Chicago School Reopening: Teachers Refuse to Return to School Amid Student Safety Concerns

The battle over when and how to reopen Chicago Public Schools for the first time during the still-raging pandemic came to a head on Monday with many teachers refusing to report to their schools on a day that officials had hoped the would be beginning of the return to normal for education in the city.

Referring to health and safety aspects and a lack of confidence in the school district’s coronavirus mitigation protocols, some school staff working with toddlers and students with moderate to complex disabilities did not refuse to return to schools, although they were obliged to do so. . Officials would not say Monday how many of the 5800 expected at schools did not show up. About 6,500 of their students will return next week, while more than 10,000 will remain remote. Kindergarten staff of the eighth grade must be back later this month before the reopening of 1 schools for the schools.

Staff members on their way to schools reported various conditions, from no problems to dirty and cramped rooms with little ventilation. At the Brentano Elementary in Logan Square, teachers and clinicians set up temporary workspaces in the school’s courtyard and worked in icy temperatures as a form of protest against the order to return to classrooms that they said were unsafe.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

Employees who did not report to school or work outside received emails from Matt Lyons, head of human resources at CPS, who said their absence was not authorized and that they “should start reporting in person tomorrow.” CPS officials said those who did not report to their schools would be disciplined. Spokeswoman Emily Bolton said Monday that health officials have signed the district’s plan, and that the Chicago Teachers Union’s “last-minute tactics are deeply disrespectful to the 77,000 mostly black and Latinx families who have personally chosen to learn.”

The union, which has been campaigning for several months against CPS’s reopening plans, said it would support its members but had not yet called for collective action, such as a strike. The union held a meeting of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, at which several options could be considered.

Each used his efforts to convince the public on Monday of his position in steps reminiscent of the strike of two teachers.

The CTU hosted morning and afternoon news conferences – with another scheduled for early Tuesday – in which teachers outlined their fears for their health and their decisions to stay out of the classroom. However, the union was embarrassed last week when Sarah Chambers, a member of the CTU executive council, posted photos of a vacation in Puerto Rico on social media, even while arguing that schools are not reopening.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and principal Janice Jackson countered the union’s media blitz with an unpublished visit to Drake Elementary on the Near South Side. City officials did not immediately answer questions about why the visit was not made public, until photos were shared on social media after the incident. Lightfoot and Jackson were seen standing near school staff – although officials wore masks, they did not always follow social protocols.

“Today we are one step closer to a safe return to personal instructions,” Jackson tweeted.

The visit came after the mayor and CPS chief executive on Sunday received a letter from 35 mayors – two more signed on Monday – saying they were “deeply concerned” about the city’s return to classrooms amid the pandemic. Jackson responded with a letter of her own, saying CPS was already concerned about the problems.

“Want to try it”

On the South Side Monday, a group of about 20 clinicians serving students with hearing and visual impairments were told to report to a shutter school that was turned into a CPS office, an anonymous worker said. granted to discuss working conditions because they were afraid of retaliation.

Inside the school, the clinicians are housed in an old gym with dirty surfaces, no ventilation system and only one work window out of more than a dozen, the worker said. After the employees complained, they were sent home that day while a cleaning staff went to the gym. Later Monday, they were told to report to the same room again on Tuesday, although the window and ventilation problems were not correct.

“None of us really thought it would get better, but we just wanted to try it,” the clinician said, adding that they did not seriously consider not going back in person because they feared the district can easily cut. their position as punishment.

CPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the worker’s claims.

The clinician is also concerned about the logistics of CPS’s hybrid curriculum. Some of these therapists still have to report to the gym, even though most of the students they serve have decided to stay away. The result is up to 20 people teaching in virtually the same room with their voices, making it difficult to hear their students on a computer. And for children who are personal, clinicians can visit several schools and various student pools in the school on any given day.

“Many of us are concerned that we are a vector, traveling between pods and exposing people,” the clinician said. “It’s little that your employer does not care about your health and safety.”

However, a school on the West Side looked spotless on Monday, said another employee working with special education students, with abundant air purifiers, plexiglass barriers and signs that children have to tell to stay six feet apart.

“The schools look just as clean as ever,” the worker said. “I felt safe and well. But children were not there yet. Once you walk into a classroom with 12 kids, how do you keep them separate? ‘

The employee wondered whether CPS should not wait to return until teachers are vaccinated, as they are expected to be included in the next series of essential workers. “What’s more six weeks if you’re six months out?”

Screenshot / Chicago Teachers Union

Linda Perales, a special education class teacher at Corkery Elementary, said she decided to continue teaching at a distance without approval because returning to the classroom does not necessarily mean her students will receive the right therapy and training. do not receive.

“We know that K-2 group students can not wear a face mask all day, they cannot have social distance and this increases the transmission of COVID-19,” Perales said during the CTU news conference.

“They’ll have to wear a face mask all day. Teachers will have to wear a face mask all day, and this is so important to pay attention to because it makes it impossible to learn letter sounds and other similar things. ‘

Perales and other teachers said they were concerned that returning to personal pupils would affect low-income students by increasing the risk of transmission and bringing the coronavirus back to their communities, which had already been excessively affected by the pandemic.

Screenshot / Chicago Teachers Union

Nancy Salgado, a mother from Brentano, said outside school on Monday that she took her symptomatic children in November to be tested after catching COVID-19. They were positive.

What does it say? If I had not tested them and our children were in that classroom, they would have spread the COVID to other teachers and other students, ”Salgado said. “They would go back and hurt someone, and I would not be able to live with myself.”

Ald .: Families are not ready to go back

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) said at the trade union afternoon press conference that he had heard from residents in his neighborhood who feel the city is ignoring their fears.

“This plan still feels half-baked, it feels incomplete,” La Spata said. ‘At three different meetings, I asked CPS directly what were the reasons why parents said they did not feel safe to come in again. Three times I was told, ‘We do not know. We are working to get the answers. ‘

“CPS, until you can answer why you do not trust these families, we are not ready to return to the classroom.”

Jackson argued Sunday in a response to the mayor’s letter that the return to personal learning would help black and Latino students who ‘fell behind’ in distance education. Jackson and Lightfoot have made the focus of their strong effort to return to schools the equity involved.

But with two-thirds of black and Latino students choosing to continue learning at home, Lori Torres, a teacher at Logan Square, said CPS did not consider fairness and expects teachers to be students personally and remotely. will teach without getting extra support. .

“Pushing teachers and students into buildings will weaken our distance education plans and not strengthen them,” Torres said. ‘Teachers are expected to be two people who will drive children in front of them and drive children on screen. Apart from the fact that we are safe, the decisions taken by the district say that we can still not trust that what they put in place we have in mind. ”