North Carolina school district cancels classes for ‘A Day Without a Woman’ strike

A North Carolina school district announced Thursday that it will cancel classes Wednesday because of the significant number of its teachers who plan to participate in the national women’s strike.

The organizers of the Jan. 21 Women’s March have scheduled “A Day Without a Woman” strike on March 8, International Women’s Day. They are encouraging women to refrain from going to work.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools posted on its Facebook page that they will not have classes or offer child care on Wednesday because “we will not have enough staff to safely run our school district.”

The district said: “While Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools values and supports its female employees, the decision to close schools is not a political statement. It is entirely about the safety of students and the district’s inability to operate with a high number of staff absences.”

Wednesday will instead be an optional teacher work day for the district.

Kathy Blankenship, a parent of a student in the district, told WRAL-TV that education should be the district’s “first priority.”

“To shut an entire district down for a day to make a statement, I mean, if you want to make a statement, go to work,” she said.

The Women’s March highlighted the decision on Twitter.