Another huge crowd turns out for teachers

By Lethbridge Herald on October 9, 2025.

Hundreds of people line both sides of Mayor Magreth Drive South near Henderson Lake Park Wednesday to show support for striking teachers.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

Close to 1,000 people gathered along Mayor Magrath Drive Wednesday afternoon wearing red, holding signs, and cheering to show their support for teachers across the province during the third day of the Alberta Teachers Association strike. It was the second such demonstration in the city since the weekend.

Parents, teachers, students and allies rallied together for an hour to bring attention to classroom issues to people driving by and to show support for one another. Some teachers could be heard chanting “we’d rather be teaching,” while others held signs highlighting what they are asking for. 

Many drivers passing by honked in solidarity, including a couple of school buses, a fire truck, and a long-haul semi. 

Local representatives of the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA), Lethbridge-West MLA Rob Miyashiro, and city council candidates Belinda Crowson and Jenn Schmidt-Rempel were among the attendees.

John Templin, president of the Holy Spirit Catholic ATA Local No. 5 and Grade 1 teacher, said personally he feels heartbroken to be away from his students. 

“I miss them every day that I am not there with them,” he said. “I think of all the things that we would be doing, and I am just very sad to not be there with them,.”

While he misses his students dearly, and he was hoping to avoid a strike, Templin said it was necessary to bring attention to the learning conditions children across the province are facing, including his own students. 

“In my 26 years of teaching, 19.5 of them as a Grade 1 teacher, I have never had such a large class. I have 28 students raging from six to seven years old. I have six students that require extra attention, with just one EA to help me but she is consumed by one or two of those students.” 

He said that he tries to help with those students while teaching the other 22, and it is very difficult as he cannot get to everyone who needs his help. 

“I feel bad when I go home at the end of the day, because I haven’t been able to be one-on-one with them and that is happening across the province.”

Class sizes are too big, and the complexities are higher than I have ever seen in all my years of teaching,” said Templin. 

He said smaller class size and extra help from education assistants would be a great help to him personally.

“We used to have a cap on class sizes, but the government got rid of it. Before I used to have 20 students in my class at most, and now they are not willing to go back to that, but something has to be done.”

Templin said hiring 3,000 teachers over three years is nowhere near enough, as that turns out to be a part-time position for every school in the province. 

“It’s just not enough, we need more schools built, we need more teachers, and we need to retain teachers by providing a fair wage.”

He said he takes on university students who are becoming teachers, and three out of five of them usually leave the province because of the salary offered elsewhere. 

“I had one student that graduated from the university and now she is working retail, because she couldn’t do it, it was too much for her,” said Templin. 

On Wednesday, out of scope staff within the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division received a 30-day layoff notice if job action continues, which will become effective Nov. 7. 

Those who received the notice are part of the CUPE 1825, which include administrative support, education assistants, library staff, child and youth care workers, behavioural education assistants, English as an additional language staff, early learning assistants, receptionists, speech language assistants, career practitioners, early learning program leaders and school accounting administrators.

Katherine Pritchard, district representative for the southwest with the ATA, said teachers are asking for three things: class sizes, help with classroom complexities, and wages that keep up with inflation. 

“I would add to that, respect for the profession. We want teachers to come here to Alberta, and if we want to attract and retain teachers, those conditions must be in place.”

She said it was heartening to see the support from those in attendance and those honking while driving by, as this is an issue that affects many of them. 

“We have support from students and parents who are in classes of 40-plus kids, which is not an ideal learning condition, for students who require assistance, and they don’t have it, or students who require some sort of testing and they are waiting over a year to get it done.”

Pritchard said the whole education system is in crisis and it affects everyone, whether they are teachers, students, parents, guardians, educational assistants and even custodians. 

“We are giving up our wages every single day we are on strike, and we will never make this money back, but it is more than that, the whole system is broken.”

Locke Spencer, a father of six school-age children, was at the rally and said it was important to show support for teachers in this time of uncertainty. 

“We are trying our best to make sure that learning happens at home as well, but it’s no replacement to the experience they should be getting in the classroom right now.” 

He said that as far as he can tell, the responsibility is on the government to understand students’ needs and figured things out to get everyone back in the classroom. 

Even though his kids have only missed three days of school so far, Spencer they thrive in routine and right now that is interrupted. 

“We are replacing the lack of routine with a routine at home, but the biggest part is the uncertainty as we don’t know if this is going to last two days, or two weeks.”