Students walk out
By Lethbridge Herald on October 30, 2025.
HERALD PHOTO BY JOE MANIO
Lethbridge Collegiate Institute (LCI) students gather across the street at the First Baptist Church after walking out of class Monday morning, in protest of Bill 2 Back to School Act ending the Alberta teachers strike and forcing them back to worki.Alexandra Noad
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Students at LCI showed their support for teachers forced back to work by staging a walkout Wednesday morning, following the provincial government mandating teachers back to work.
The walkout started at 10 a.m. with about 50 students eaving class to cross the street in front of the school. Many Grade 12 students didn’t come to school at all, despite the fact that the province ordered school to resume.
The walkout was staged by Abigail Fortier, a Grade 11 student at LCI whose learning has been severely impacted by classroom sizes.
Fortier, who has ADHD, dyspraxia and a learning disability which affects her ability to understand written text, says lack of funding for the schools has prevented her from getting an educational assistant or even being able to get access to quiet spaces at the school.
She adds that each of her classes has over 30 students while others attending the school have over 60. As a result, says Fortier, students have noticed how rushed their instructors are when it comes to teaching curriculum.
“With the 70-minute classes and over 30 kids in my class, my teacher doesn’t have time to go over a lesson, do practice questions and answer questions.”
Sophie Chalmet, a Grade 10 student, says when she began attending school, she remembers having fewer than than 20 kids in a class and now, because of class sizes, she has to take learning into her own hands.
“I haven’t really been understanding the material, so I’ve had to go home and ask my dad, who (also) doesn’t know any of it and we’ve been searching through my textbooks trying to find stuff,” says Chalmet. “It hasn’t been easy and it’s been really stressful.”
She adds that forcing teachers back to work and pushing back a strike until 2028 isn’t going to solve the problems both teachers and students are facing right now.
“(There’s) a lot of problems that need to be fixed and we need to build more schools and get more teachers and proper funding that’s really the problem.”
Fortier is a member of the drama program, which is a credited course at LCI. She says the instructor has invested more than $12,000 of his own money for props, costumes and sets over the years to give the students the best experience he can.
“Our play rehearsals run for about three hours after school, (and) he gets paid for one hour of that,” says Fortier. “It’s an actual class; we get classwork for it, we get credits, but he doesn’t get paid for two hours of spending his own time and money of teaching.”
Fortier says she wants the government to understand that class sizes are too big and there needs to be more funding for teachers.
“We need the government, and other people, to realize there are too many students per class, not enough teachers and not enough support in general.”
She adds that she plans to continue protesting on her lunch breaks in the hope that it will draw more attention to the issues and result in pressure on government to address them.
17-16
I wonder how many teachers realize this:
An eligible can claim school supply tax credit to a tax return, with the following conditions:
§Refundable tax credit calculated in Step 6 of Tax Return
§Requires certification as an eligible educator
§Max. $1,000 of expenses claimed on Line 46800
§Max. $250 refundable credit claimed on Line 46900
§Corresponds to eligible supplies purchased
§CRA may request written certification from the employer or a delegated official, and may also request receipts
Something that they may want to negotiate next time. Food for thought
Gandolf: are you suggesting that the solution to having one’s Charter rights denied is to look for a tax deductible line expense?
pathetic…the tax “refunds” hardly reimburse the expenses.
Hey there biffer. Was just at a teachers house this summer. Big box of school supplies delivered by Amazon. Best thing about it, Was being fully reimbursed by the school division. A well managed one. Maybe the other should do a little bookkeeping.
anyone that uses the likes of amazon deserves what they get.
Nice to see that the Union has taught our kids that they can display signs in big letters WTF, which I cannot interpret true meaning or else I would be censored on this forum, What The F— being the meaning for years with texting.
When political parties collaborate with unions to bring down governments it puts into question where democracy has failed! Who are we electing? Unions or governments? And at what cost? The student’s education being scapegoated? When a party is so desparate to get into power that it would create chaos in everyone’s lives, they have no right to govern!
The average working family is literally getting beat down by these job actions, and for what? Are you all fools? There are job shortages across North America! Where are you going to get all these people you are demanding? Money can’t teach people so you can add funding, but for what? You can’t just magically wave a wand over a person and say, you are now a teacher or you are now an educational assistant! But the union has brainwashed even the students now!
To the UNION and the NDP I say WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!
On what basis did you conclude the ATA or any teacher taught students it’s okay to display a sign reading “WTF!” What a remarkably ridiculous statement.
The joke’s on you, Say What. It’s obvious that you didn’t even bother to look at the student’s placard to discover that in this instance, WTF is an abreviation for the important question to the UCP government:
WTF = Where’s the Funding?!
Bazinga!
In your case, say what, WTF is ‘who’s the flake’.
“Students not going to school and those who walked out” Where has common sense gone? Now that school is thankfully resumed, one would think/hope that the students would respect the privileges of being able to go to school, support their teachers by being diligent in their classroom by working with their teacher(s) to make up for lost time. What do these minor aged children who skipped out of school think they are doing? Do they not understand that the government is adding 3,000 teachers and 1,500 teacher assistants? Their (students) actions are nothing less than truancy violations and this should be addressed by the School Board.
These students DO respect the privilege of education.
These students walked out in support of properly funded education, respect for the teaching profession, respect for the Charter, respect for democracy and respect for the rule of law.
These “minor aged children” have studied civics and understand the fragility of democracy, particularly when it is being directly attacked by this government in the unprecedented use of the notwithstanding clause.
These “minor aged children” have also been taught critical thinking skills enabling them to sift through the rhetoric, propaganda, misinformation, disinformation and outright lies the UCP government engages in on a daily basis.
Rather than committing “truancy violations”, these “minor aged children” have actively engaged in support of the democratic process and the rule of law.
If all of there concerns were so important to them before the teachers returned to work, why weren’t they protesting in the principle’s office, or the board office months ago? I wonder whether they stopped to ask those directly deciding what’s going on in their school and district first, or are simply parroting someone else’s comments.
Two questions arise from your comments:
gosh, looks like the ndp posing as teachers have conditioned the kids into their cult! now we have a new generation of socialist commies that will care about the collective need, such as public education serving the common good. these newly brainwashed ndp socialist commies will also support the likes of public health and fair and decent living wages for all. heck, they will next start to chant about sustainability and preserving the planet and respecting all life…the horror!
somehow the ucp and ilk will have to work overtime to teach these commies that self service and greed are the markers of success. sharing is fa suckas. if some are going to have a lot, it means many are going to need to be the equivalent of low paid servants.
a good neo-con deserves to have lesser folk at their service, and for as little compensation as is possible.