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School reopening

COVID19 Rips Through Michigan K-12 Schools

October 29, 2020 Zac Corrigan, WSWS. , , ,
The spread of COVID-19 through Michigan’s K-12 schools is rapidly accelerating, with the number of new outbreaks rising for the third week in a row, according to data released by the state yesterday. Last week, there were 29 separate outbreaks affecting 107 students, teachers and school workers, making it the most infectious week in Michigan since the school year began. The 29 new outbreaks last week are in addition to 70 other “ongoing” outbreaks, defined as outbreaks that have been reported more than a week ago, but which have at least one new associated case in the last 28 days.

Why Black Families Are Choosing To Keep Their Kids Remote

October 25, 2020 Bracey Harris, Hechinger Report. , , ,
Mississippi - Yolanda Logan, the parent engagement coordinator for the Oxford School District, spent two weeks in July making home visits — some announced, some cold-calls — to check in on the students educators had been most worried about when schools shut down in the spring. Some had test scores at the bottom at their class. Some belonged to families who had been struggling to make ends meet before the pandemic struck and devastated the economy. Logan asked the students, and the adults in their lives, how they were holding up and what support they needed.

Teachers Union Urges Parents To Boycott School Reopening

October 20, 2020 Jaisal Noor, The Real News. , , ,
When Baltimore City Schools announced last week that 25 schools will reopen next month to increase in-person instruction for high need students, officials promised it could be done safely and with transparency.  The district has received little guidance from state or federal authorities on how to reopen safely, and teachers, who will be required to return to the classroom, say they were blindsided by the announcement. They are now calling attention to problems with the recent reopening of Student Learning Centers (SLC) as an example of their concerns.

What Does A “Safe Return” To School Look Like?

September 21, 2020 Lois Weiner and Jackson Potter, In These Times. , , ,
Demands for stu­dents and edu­ca­tors to return to in-per­son school­ing dur­ing the pan­dem­ic are com­ing from Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans, both claim­ing the return is nec­es­sary not just to pro­vide high-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion, but to save the econ­o­my and get par­ents back to work. The nar­ra­tive con­scious­ly exploits the needs of par­ents who may not have health­care and who rely on pub­lic schools to care for and edu­cate their chil­dren while they work. It pits par­ents, stu­dents, teach­ers and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers against one anoth­er, using (or ignor­ing) sci­en­tif­ic data to suit the polit­i­cal pur­pose of mon­eyed inter­ests — the bipar­ti­san project of destroy­ing pub­lic schools. 

Schools Reopen — And Teachers Fight For Their Lives…

September 18, 2020 Sarah Jaffe, Rethinking Schools. , , ,
As schools begin to reopen, within teacher unions around the country, teachers have been coming together to discuss the risks they’re willing to take — both to protect public health in the short term, and to protect public education in the long run.  The starting place for the unions, noted Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, is that the push to reopen schools as if they could wish the pandemic away, whether it was coming from President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos or from Chicago’s mayor Lori Lightfoot, “was wrong and dangerous.”

Teachers Organize As COVID-19 Outbreaks At Schools Concealed

August 26, 2020 Evan Blake, WSWS. , , ,
Using the fraudulent pretext of “protecting medical privacy,” a growing number of states and school districts across the United States are deliberately concealing information from the public on COVID-19 outbreaks in schools that have reopened. These include the states of Maine, Virginia and Oklahoma, as well as Camden County, Georgia, and Orange County, Florida. In Tennessee, Louisiana, and many other states, the decision is left to each individual county, and an unknown number of county officials are concealing outbreaks in schools from the public.

Disastrous US School Openings Lead To 2,500 Infections Across 44 States

August 24, 2020 Evan Blake, WSWS. , , ,
Within weeks, the reopening of schools across the United States has already become a complete catastrophe. Outside of the mobilization of educators, parents and the broader working class to halt this homicidal policy, there will be rapid acceleration of the spread of the deadly COVID-19 disease throughout every region of the country. Because no government agency at the local, state or federal level is systematically tracking work-related COVID-19 cases and deaths, Kansas teacher Alisha Morris took it upon herself to begin compiling this data in a spreadsheet. The list, which is now curated by roughly 35 people, has been shared in the dozens of Facebook groups that have been set up to oppose the unsafe reopening of schools and has been viewed tens of thousands of times by educators, parents and students.

