Education Week - November 13, 2019 - 15

quizzes and a final exam during the
21-day course. But one year, Vaz decided to give another quiz as a disciplinary tool for bad behavior. The
union representative told him that
a third quiz was in violation of their
contract. Vaz conceded that it was.
As the course progresses, the student union representative also brings
up issues that arise and negotiates solutions with the teachers. If multiple
people have an issue with a class rule,
"maybe there is something wrong,"

As the students trickled out of the
classroom, the class' student teacher,
Sharanjit Purewal, called Jayden over.
One student had brought in a bacon,
egg, and cheese sandwich, but food is
not permitted in class.
"Why shouldn't I penalize him,
at least a little?" Purewal asked the
union representative.
Jayden considered. "We do have to
be here at 8 a.m.," he said. "And food
will help him pay attention and learn."
Purewal laughed. "Good answer."

"

We want to hear their voice, it really
does matter."
JOSÉ VAZ

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Aviation High School

Pepenella said. "We want to hear their
voice, it really does matter."
In years past, students have negotiated moving a test from a Friday to
a Monday. They have gotten certain
homework assignments waived in exchange for better class behavior. Typically, students are on their feet for the
two-and-a-half-hour class period, to
emulate the workplace, but one group
of students won the right to sit.
These contract settlements reset at
the start of every course.
"That makes them take ownership
of their own class," Vaz said. "It's
easy when somebody paves the road
for you, but they are still students and
they need to learn how to do it on their
own."
This fall, Jayden Alkins, a student
union representative, negotiated
with his teachers the amount of time
students would have to do their assignments. Vaz said he's since agreed
to let students come in and complete
work during their lunch period.
"We came to a consensus of what's
asking too much, and what's asking
too little," Jayden said. "We have to
come to a middle ground of what
makes the teacher happy and what
makes the students happy."
Those negotiations have earned him
the trust and respect of his peers. The
sophomores in the class said they felt
comfortable expressing their opinions and concerns about the course
through their union representative.
"I feel like we can trust him because
he's the same age as us," Jennifer Castro said of Jayden. "I feel like we can
understand each other."
Added Crishant Tejada: "He makes
sure to keep Mr. Vaz in check."
At the end of class one day this
fall, it was time for a union meeting.
Jayden stood at a podium as his peers
circled around. He gave some reminders about an upcoming quiz and the
due date for a homework assignment.
Then he answered some questions
from his classmates: Would the quiz
be multiple choice? What time will
class start on an upcoming half day?
"Any [more] questions, comments,
or concerns?" Jayden asked. "Nothing? We're all good?"

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Later, Purewal said that Jayden, a
reserved 15-year-old, hadn't initially
wanted to be a union representative.
But teachers encouraged Jayden to
run for the position in order to push
him out of his comfort zone.
And that seems to be working, said
Purewal, who was a foreman when he
was a student at Aviation High School:
"He's going to be a great leader."

Resolving Conflict
In the unionized classroom, the student foremen are not protected by the
union, because they're the managers.
That has led to some clashes between
the student union representative and
a foreman, Vaz said.
For example, when one student
skipped class, the foreman wanted to
administer a stern punishment to hold
him accountable. But the union representative protected him, arguing that
it was the student's first offense and
he'd had a lapse in judgment.
Ultimately, "they negotiated a better punishment for the student," like
coming to class early for the next
week, Vaz said. "That's making the
punishment match the crime."
Putting students in these leadership
roles is a great opportunity for peer
mediation, Pepenella said.
"When students are together for
such a long period of time, disputes
arise," he said. "The union rep can
defuse the situation."
Of course, this kind of simulation might not give students a completely nuanced understanding of
unions, said Terry Moe, a political
science professor at Stanford University and a frequent critic of
teachers' unions.
"I think it's possible that they'll
walk away with an unrealistic or distorted view of what collective bargaining looks like in the real world,"
he said, adding that the teachers
might downplay the negatives.
Still, Moe said, this exercise might
give students "a glimpse of what it
means to speak with a collective voice
and try to assert some power when
you're otherwise powerless-those
kinds of things are worth doing."

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