Laura Harper, center, with AFT Secretary Treasurer Lorretta Johnson(left) and PSRP Chair Ruby Newbold.
Laura Harper is a fierce defender of public education who has served for 23 years as Paraprofessional and School Related Personnel Chair of the Jefferson Federation of Teachers. At the recent AFT/PSRP Conference in Washington, D.C. Laura received this year's Albert Shanker Pioneer Award.
Laura was selected "for her willingness to speak out and speak up when confronting injustice," said AFT/PSRP Chair Ruby Newbold, who presented the award. "If you are not doing right by our members, you will hear about it" from Laura.
In accepting the award, Laura cited her role model, Mother Jones, who "used to say 'Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.' I say pray for the school board and fight like hell for the PSRPs!"
AFT folks think of Laura as a fierce defender of public education who uses every tool in the box to improve kids’ educational opportunities. They also think of her as the lady who tells delicious jokes and shouts “WHO DAT?”
She is, of course, all that.
As a defender of education, she travels all over South Louisiana conducting professional development workshops. Her local has a lawsuit in the courts right now that, if successful on appeal, will hold the line on pay for school support personnel in Jefferson Parish and all over the state.
She walks with the community, too. At a march and rally in New Orleans last year, Harper joined with members of four AFT affiliates in Louisiana, including her own Jefferson Federation of Teachers, to save jobs at the local shipyard.
When the award was presented, Laura did something that she loves. To the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” she led a line of sashaying, bead-throwing members in a second-line turn around the hall.