Calgary students took part in a provincewide school walkout Thursday in response to the outcome of the Alberta teachers’ strike.
Alberta Students for Teachers is a group that worked to organize walkouts at high schools across the city. Organizer Arya Mishra told the Calgary Eyeopener she sees the protest as an opportunity for students to have their voices heard.
“Politicians and many folk are saying things that are supposedly coming from students,” said Mishra, a Grade 12 student at William Aberhart High School. “I have yet to see many students really repeat those same statements.”
Students returned to school Wednesday following the provincial government’s tabling of back-to-work legislation for striking teachers on Monday, which included the province invoking the notwithstanding clause.
Bill 2, or the Back to School Act, marked the end of job action that saw more than 50,000 members of the Alberta Teachers’ Association go on strike over three weeks ago.
Mishra said she and fellow protesters want to make it clear that they stand with teachers.
“We understand why the strike happened,” she said. “We want classroom caps, and we want January diplomas to be optional.”
An online petition calling for Alberta’s January 2026 diploma exams to be made optional in light of the strike currently has more than 27,000 signatures. The province announced that November diploma exams for Grade 12 students would be optional about two weeks into the strike.
“Now, because of the back-to-work legislation, we are back to school, and no changes have been made,” said Mishra. “That is frustrating to students.”
Fellow Alberta Students for Teachers organizer Vaishnavi Venkateshwaran is a Grade 12 student at Sir Winston Churchill High School. She says she’s motivated to protest because she considers the province’s back-to-work legislation a violation of constitutional rights.
“No matter what your political affiliation is … we have a duty to stand up for those rights,” she said. “If we take this lying down, it’s a precedent that we will take this lying down for anything in the future.”
“As a Grade 12 student and as a future voter myself, I have a duty to be educated, and I have a duty to fight for what I believe in,” she said. “I think that’s something that a lot of students really feel the same way.”
In an emailed statement, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said “students have a variety of ways they can express themselves, and we will always respect their right to peacefully assemble and protest. However, it is important for them to be in class, and not disrupt their own learning or that of others.”
In a statement sent to CBC News, the Calgary Catholic School District acknowledged strikes would be taking place Thursday, but said “a student walkout is not endorsed nor sanctioned by our district.”
The school board said protesting does not meet the criteria for an excused absence under the provincial Education Act.
“Students who participate will not be supervised by teachers or administrators,” the school board said. “Any student’s participation in this event will result in an unexcused absence.”
