More Schools and Masks and COVID / Phil Roeder / Flickr / July 16, 2020 / CC BY 2.0
The Omicron variant doesn’t seem to be quieting down, and as a result, has caused major outages in schools across the country.
The stress this is causing on teachers has been blowing up, school staff in California are demanding that school districts take more serious COVID-19 precautions.
In Chicago, negotiations are brewing between the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago School District over the implementation of additional COVID measures, meanwhile, members of the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) and Teachers in Oakland, California have decided that they may not show up to in-person school due to the lack of proper safety measures.
“Our goal is to keep school buildings open safely, and that requires regular, accessible testing and guaranteed COVID sick leave,” UESF President Cassondra Curiel said in a Wednesday statement. “The district could have avoided this crisis with forethought and a sincere interest in keeping schools open and kids and educators safe. There have been serious gaps in judgment. But we can all turn it around so that we can give our students the opportunity for a smooth school year.”
The teachers aren’t the only ones struggling with these pandemic regulations.
Students in schools across the country are protesting against the rising COVID cases and the school’s poor conditions amid these spikes.
Students in several schools across NY city walked out last week, protesting for better testing procedures and remote-learning options.
While some of the school’s administration and teachers quietly sanctioned this walk-off, other school representatives warned that the protest would result in repercussions on the students’ part.
The spread of Omicron has left students feeling unsafe and uncomfortable in the classroom; a student at Brooklyn Tech told the NY Post “We don’t feel safe at school… It’s pretty much that simple. There are so many cases going around and we think more should be done.”
The health and safety measures called into question include a lack of proper testing for students and teachers, as well as the cramped conditions and lack of social distancing – which could be effectively avoided with remote learning.
The department of Education reported more than 11,000 new COVID cases this past Monday among city students – and it’s likely that the number is only going to increase.
Things seem much grimmer in Chicago, where a battle between Mayor Lightfoot and the Chicago Teachers Union has taken place.
Classes were canceled early last week in response to the rising number of COVID cases.
The Teachers Union has declared that there will be no return to class or option for remote learning until the school district requires all staff, students, etc. produce a negative COVID PCR test before returning – unless parents opt-out.
Mayor Lightfoot has since accused the Teachers Union of attempting to hold the student’s education “hostage”.
In a recent press conference, she said, “We are not going to rob parents of their right and their obligation to tell us if they want testing or not on their children. It’s not going to happen. It’s morally wrong.”
The Chicago teacher’s Union has no plans to return to in-person school until the proper demands are met.
The action will end when one of the following conditions is met: The current surge in cases substantially subsides, or the mayor's team at CPS signs an agreement establishing conditions for return that are voted on and approved by the the CTU House of Delegates.
— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@CTULocal1) January 5, 2022
The students of Oakland Unified School District in California have also taken to protesting and striking – vowing not to return to in-person class until the district complies with health and testing demands, KN95 masks for students, and better social distancing practices.
Since then, the district has begun to meet the requirements asked of them, distributing and ordering KN95 masks to teachers and students, as well as expanding testing protocol for positive exposures in the classroom and providing HEPA air filters in all classrooms.
But it’s unclear if this will be enough to satisfy the group protesting, who have announced that should their demands not be met properly, they will be forming a formal strike outside the district headquarters on Jan 21, as stated in the online petition.
