Ada Reporter

West Ada Education Association (WAEA) President Eric Thies organized a “sick out” resulting in two days of school being out for the district’s 36,000 students.

The WAEA represents the majority of the 6,000 employees in the West Ada School District. Teachers who walked out on students this week belong to the WAEA. 

According to the Idaho Press, Thies “spearheaded efforts to lobby teachers to refuse to work Monday and Tuesday” but has called teachers back to the classroom for Wednesday. Thies, a Frisbee golf aficionado, is a 12-year-veteran of Rocky Mountain High School, where he teaches physics. 

"If we are not remote on Monday, we are not going into our buildings," Thies said unequivocally, according to MSN, prior to the work stoppage.

Over 700 teachers called in sick throughout the West Ada School District Monday; 400 called in sick on Tuesday. 

The school district is the largest in the state. 

All webpages for WAEA’s website have been redirected to a central statement of solidarity. 

“We were left no recourse when the district ignored their voices, as well as those of medical professionals, and went back on an agreement that was in place for all instruction to be remote if the district was in the red category as designated by Central District Health. WAEA members do not feel safe in their school buildings because physical distancing is impossible to achieve,” the statement reads in part.  

Thies was also in support of science curriculum in the school district that was pushed through on a split vote. Opposition to the curriculum has said it is politically biased. 

The school district is just the latest to be shuttered as critics argue teachers unions' attempts to take advantage of Covid in pursuit of leverage in the workplace.

The WAEA was implicated in the “sick out” last week when an online poll was leaked to the press. 

“Work action is defined as: An action, such as a strike or shutdown, taken by workers as a means of increasing bargaining power with management, or a temporary action (such as a strike, march or sick out) by workers as a protest and means of forcing compliance with demands (The Free Dictionary, Merriam-Webster),” the poll that was sent to WAEA members read. 

WAEA as an organization put out a detailed Facebook post that could be interpreted as the union’s demands. As public employees, teachers are expressly forbidden from striking. 

The WAEA belongs to the statewide Idaho Education Association and the National Education Association. 

“Let’s set the record straight: The IEA is a labor union, and as a labor union it is concerned about its power and the maintenance of it,” Wayne Hoffman, president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, wrote on Idaho Ed News. “The union has a long track record of fighting for as much money as it can possibly shovel into the education system and to oppose almost any proposal that would diminish its control or give parents more say in how their kids are educated.” 

Critics say that while teachers may couch their disputes in terms relative to Covid, they are showing their collective strength. Teachers in Kenosha, Wisconsin organized a sick out only weeks ago.

Yesterday, a teacher in Arizona was outed for threatening a sick out. Earlier this year, that state’s top teachers union was outed for its secretive support of “sick outs.”

Many have pointed out that as opposed to their private school counterparts, public schools are funded at the same rate regardless of whether they are truly in session or not. As a result, private schools have been reopening more quickly where possible and have seen an uptick in enrollments. 

Teachers who did show up to school in Ada yesterday were greeted with applause by students.