By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org
    
STRONGSVILLE, Ohio – Congratulations to the so-called professionals who were hired to teach in the Strongsville school district.
    
Their strike, now in its third week, has already forced students to lose precious learning time while trying to adjust to replacement teachers. And many of the school’s spring sports teams will miss the beginning of their seasons because their coaches won’t cross the picket lines.
    
Now we learn that two planned trips for high school students – to Honduras and Chicago – have been cancelled due to the lack of available teacher chaperones, according to a report from NewsNet5.
    
“Because trip chaperones and advisers were primarily teachers union or Strongsville Education Association members, the high school student trips intended for March of this year are no longer sanctioned, sponsored or supported by Strongsville City Schools,” Superintendent John Krapinski stated in a news release.
    
The ugly strike continued to have negative impacts off campus, as well.
    
Teachers reverted to their recent strategy of picketing in front of school board members’ homes. On Monday the targets were board member Ruth Brickley and her family.
    
“We have people out here to show their commitment to getting a fair contract,” local union President Tracy Linscott was quoted as saying.
    
Is that really worth standing in front of a private residence and terrorizing the people who live there? Don’t school board members have a right to a few moments of peace-and-quiet at home, away from the horrors of this ridiculous strike? How would the teachers like it if residents picketed outside their homes?
    
In nearby Garfield Heights, a chunk of asphalt was thrown through the front door of the North Eastern Ohio Education Association headquarters, where Strongsville union and school board negotiators were scheduled to meet Monday night. That meeting was cancelled before the incident, according to the news report.
    
In recent weeks a union member was arrested for blocking a school driveway, another was arrested for allegedly swerving his vehicle at a car full of replacement teachers, and several picketers made fools of themselves by harassing replacement teachers.
    
This ridiculous strike needs to end, and Ohio lawmakers need to join their peers in 38 other states and make teacher strikes illegal.
    
Students should have the absolute right to an education uninterrupted by adult money squabbles, period.