Arrests continue in county teacher strike

More than 100 school teachers in Middletown, N.J., have been arrested and jailed this week for refusing to comply with a back-to-work order. They are among the 1,000 school employees throughout Monmouth County who walked out of work a week ago, in protest of increased payments for health insurance benefits. Arrests have proceeded all week, as judges work their way through the teachers alphabetically.

The strike is the result of many years of hostility between the local Board of Education and the local teachersÕ union, according the New York Times. Teacher Kevin Graham, who also is mayor of Keyport, N.J., told the judge hearing his case that he did not respect the school board. Other teachers called the board “tyrants.”

“Instead of chastising the teachers you should say something to the Board of Education,” Tom Erbig, a coach at Middletown South High School, told the judge. “My civil disobedience is a response to their failure to negotiate.”

The jailings have left the school district in crisis, according to Board Member Britt Raynor. “We want the teachers back in the classroom,” he told the Times. “Are we distraught? Absolutely. Do we want to end this thing? Absolutely, 110 percent.”