High school students from Red Deer show support for their teachers by taking part in a province-wide walkout on Monday. The youth all met up in front of city hall. (Ian Gustafson/rdnewsNOW)

By Ian Gustafson

Contract negotiations

Red Deer students take part in province-wide walkout in support of teachers

Sep 22, 2025 | 2:41 PM

High school students made their voices heard in Alberta today including in Red Deer.

Over 40 students made their way to Red Deer City Hall Monday morning in solidarity with teachers amid contract negotiations between the provincial government and the Alberta Teachers Association.

The group of students from Notre Dame High School, Lindsay Thurber High School, and Hunting Hills High Schools gained inspiration from a province-wide student walkout planned by youth in Edmonton over social media.

The Edmonton students rallied in front of the Alberta Legislature Building to protest “the mistreatment of education, and our teachers, by the Alberta government,” as stated in a social media post.

Scar Liboiron, a Grade 10 student at Hunting Hills, said they’re standing up for teachers after the message of the walkout was spread fast across social media.

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“I would like to see what the teachers are wanting to happen, at least the smaller class sizes,” Liboiron said in an interview in downtown Red Deer. “My language arts class has 35 students and our teacher is new. She just got out of university and it’s difficult for her to maintain a classroom of that size as a new teacher.”

High school students from Red Deer show support for their teachers by taking part in a province-wide walkout on Monday. The youth all met up in front of city hall. (Ian Gustafson/rdnewsNOW)

The Alberta government and the Alberta Teachers’ Association say both parties remain at the table to try and agree upon a new collective bargaining agreement.

The union, which represents 51,000 teachers, has set a strike date of Oct. 6 unless a new deal is reached. Crowded classrooms and wages are the key issues.

In June, Alberta teachers voted 95 per cent in favour of striking — sending the “unmistakeable message” they are united and determined to no longer “hold up a crumbling education system.”

The vote took place June 5-8 with 39,000 ballots cast, making up about 77 per cent of teachers who were eligible to vote.

Meanwhile, Natalie Anderson, a Grade 9 student from Lindsay Thurber, said she hopes by being at the rally that the provincial government takes notice and that it’s a cause students are passionate about.

“Our plan is to stay here a bit longer and then we’re planning to go somewhere and write letters to the government to get them to take notice,” she said.

Anderson explained four years ago her Grade 5 teacher helped her after she got diagnosed with dyslexia. If it wasn’t for the teacher’s support, she’s not sure if she would have gotten the help she needed to succeed in school.

“She’s the one who really pushed me and helped me get through that,” she added. “Teachers are so important. They can really have an influence on a students life and truly, so many kids get inspired from teachers with what they do. I know so many kids who say they want to be a teacher just from the experience they had with a teacher.”

Chloe Leslie, a Grade 10 student at Hunting Hills, said students don’t often get a say in situations like these, but if they could, their support is with the teachers.

“I just hope whoever makes the decision [on the collective bargaining agreement] sees that we care for our teachers and we care a lot about what happens,” Leslie said. “We’re not standing here to miss school, we don’t want that, we want to get an education.”

-With files from The Canadian Press