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Sickout Planned By Some DPS Students: 'If Everybody Is Saying The Conditions Are Terrible, Why Are They Just Ignoring This?'

DETROIT (WWJ) - Some Cass Technical High School students are planning their own sickout in response to the poor conditions of Detroit Public Schools.

Keianna McCormick, a junior at Cass Tech,  says teachers and students don't deserve to work and learn in such conditions.

"Our teachers are so good at teaching. One of my teachers, Mrs. Taylor, says she's been working there for 18 years and she's getting paid the wage she got paid her first year of teaching," said McCormick.

FULL LIST OF SCHOOL CLOSINGS

"We are saying that we don't like the conditions in our school our teachers are saying they don't like the conditions in our school. If everybody is saying the conditions are terrible, why are they just ignoring this?"

McCormick says students plan to stand outside of the school building at 8 a.m. Monday.

She says she hopes students at other schools do the same thing.

McCormick says students want to help teachers get their point across regarding poor building facilities and lack of resources.

Many teachers in Detroit are dissatisfied with their pay and the district's poor finances. Gov. Rick Snyder wants to pay off the debt and spin off a new district, but he lacks support so far in the Legislature.

DPS Emergency Manager Darnell Earley (former Emergency Manager appointed by Snyder for the city of Flint) said in early January that it's clear that teachers are feeling frustrated over the challenges they face, but he stressed at the time that teacher  sickouts are not the way to get the support needed to address the issues and calls the sick days "misguided."

[Catch up on all the related stories regarding the Detroit Public Schools HERE].

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