Three Newton parents have filed a second class-action lawsuit against the Newton Teachers Association (NTA) for its strike that closed the city’s public schools for 11 days.
“The case is pressing full speed ahead,” said Daniel Suhr, a lawyer representing the parents.
The parents filed the suit on Feb. 20, after a Middlesex Superior Court judge had ruled that the first class-action filing was “moot” since the state’s case against the union was closed.
Lital Asher-Dotan, Dan Eshet, Dmitriy Sokolovskiy, and Barbara Cipriani are listed as parties in the case, but Cipriani withdrew on Tuesday.
Now, the remaining three plaintiffs are seeking damages from the NTA for its strike, as well as from the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), and the National Education Association (NEA) for aiding the Newton union in the work stoppage.
Teachers’ strikes are illegal in Massachusetts.
“NTA did not undertake this action alone, but did so with the active assistance of other unions that chose to subsidize and support its illegal behavior,” the filing reads.
Parents claimed that the strike violated their children’s state rights to public education.
“These tortious acts created real damage: learning loss for the students, emotional distress for the students and parents, and out-of-pocket costs for parents like tutors, camps, day care, babysitters, burned vacation and sick days, and missed work shifts,” the filing reads.
The plaintiffs argue that the fines that the NTA is paying to the state and the district don’t account for the damage done to families.
“The students and families of Newton deserve to be made whole for the real losses they experienced from the NTA’s knowing choice to intentionally, blatantly break the law,” the filing reads.
The NTA is required to pay $275,000 to the Newton Public Schools as compensatory damages, and $350,000 in coercive fines to the state, per a Feb. 20 ruling.
The benefits of the new teachers’ contract will compensate students for the damage the strike caused, according to Newton North High School teacher Denise Cremin.
“What they deserve is to have an education every day where teachers come in and we can do our jobs the way we’re supposed to do our jobs, because we have the resources that we need and the support that we need and students have the support that they need,” Cremin said.
The case against the NTA represents a hostility toward public-sector unions, according to Cremin.
“It definitely feels like a bigger, more national agenda rather than just, you know, Newton parents that are upset about the strike,” Cremin said.
Suhr, who is from Wisconsin, and a Boston attorney Ilya Feoktistov represent the three parents.
Suhr is listed as the senior legal fellow at the National Opportunity Project, a non-profit that has pushed against critical race theory and diversity-based hiring practices in schools, but Suhr said recently that he no longer works for the organization.
“The National Opportunity Project is a national, nonprofit government watchdog organization committed to protecting Americans’ rights and holding the government accountable at all levels,” its website reads.
