their session, and spoke to our district’s representative. If I could sum up my thoughts on what I saw I would use the word “disappointing”. These representatives clearly did not care about doing their job. Over half of them were sitting on their phones, and the other half- were not even in the room. It was like walking into a room of unsupervised high school freshman. They were on cell phones, backs turned, talking, or just leaving the room coming back only to vote on a bill they had been absent during the introduction of. However, the thing that ticked me off the most was that they make more in three months than what an Oklahoma teacher makes in one year, and all they do is sit on their phones and chat about who knows what. To top it off we got to speak with our representative. He proceeded to tell us that Oklahoma teachers were trying to extort the government, and that teachers can wait it out another year. His attitude was passive, and he gave us the run around on everything we asked. He clearly did not value us nor our education. I will remember that when I vote, and I hope my peers will as well.
To all of my teachers past and present: As a senior with my graduation, state contest, and other activities on the line because of this walkout. You have my full support. I would rather suffer now, so that the future generations will not have to. You are not walking out on us. You are walking out for us.”
The post has gone viral, with more than 1,800 shares on Facebook.
The Oklahoma Education Association is seeking a $10,000 pay raise for Oklahoma teachers over three years, a $5,000 pay raise for support professionals over three years, a cost-of-living adjustment for retirees and the restoration funding for education and core government services.
OAE announced that it is tentatively planning a teacher walkout for April 2 if legislators don't increase teacher and staff pay.
“Our goals remain the same- to force the legislature to pass a plan that provides teachers and support professionals a significant pay raise, and restores critical funding to our classrooms,” said OEA President Alicia Priest in a video posted to the union’s Facebook page. “We will not allow lawmakers, once again, to shortchange our students, our teachers and our support professionals.”