The teacher and their union are battling with the district over what happens on half-days -- usually the shortened days just prior to holiday and semester breaks.
Centinela Valley Secondary Teachers Assn. President, Erik Carlstone, explained the situation to the Los Angeles Times.
Carlstone said during contract negotiations last year, the union agreed to one 20-minute lunch period on minimum days and no nutrition period. But Carlstone said district officials say the union agreed to a 20-minute lunch and a 15-minute nutrition period, the same as regular school days, and scheduled the minimum days accordingly.
“That really infuriated the bargaining team and a lot of the members,” he said, adding that teachers in the district have been routinely disrespected.
The union spent $2000 to buy Krispy Kreme donuts for the district's 7,800 students in order to sabotage the nutritional point of the nutrition period and communicate to district officials that the 13-minute extension of the teacher's workday is unacceptable.
The sugary-delight protest extended from Lawndale to Hawthorne and Leuzinger high schools. The donuts were a pleasant surprise to the hungry students, but district officials were not amused.
The district accused the union of giving "fattening snacks to students" and costing the school system a pretty penny in order to just throw away the nutritional food that was already prepared for the students, according to The Daily Breeze.
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"The teachers chose to substitute fat doughnuts for nutritious meals to show their displeasure with us," Superintendent Jose Fernandez said. "For some kids, this is the best meal they have all day."
"Somebody should reimburse the district for the $11,000 we lost. Somebody should apologize to the students," Fernandez said. "Unfortunately many students were being manipulated. These are young people that shouldn't be used as pawns."
Carlstone agreed that the donutty-goodness was not a nutritious snack, but said that the "students deserve a treat" on the last day before break.
There were no injuries to report in this protest, though many students suffered from "sugar coma" for the rest of the shortened school day.
