Attendance Tanks During CUSD Strike

Not unexpected:

Student attendance plunged well below 50 percent across the Capistrano Unified School District on Thursday as hundreds of teachers picketed outside schools, according to preliminary attendance estimates, but there still weren’t enough substitute teachers and at least one high school was reportedly vandalized by unsupervised students.

Several classrooms at San Clemente High School were trashed in the morning, with desks thrown to the ground and papers scattered around.

Student witnesses said about a dozen students were responsible for the damage, the result of students reporting to classrooms that weren’t staffed by a substitute teacher.

"They did it because they could, because no one was supervising them," San Clemente High junior Anthony Saccone said. "… We were supposed to do work, but there were no teachers around to tell us what to do.”

This is Day 1 of a teacher strike in Orange County’s second-largest school district, the county’s first in a decade.

The teachers union says it is protesting the district's failure to make a "clear, unambiguous offer" to settle a bitter, months-long pay cut dispute.

Initial attendance figures released Thursday afternoon indicate about 52 percent of elementary students were absent, plus about 59 percent of middle school students and about 76 percent of high school students. The district cautioned, however, that the figures were preliminary and subject to change.

Meanwhile, about one in eight district teachers crossed the picket line and reported for work, according to the district. They were joined by about 600 substitute teachers.

If you think today had low attendance, just wait until tomorrow. After the stories today about kids sitting around with basically nothing to do, even if the strike is ended fewer students will show up tomorrow than did today. Looks like a long weekend for most of the Capo students.