New York Teachers Union To Strike Against School Reopening

August 21, 2020 Telesur English. , , ,
Despite Donald Trump's administration pressure for schools reopening, several states and institutions postponed the resume of learning activities or issued not-in-person strategies due to new spikes of COVID-19 cases. The U.S New York United Federation of Teachers (UFT) on Wednesday said the organization would strike or sue district authorities if they do not enforce an accurate precautionary plan before schools reopening. "The minute we feel that the mayor is trying to force people into a situation that is unsafe, we go to court, we take job action," UFT President Michael Mulgrew said.

Detroit Teachers Vote Overwhelmingly To Authorize Safety Strike

August 20, 2020 Detroit Federation of Teachers. , , ,
During an emergency special meeting Wednesday, members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) voted to authorize a potential safety strike aimed at pressing the Detroit Public Schools Community District to implement basic science-based safety protocols before schools reopen during the continuing coronavirus pandemic.  The vote authorizes the DFT executive board to call a safety strike if the union and the school district do not reach an agreement. Members voted 91 percent in favor of authorizing a safety strike. 

School Cancelled In Arizona Area After ‘Sick Out’ Over Reopening

August 17, 2020 Andrew Hay, Reuters. , , ,
An Arizona school district that ignored state safety guidelines and voted to begin in-person learning on Aug. 17 has had to cancel classes after staff said it was unsafe to return and called in sick. Greater Phoenix’s J.O. Combs Unified School District canceled all instruction for Monday due to “insufficient staffing,” days after its board disregarded state benchmarks on when students can safely return to classes during the pandemic. The “sick out” underlined the difficulties in returning to in-person learning in the United States after schools in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama closed this week as students and staff were infected with COVID-19 or forced to self-isolate from exposure.

Reopening Schools: We Don’t Have To Descend Into COVID Hell

August 16, 2020 Steve Miller, Rosemary Lee and E.B. Shaw, HamptonThink.org. , , ,
With Corona virus cases spiking across the country, America is on the verge of forcing millions of people into extreme danger. Suddenly, everyone from CEOs, the President, state governors, and the corporate media are calling for schools to open “to save the economy”. No country has tried to open schools with the virus spreading like here in the US. We are currently in a massive wave of surging cases in 40 states. There are not enough tests or testing. How do you open schools if you can’t test and trace? There’s no way that you can keep a school safe from coronavirus if the virus is raging out of control in the community where the school is located.

School Bus Drivers Lead Protest To Safely Reopen Los Angeles Schools

August 16, 2020 Omar Younis, Reuters. , , ,
School bus drivers from the second largest school district in the United States led a noisy protest caravan through downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, demanding federal and state funding to help reopen schools safely amid the coronavirus pandemic. The drivers from the Los Angeles Unified Schools District (LAUSD) were joined by other vehicles as they circled city hall and honked their horns. "Until they get conditions safe, I prefer us to be at home," said John Lewis, a school bus driver, who has been in the job for 30 years.

Utah Teachers Oppose Schools Reopening

August 12, 2020 Alyssa Faith and Summer Autumn, Worker's World. , , ,
School districts across Utah are planning to open with in-person classes for the start of the new school year, despite the state having twice the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus as they did when schools closed in March. Governor Gary Hubert requested school districts open for in-person learning, while leaving planning and procedures up to individual school districts. School boards have been making minimal changes without input from teachers, school employees and parents.  The Granite Education Association, representing teachers in Utah’s largest school district, held a rally outside the district offices during a school board meeting on Aug. 4. The rally was attended by approximately 600 workers. They demanded the school board listen to workers and do more to keep employees and children safe. 

School Bus Drivers: ‘No Reopening Without Safety First!’

August 11, 2020 USWA Local 8751, Workers.org. , , ,
Boston school bus drivers say, “No school reopening without Union-planned and -designed health and safety procedures!” Teachers, nurses, bus drivers and monitors, custodians, paraprofessionals, food workers demand a seat at the planning table, now! First step:  Nurses in every school, bus yard, and food and nutrition facility to ensure frontline Emergency COVID-19  Worksite Standard Operating Procedures. Transdev: Stop the fraud! Hire professional bus and facility disinfecting companies, now!
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