Teachers Find Respite From Strike With a Friendly Game of Softball

Seeking a brief respite from the frustrating strike that has crippled Los Angeles schools for the second week, teachers from Venice and University high schools exchanged their picket signs for bats, balls and gloves and played a tough game of softball.

It was the second game organized by what is referred to as the Westside District’s Striking Teachers Softball League.

The idea behind the game, said Sharon Gebhart, a striking Venice High School improvement coordinator, is to “give people a chance to blow off some steam, relieve some pressure and tension. Softball provides a good release.”

About 50 teachers and some student onlookers showed up Tuesday at the dusty playing field at Mar Vista Recreation Center. Most came directly from the picket lines. Signs reading, “No Contract, No Work” hung from the fence. Venice High teachers brought a banner proclaiming, “Venice High Striking Teachers Softball.”

There were coolers filled with beer, trays of fresh fruit and bagels and croissants.

“We don’t want to seem frivolous, but we are on strike, not dead,” said John Reece, a University High School English teacher.

‘Break From Tensions’

Jim Blackwood, Venice High’s social studies department chairman, said that he had come to see some “striking teachers strike out.”

“It’s a little break from the tensions of the strike,” he said, echoing the sentiments of several teachers.

Like most schools in the district, Venice and University high schools have been hard hit by the strike. Teachers at the two schools say more than 90% of their colleagues have been out, and student attendance is down.

Suzanne Borenstein, an English teacher at University, said a game of softball gives teachers a greater sense of belonging. “We need to feel that we are not alone,” she said. “Teaching is a very isolated profession. This builds camaraderie, it gives us a sense that we are not alone.”

Katherine Demopoulos, 17, one of about a dozen student spectators, said, “It is good to see them doing this and putting aside the pressures of the strike and not getting an income.”

The game was close from beginning to end. By the end of the third, the score was tied at 3. University picked up two runs in the fourth, but Venice tied the game on a towering home run by Kirk Alexander, Venice High’s baseball coach.

“I got a high pitch, and I tagged it good,” he said. “As one of my kids would say, I turned on it and powered it out. It was a lucky swing.”

By the ninth inning, University had once again pulled ahead 8 to 7. During Venice’s last turn at bat, Grant Francis, a wood shop and theater arts teacher, led with a single. He made it as far as third base before the side was retired and the game ended.

“I just died out there on third base, wishing and a hoping that I could see that plate under my feet, but it never happened,” he said. “It was a good game.”

Reiko Ishimaru, a math teacher at University who made three spectacular catches in the outfield, including a game-saving grab in the ninth, was named most valuable player. A week earlier, she said, she felt like the team goat when she dropped the ball in a loss to Hamilton High School.

After the game, the teachers began scheduling their next encounters on the baseball diamond. If the strike continues, Venice will try to redeem itself in a game against Hamilton this week. University will try to stretch its winning streak to two games in a contest against Palisades High.