An anonymous social media graphic urging North Carolina’s teachers to call out Friday and Monday has attracted the attention of the state’s teachers.
But just days out from the potential call-out, no one is taking credit for the graphic, and the most vocal supporter of action in connection to it says she doesn’t plan to participate.
Jennilee Lloyd, a third-grade teacher at Wake’s Morrisville Elementary, told WRAL News on Tuesday that actions needs organization, planning and strength in numbers — something the movement to call out doesn’t have.
The North Carolina Association of Educators — the state’s largest teacher organization — told WRAL News they aren’t behind the post and believe more planning is needed to act in a way that generates impact. For example, the organization spent months planning a walk out and demonstration at the state’s Capitol in 2018. They understood why teachers would want to take action.
Spokespeople for the state’s legislative leaders — Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell — didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.
The graphic first appeared in a Wake teacher Facebook group post in late October and eventually took the form of at least two different nearly identical graphics that were shared. Both read, “North Carolina teachers are taking a stand … we are being asked to do more with less — for our students, our schools and our families… public education matters. Teachers matter. Students deserve better.”
The graphics note the lack of a state budget, higher health care premiums and flat base salaries for the most experienced teachers as reasons to protest.
The push has been met with skepticism from many educators, who questioned the motives of an anonymous poster and the effectiveness of planning such quick action.
Staring down a movement with no organizer, Lloyd surveyed educators across social media groups, asking them to fill out a Google form to indicate whether they planned to participate and why.
Nearly 3,000 of the state’s educators responded and said they were interested in calling out of school Friday and Monday in demand of higher pay and lower benefit costs, according to that survey. But that’s just a tiny fraction of the state’s more than 100,000 teachers, administrators and other educators.
Lloyd has been updating teacher social media groups about her survey and now says she doesn’t think calling out is a good idea.
“The General Assembly would love nothing more than for educators to act without preparation,” she wrote in a group post shared with WRAL. “Let’s not give them that satisfaction. We must act smart, informed, and united.”
Shortly after the post first circulated around the state’s teacher groups, Wake NCAE publicly pushed against it.
“Big serious actions aren’t generated by viral social media posts,” the group wrote in a Facebook post on Oct. 27.
Lloyd counted herself among the teachers who were initially excited to see the social media posts calling for teachers to skip out of school on Nov. 7 and Nov. 10.
“My reaction was immediately, ‘Finally, somebody’s doing something. I want to do this. I’m all for it,'” she recalled.
But the feedback, the survey and conversations with NCAE and the new teacher group — American Federation of Professional Educators North Carolina — changed her mind, convincing her more unity, more participation and more planning were required. She and other educators ended up starting NC Teachers for Action, a group that launched across several social media platforms Tuesday afternoon.
The need for it is clear from this experience, she said.
“We’re very, very tired, and the fact that we’re not getting we’re not getting raises, and in addition to that, we’re paying additional money in our insurance premiums,” Lloyd said. “Most of us are taking a paid cut. So morale is very low, extremely low.”
Teachers have some of the lowest average salaries among people with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Average North Carolina teacher pay ranks toward the bottom nationally.
Lloyd said her friends told her they would discourage their children from becoming teachers one day if they expressed an interest.
That makes the issue personal for her in another way.
“I don’t want my own kids to be in classrooms with people that don’t care about being there or can’t hold on anymore because they’re so depleted or aren’t certified, because we’re losing all of our good certified teachers, and so we just get somebody to fill that spot, just a warm body,” Lloyd said. “I truly want my kids to have the best educators that are out there.”
WRAL reporter Destinee Patterson contributed to this story.