Parents react to districts closing school for second week of teacher walkout
OKMULGEE, Okla. (KTUL) -- While many districts are closing day by day for the teacher walkout, Okmulgee Public Schools decided to cancel classes for the entire week.
Week one of the teacher walkout made for an interesting week for the Larabee family.
“It’s a little bit of a challenge with both of us working,” said Richard Larabee.
“We’ve had to just juggle our schedules, as far as what we are going to do with our son,” said Crystal Larabee.
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Richard is self-employed while Crystal works as an office manager, but they found ways to keep their 11-year-old son Parker busy.
“One day he went with her,” said Richard. “And lots of other times he stayed with me.”
Now they are prearing for a second week of no school.
“It’s a little scary,” said Richard. “This last week would have been state testing, so we were kind of preparing Parker for that. So now it’s this, 'Okay so how long is it going to be put off?'”
Crystal said they would rather be prepared then wait everyday to find out.
“I’m actually thankful the school decided to do that because now we have the whole weekend to decide what we’re going to do with our kids,” she said. “It will be a whole lot easier to cancel babysitting plans then make babysitting plans.”
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They said they understand the point of the walk out.
“I think this was definitely needed for our kid's future,” said Crystal. “I want Parker to have the best education he can and this was definitely needed for that.”
No matter how long they are out of school.
“I want him to be in school, but again at the end of the day we really support what they are actually standing up for, so however long it needs to be to put the pressure on the legislature we’ll stand behind them," said Richard.
Owasso Public Schools also made the decision to close for the entire week.
The districts said students and teachers will return to school if the walkout ends earlier than Friday.
