By The Kent Reporter

The Kent Education Association Thursday afternoon announced it was giving the Kent School District “one more opportunity to do the right thing” before making a decision whether to defy a court order to end its teachers’ strike and return to school.

“We as educators know that students or school boards or districts need extra time to get it right,” KEA President Lisa Brackin Johnson.

The strike is affecting about 3,700 Renton-area students who attend seven schools in the Kent School District – Carriage Crest Elementary, Fairwood Elementary, Glenridge Elementary, Ridgewood Elementary, Meeker and Northwood middle schools and Kentridge High School.

The strike by Kent schools has no effect on the Renton School District, which started classes on Wednesday.

The union called a membership meeting at Green River Community College Thursday in response to King County Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvas’s decision that their week-long strike was illegal under Washington law.

Darvas ordered teachers to law down their picket signs and go back to classrooms beginning Tuesday, with students expected to arrive Wednesday.

Union members, however, were defiant, many arriving at the meeting in orange sweatshirts with prison-style numbers on the back to show their willingness to defy the court order.

Teacher Mary Kay Todd of Cedar Valley Middle School said after the meeting that she had not yet decided what to do but thought giving the negotiating teams the weekend could only be helpful.

“I’m not going to make a decision yet, but I’m open to (defying the order),” she said.

Brackin Johnson said parents support the teachers’ efforts and would continue to stand by them if they refuse to go back to school next week.

“Our parents have been with us,” she said. “They know that teachers are standing for what is right for kids,” she said.