MARYSVILLE — While negotiators bargained through a state mediator Monday, a parents group filed a lawsuit it hopes will force striking Marysville teachers back to work.
The lawsuit, filed by "Tired Of The Strike" in Snohomish County Superior Court, alleges that the 35-day strike is illegal and asks a judge to order teachers back to class.
"This has gone on long enough," said Elizabeth Henry, a parent and organizer of the parent group. "We want our children back in class."
The lawsuit names the Marysville Education Association and its president, Elaine Hanson, along with the Marysville School District and its school board president, Helen Mount.
It asks for financial penalties of $250 a day if an injunction is awarded and teachers choose to defy it.
Brian Phillips, an attorney retained by the parent organization, said the case could get a court hearing Oct. 15.
"It is hoped that this (lawsuit) will inspire the two sides to settle," he said.
"If this brings them to negotiate today and get it over with, thank God," said Cary Kellogg, a plaintiff and parent of two school-age children.
Neither the teachers nor school district had reviewed the lawsuit by late Monday afternoon.
"We understand the frustration some parents are feeling. We’re frustrated too," said Hanson, president of the 650-member union. "But taking the teachers to court does not settle the strike."
"…The strike will be settled when the Marysville School Board brings an acceptable contract proposal to the bargaining table," she said.
The two sides remain far apart on salary issues.
Hanson would not speculate on what teachers would do if the parents are granted the court injunction.
"We can’t predict what is going to happen, but Marysville teachers will be the ones to decide what we do," she said. "There is a lot that can happen between now and then."
Judy Parker, a school district spokeswoman, said the district agrees with many of the parents’ concerns in the lawsuit. The district had not received a copy of the court papers, however, and she could not comment on the details, including that the district is named as a defendant.
"We would agree with the parents that it’s time to put an end to the strike, and we believe it’s illegal," Parker said.
Kellogg said strike allegiances have divided families, including his own, and the community.
"Everybody walks on egg shells. It’s such a divisive issue," Kellogg said.
Some parents don’t want to see the case go to court.
AIMS, another parent-dominated organization whose acronym stands for Accountability and Integrity for Marysville Schools, opposes the injunction.
"We feel that such action serves to cause further divisiveness amidst all parties, expense to the district and harm to the community," the group said in a recent news release. "Cessation of the strike needs to be accomplished at the bargaining table."
The lawsuit claims, "The strike has completely disrupted the education of all students within the district and has caused irreparable harm. The students have suffered and will continue to suffer impairment from the total lack of an education as a result of the illegal strike."
It argues that students and families have been affected in a variety of ways, such as suffering anxiety, harm to educational achievement, unbudgeted child-care costs and a shortened summer vacation next year.
The lawsuit says that common law in the state prohibits public employee strikes and points to a 1958 state Supreme Court ruling that found a longshoremen’s union strike against the Port of Seattle was illegal.
Dave Stolier, a state assistant attorney general, said each case involving a teachers’ strike must be decided on its merits because there isn’t a specific state law addressing the issue.
The law allows collective bargaining between teachers and their districts, but neither allows nor prohibits strikes. A bill that would have made teachers strikes illegal was introduced in the last legislative session but it died.
The next step in determining the legality of teacher strikes is to look at case law, and there is nothing there specifically addressing the rights of teachers to strike, Stolier said.
Last year, a King County Superior Court judge ordered teachers in Issaquah back to the classroom. "Based upon the common law of this state, strikes by public employees are illegal," the judge ruled.
That Issaquah decision doesn’t directly affect Marysville, Stolier said.
Even so, injunctions have been awarded in most court cases involving teacher strikes in the state.
Tired Of The Strike members say they know some people will agree with their decision to seek the injunction and others won’t.
"We worked really, really hard not to take sides here," said Diana Manning, one of the parents filing the lawsuit.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
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