Parents in Newton, Massachusetts, have filed a class action lawsuit against several education organizations after a teacher strike left Newton schools closed for 11 days before a deal was finally reached.

The lawsuit was filed by three Newtown parents in Middlesex Superior Court last Friday. Their complaint names local, state, and federal education groups, including the Newton Teachers Association (NTA), the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and the National Education Association, as defendants. The lawsuit claims that the 11 days during the school shutdown caused “real damage” to students and their families.

The strike was the result of failed contract negotiations and is reported to be the longest strike the state has seen since the 1990s.

Among the bargaining points during the negotiations were discussions for higher pay for teacher aides, more parental and family leave, more mental health counseling support for students, and teacher raises that accounted for the ever-increasing cost of living. An agreement was finally reached, ending the strike, and included a negotiated 12% pay increase over four years, a much lower amount than the 20% pay hike teachers were seeking.

The lawsuit brings forward several claims, including the violation of a state statute that makes teacher strikes in the state of Massachusetts illegal. Section 9A of Massachusetts General Laws explains that “No public employee or employee organization shall engage in a strike, and no public employee or employee organization shall induce, encourage or condone any strike, work stoppage, slowdown or withholding of services by such public employees.” Across the country, only 13 states allow public employees, including public school teachers, to go on strike.

The lawsuit explains that members of the NTA "knowingly, willfully, intentionally chose to break the law by engaging in an illegal strike, shutting down Newton's public schools for 11 days and throwing the lives and educations of 12,000 students and their families into chaos as a result."

The lawsuit goes on, “The union chose its illegal strike and chose to bear the costs of contempt of this 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.” As a result of violating the state statute, the NTA was fined $625,000.

The lawsuit goes on to maintain that the 11-day strike caused real damage, including “learning loss for the students, emotional distress for the students and parents and out-of-pocket costs for parents like tutors, camps, daycare, babysitters, burned vacation and sick days and missed work shifts."

The missed school days due to the strike were eventually put back into the school calendar in place of a scheduled February break.

Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of State Superintendents, has shared his concerns over the strike. He described the impact of the strike as having a real financial burden on communities impacted by the strikes.

"You have a lot of nonprofessional people who still come to work," Scott shared. "You have a lot of security costs. So when you have a strike, you have lots of police details that are provided. You've got a lot of food insecurity issues that need to be addressed."

The lawsuit against the defendants is seeking “justice and compensation to rectify the immense, documented damage its illegal actions inflicted on students and their families.”