PSRP Reporter: Fall 2015
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Emergency Exit
Driver, monitor safely evacuate burning busEIGHTEEN SCHOOLCHILDREN left through the front door of their bus as the rear burst into flames.
Thanks to two Florida AFT members, a school bus driver and monitor, the children safely escaped a fiery bus on the way to school in May. Driver Augustus Simpson and monitor Dorothy Manning,...
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‘Dignity in our work’
Custodian sets tone for new task force on professionalismOUR UNION’S NEW task force on professionalism, a broadly representative group of union leaders and community activists chaired by AFT Executive Vice President Mary Cathryn Ricker, held its first meeting this past spring in Washington, D.C.
The group is tasked with looking at what it means...
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Stressed out
Survey results show need for focus on workplace demandsThe results of a new AFT survey on well-being, working conditions and stressors for school support staff and teachers across the country provide much-needed information about sources of stress on the job. The first-of-its-kind, 80-question survey was filled out by more than 30,000 educators and...
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Where We Stand
We are our unionAs we reflect on 100 years as the American Federation of Teachers, there is one expression I keep coming back to: We are our union.
Our union was founded a century ago to establish a voice for teachers and other school personnel so they could combat factory-like conditions in public...
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To form a more perfect union
For school and college support staff, our history shows how unity makes us stronger.As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the AFT over the coming year, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel have much to be proud of. What follows is a look at the origins of our union and how it grew when PSRPs brought their talents and voices to the AFT.
The reason...
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All for one, one for all
How activism gives us voice, strengthens our communities and keeps us on the jobPSRPs with a plan
Alabama
“If you’re so smart, why don’t you come up with a plan?”
That was the challenge thrown at members of the...
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In the news
Law brings raises to support staff PSRPs in Denver are celebrating a big win on pay and benefits because of their work with school officials and their engagement in Colorado’s political process.
In September, members of the Denver Federation of Paraprofessionals and...
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Task force on racial equity is seeking solutions
Will put recommendations before AFT executive council later this fallLORRETTA JOHNSON wants it to be known that the AFT’s task force on racial equity is not strictly about the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Eric Garner in New York or Freddie Gray in her hometown of Baltimore, all on a long list of unarmed black men killed at the hands of police....
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AFT members train in how to help grieving students
Listen. Show empathy. Don’t be afraid of feelings.THE DESIRE TO HELP students grapple with strong emotions as they face the death of a close family member or friend is something nearly every school employee has faced. Now AFT members have begun a process of training their colleagues in research-based strategies to help ease the effects of grief...
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School’s healthy eating videos turn kids into celebrities
A cooking show, an apple orchard, a marathon and moreHERE’S WHAT CAN HAPPEN at a K-3 school when teachers and support professionals come together and use a little inspiration, perspiration and willingness to let everybody promote healthy snacks.
Specifically, what can happen is “Snack Scene at 3:15,” a weekly series on Bee TV at Bower Hill...
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AFT endorses Hillary Clinton
She will fight so working people can build a good lifePSRPs LIKE what they see in presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. So much so that PSRP leaders and others on the AFT executive council voted overwhelmingly in July to endorse Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.
As a children’s advocate, as first lady of the...