[dropcap size=big]I[/dropcap]t’s over. And it only took six days of 30,000 striking L.A. teachers; three 50,000-people marches; a $125-million dollar blow to district coffers because of absent students; and one marathon 21-hour negotiating session that ended early Tuesday morning. Some 80 percent of UTLA members overwhelmingly voted to approve the deal Tuesday night.
With that, the largest teacher’s strike in U.S. history is over.
“The first thing I’m going to do when I see my students is say how incredibly glad I am to be back. And I’m just going to listen to them, just like the district needs to listen to teachers more. I just to want to listen to my students more,” Hazel Witham told L.A. Taco.
Witham is a 10th grade English and AP literature teacher at Venice High, and one of the stars of a viral video where she’s shown dancing with a group of fellow striking teachers on the picket line on the first day of the strike last Monday. She's the one in the polka dots.