Oklahoma Teachers Launch 110 Mile March to Put Pressure on Legislature
Teachers from Apollo elementary school in Oklahoma City, wave signs at passing cars outside the state capitol as protests over school funding continue on Wednesday. (Sue Ogrocki/AP)
Payday Senior Labor Reporter Mike Elk filed a dispatch for the Guardian from Tulsa on the launch of a 110-mile march across the state to put pressure on the state legislature:
Special education teacher Patricia Mott, 66, said she hoped to do the entire march each day, but the battery on her electric wheelchair will only allow her to go 10 miles a day.
“Sorry I get so emotional,” Mott said as she wiped away tears. “I just need to take care of my kids, I need to take care of my teachers.
“I’m 66 years old and everyone says, ‘Why haven’t you retired?’ It’s because I am needed, still needed,” Mott said as she turned on her electric wheelchair and headed off on Route 66 for Oklahoma City.
Mike Elk is an Emmy-nominated labor reporter and alumni of the Guardian. In addition to filing nearly 2,000 stories from 46 states, Elk traveled with Lula from Sáo Bernando do Campos all the way to the Oval Office in the White House. Credited by the Washington Post for being the first reporter to track the strike wave systematically, Elk started Payday Report using his NLRB settlement from being illegally fired for union organizing in 2015. He lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh and works frequently in Rio de Janeiro, where he attended college at PUC-Rio. He speaks both Portuguese and Pittsburghese fluently. His email is [email protected]
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