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Laura Wheeler was a high school student at Glebe Collegiate in 1997 when the teachers in Ontario went on strike.

“At the time, I was just excited that every night of the week I could hang out with my friends,” she says, recalling the unexpected fall holiday that kept 2.1 million elementary and secondary students out of class for two weeks.

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Twenty three years later, Wheeler is the one walking a picket line. A teacher at Ridgemont High School, she’s protesting another Conservative government’s making major changes to the province’s schools.

“It’s certainly different now,” she says. “I’m more aware of the issues.”

Wheeler says she has two major concerns: larger classes, which she says will make it harder for her to give individual attention to students while reducing the number of courses available, and the government’s plan to require students to take two online courses in high school.