The recent week-long teacher’s strike was a foreign experience for many exchange students at the school, with their already new experience of living in America being further disrupted.

“It’s weird because I don’t have these things in Italy, but it’s not anything that’s a big deal for me,” senior Marilena Cardenas Gonzalez said.

Teacher strikes, for the most part, are uncommon in other countries, as teachers are usually paid well and given a fair contract from the start, making the strike a strange sight for many.

“We do have strikes in Switzerland, but it‘s my first time experiencing a teacher strike,” senior Lian Eglin said. “I thought it wouldn‘t last that long.”

With the vast majority of exchange students being seniors, the strike held a bigger influence than just missing class. Being absent from school would mean they might lose their privilege to go to quintessential high school events that are iconic American culture.

“I expected to go to school because I still want to be able to participate in prom,” Gonzalez said. “I went to school for one day and it was terrible.”

Many students who showed up for the school day were faced with classes void of their peers, yet full of substitutes, and in most, were given no real work to do.

“[I was kind of] annoyed [by the strike] because I had to go to school even though we aren’t doing anything,” junior Lorenz Leissl said. “I didn’t expect anything of the strike to be honest, but I didn’t think it was going to take that long.”

Over the past week, many foreign exchange students got to experience their first teacher strike. While it wasn’t necessarily a pleasant experience, it’ll likely be a memorable part of their time here.

“I feel concerned that the teachers are treated this badly and that there‘s almost no negotiation going on between the school and United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA),” Eglin said. “For most students there is no work to do while the strike lasts. It’s boring without the teachers.