I'm looking back on the week when 200 South Tyneside school pupils went on strike in 1974
We want to hear from the 1970s South Shields school pupils who went on strike.
Plenty of you will remember that Britain was a nation beset by industrial action 50 years ago.
On strike over bus fares
But there was one strike which was a little different. It was held by two hundred children from West Park Comprehensive School in South Shields in 1974.
They were angry that they were having to pay bus fares every day to get to some of their lessons which were held at a different school.
Back in 1974, the fourth and fifth formers from the school were determined to make their voices heard and they did it in style.
A classroom walkout and a set of demands
They launched ‘industrial’ action by staging a classroom walkout.
The upper school pupils were having most of their lessons at the former Westoe Girls’ School, off Iolanthe Terrace, because the West Park building had burned down in April of that year.
It meant some youngsters were paying 20p a day to travel and that was no small amount of money when you consider that the 1970s were a time of recession.
The students didn’t just walk out of classes, though. The leaders of the protest went to the Shields Gazette offices to call for free bus passes and school buses to transport them between sites.
‘They simply can not afford it’
Linda Griffiths, 15, was one of them and she said that parents had complained to the school about the fares.
She added: “They simply can’t afford it – and some pupils will be walking before long.”
Education committee chairman Septimus Robinson promised that the pupils’ plea would be given “serious consideration”, but he urged them to return to their studies the next day.
You might have the answers
We have questions:
Were you one of the children who went out on strike?
Did you go back to the classroom the next day?
Were your strike demands met?
If you have the answers, tell us more by emailing [email protected]