Nieves Mandujano heard news of the strike’s conclusion while visiting the Field Museum with a group of friends and classmates from Bogan High School on the Southwest Side. The museum offered free admission for CPS students during the strike.
Mandujano said she wasn’t sorry to see their impromptu early winter break come to an end.
“I’ve missed a lot. I barely remember where we left off,” the junior said. “And now I’m concerned lessons are going to be squeezed together.”
Mandujano said she was able to keep up with PSAT study prep during the two-week walkout by spending time at the library and reading up online.
“A lot of kids don’t have internet. It’s going to be a hard time catching up,” she said.
But Mandujano supported the teachers during the work stoppage, joining teachers in a picket line near Bogan and taking part in a CTU rally downtown soon after the strike started.
“We have classes [at Bogan] with 40, sometimes 50 kids packed into one room. They were fighting for something important,” she said.
