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After dismissal, Newton parents file new lawsuit seeking damages for strike
Four Newton parents filed another class-action lawsuit seeking payments from the Newton Teachers Association for harm caused by the 11-day strike.
On Tuesday, a judge declared a class-action lawsuit from Newton parents seeking damages related to the teachers’ strike moot. So, the parents filed a new lawsuit the same day, according to court documents.
Newton parents Lital Asher-Dotan, Dmitriy Sokolovskiy, Dan Eshet, and Barbara Cipriani said in a complaint that they and their fellow parents are owed payments due to the harm caused by the strike.
For 11 days, classes were canceled as members of the Newton Teachers Association took to the picket line. The union eventually won wage increases, better mental health resources for students, family leave, and more.
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The strike, the longest one led by Massachusetts teachers in decades, exposed bitter rifts between district officials and educators. Many parents rallied alongside the teachers, while others blamed the union for forcing their children to miss so many classes. School leaders canceled February break to help make up for the lost time.
Public employees, including teachers, are prohibited from striking under Massachusetts state law. In recent years, a wave of local teachers unions have openly defied the law to successfully win concessions from their districts and ratify new contracts. When these strikes last long enough, court-imposed fines are issued to the unions. The Haverhill Education Association was fined $110,000 for its four-day strike in 2022. The NTA racked up $625,000 in fines for its strike, which ended earlier this month.
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In both the previous lawsuit and the newly-filed one, the parents called the actions of the NTA “tortious” and said that they “created real damage” for Newton families such as learning loss, emotional distress, missed work shifts, and out-of-pocket costs for things like tutors and day camps.
The damages were “key” to the strike, according to the complaint, as the NTA banked on district officials caving after prolonged “inconvenience and disruption” caused by the strike.
“The union chose its illegal strike and chose to bear the costs of contempt of court to keep striking to drive parents to a point of desperation: ‘Pay them whatever they want, just get my kid back in school.’ That was willful, wanton, and wrong. The students and families of Newton deserve to be made whole for the real losses they experienced from the NTA’s choice to intentionally, blatantly break the law,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit was filed against the NTA, the leaders of the union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and the National Education Association.
In a statement to The Newton Beacon, the parents said that damages to the students and their parents would “easily exceed $25 million.”
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The Newton parents acknowledged Judge Christopher Barry-Smith’s final judgment that the NTA broke the law by initiating the strike and mentioned the fines imposed on the NTA that must be paid to the state and the city.
“But those fines to the state and school committee do not begin to address the tremendous damage this illegal strike did to Newton as a community, and especially to our children,” the parents said in their statement to the Beacon.
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