Injunction junction, what's your function?

Last week PSD filed an injunction against its teachers, but what does that really mean?


Basically an injunction is a legal way for one party to complain about another. And then Mommy (or the court) in this case gets to decide if they want to step in and punish the offender.  Now you have all seen kids fight. It can play out in a million different ways, with varying degrees of fault. Often with our own kids we try to determine not just if a child's actions are right or wrong, but if they were justified or provoked as well. We look at both children and all actions to see the whole picture and not just pass judgement on a single action.

Unfortunately the court has a lot less freedom than we do as parents. The court can only look at the circumstances brought before them and specific precedents in the law related to the case. In most people's minds the fact that the district is breaking the law by not having a comprehensive curriculum is enough to justify the teachers decision to break the law against teacher strikes.  But the law doesn't allow one crime to justify another.  In this case the judge can only rule on one matter of law: is the strike legal? Or must teachers go back to work?

Technically the strike is illegal. However lots of other districts have done it, and plenty of other judges have looked the other way opting not to get involved. The judge in Pasco has decided that it is his place to step in. He has ruled that teachers must come to an agreement or the teachers' bargaining team will be fined.  It's legally fair, but not really fair. If you had two kids fighting, and you turned to one of them and said, "If both of you don't behave I'm going to just spank one of you," how do you think that would turn out? That is essentially what is happening. The court is deciding to spank one side if both sides don't cooperate. In the words of every seven year old on the planet, "That's not fair!!!!" The district still has no motivation to cooperate or play nice. But Courts are not playground and the judge is not a parent. That is just life.

So if the judge can't force the district to cooperate in this situation, who can? The district is breaking the law by not having curriculum. Any citizen of Pasco can file a law suit against the district. It won't speed up the bargaining process but it will at least make things a little more "fair."

The school board members could choose to come in and assist with bargaining. Right now they have decided as a group to stay out of this issue. But they have every legal right to decide to join the proceedings as witnesses if they want to.

The time may soon come when teachers are forced to go back to class without a contract. At that point it will be up to us, the citizens of Pasco, to continue to put pressure on Saundra Hill and her friends to do what's right for our kids.

in·junc·tion

inˈjəNG(k)SH(ə)n/

noun

noun: injunction; plural noun: injunctions

1. an authoritative warning or order.

   synonyms:

   order, ruling, directive, command, instruction; More decree, edict, dictum, dictate, fiat, mandate, writ; warning, caution, admonition "the injunction prevents Sunday trading"

   • Law

     a judicial order that restrains a person from beginning or continuing an action threatening or invading the legal right of another, or that compels a person to carry out a certain act, e.g., to make restitution to an injured party.