Parents file lawsuit to get Mexican teachers back to work

By Nancy Caouette

MEXICO CITY

Parents in southern Mexico filed a lawsuit Friday to try to force striking teachers to return to class, five days after the current school cycle began.

“We have asked the state to dismiss the teachers who have no vocation, no love for their work and no respect for children,” said Claudia Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the General Coordinator of Parents of Oaxaca.

Rodriguez said at a news conference that some parents have decided to send their children to schools in the neighboring state of Tabasco, that borders Chiapas.

The lawsuit was filed one day after Mexican authorities threatened to fire 1,255 striking teachers and school employees who have refused to return to work.

The ministry of education said that the law allows authorities to dismiss teachers who are absent from classes for four days in a row.

The government said the teachers are mostly concentrated in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero where thousands of striking teachers have blocked roads and shuttered schools for the last four days.

The education ministry said 61 schools remain closed in Oaxaca city which broadly represents 30 percent of public education institutions of the state.

The threats by the government seemed to have little effect on the teachers as thousands of protesters and members of the CNTE teachers’ union, resumed their protest Friday.

The teachers from Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacan and Chiapas -- some of the poorest states in Mexico -- have been protesting since May against a mandatory skills test imposed by recent education reforms.

The new evaluation requires instructors pass the assessment in order to keep their job but teachers argue the tests do not take into account the social and cultural environments in which they work.

Protesters have regularly pointed to a lack of basic supplies in rural areas, including electricity and textbooks.