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75: Refuse to Teach: Anxiety, Organizing, and well, Death
11 Plays5 years ago
Let’s put this into perspective: the United States is planning on the mass reopening of schools when COVID-19 has still not ended its first wave. Millions of people have been diagnosed, and the CDC has issued little concrete guidance on how schools will actually reopen next month. The US Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has essentially ignored questioning of even the notion of remote learning and does not believe that this is a serious issue that will effect children (flat out refusing to acknowledge the adults in the room too.)
This podcast addresses the anxiety and real chance of death due to COVID-19 in the classroom. It calls upon teachers to organize and demand remote learning. Let’s face it, there’s two options:
1) We go back to school, cases increase, and more students, teachers, and faculty members die. This isn’t a hypothesis. There are ample facts presented in this podcast on why this is the case.
2) Teachers stand up to districts, using their extreme leverage during the pandemic, to stay remote and minimize destruction.
I encourage you to listen in. - Chris
Show Notes
- Parent Letter Template - We Demand Safe Schools!
- “There Will Be No Teachers Left”
- School Virtual/Hybrid Reopening Demand Template Letter (Florida)
Citations
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b8Kg_a4Omo
- https://www.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases
- https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/health/coronavirus-restrictions-us.html
- https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/05/26/children-transmission
- https://www.businessinsider.com/how-coronavirus-travel-through-air-droplets-aerosols-2020-3
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12/us/arizona-teachers-coronavirus/index.html
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/11/politics/cdc-documents-warn-high-risk-schools-reopening/index.html
- https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/10/889848834/nations-pediatricians-walk-back-support-for-in-person-school
- https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/concerns-mount-in-chapel-hill-over-prospect-of-students-returning-to-unc-amid-pandemic/19183462/
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-13/covid-19-reinvades-u-s-states-that-already-beat-it-back-once?srnd=premium
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-battles-new-wave-coronavirus-infections-after-reopening-n1233139
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/asia/south-korea-coronavirus-shuts-down-again-intl/index.html
- https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3092174/coronavirus-third-wave-fears-escalate-hong-kong
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-hongkong/hong-kong-tightens-social-distancing-again-as-coronavirus-cases-rise-idUSKCN24E1L5
- https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/07/10/889376184/photos-how-hong-kong-reopened-schools-and-why-it-closed-them-again
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JSGOO6GiI8
- https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/map-coronavirus-and-school-closures.html
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/13/us/teachers-covid-19-return-school/index.html
- https://fortune.com/2020/05/28/us-unemployment-rate-numbers-claims-this-week-total-job-losses-may-28-2020-benefits-claims-job-losses/
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Transcript
Introduction and Gratitude
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 75 of our podcast at Human Restoration Project.
00:00:09
Speaker
My name is Chris McNutt and I'm a high school digital media instructor from Ohio.
00:00:14
Speaker
Before we get started, I wanted to let you know that this podcast is brought to you by our Patreon supporters, three of whom are Gareth Heidt, Emma, and Michael Heidt.
00:00:23
Speaker
Thank you for your ongoing support.
00:00:24
Speaker
You can learn more about the Human Restoration Project on our website, humanrestorationproject.org, or find us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
00:00:32
Speaker
As a note, this podcast contains explicit language.
Reopening Schools Debate
00:00:39
Speaker
I think the go-to needs to be kids in school, in person, in the classroom, because we know for most kids that's the best environment for them.
00:00:49
Speaker
I understand that, but what if they can't?
00:00:53
Speaker
What if they can't what?
00:00:55
Speaker
What if the school district feels that they can't safely go into the school because there is a flare-up in that district?
00:01:02
Speaker
Remote learning, are you okay with it in that situation?
00:01:06
Speaker
If there's a short-term flare-up for a few days, that's a different situation than planning for an entire school year in anticipation of something that hasn't happened.
00:01:20
Speaker
That was Betsy DeVos, U.S. Secretary of Education, stating that a flare-up of COVID-19 cases has not happened across the country and that schools should seek to entirely reopen.
00:01:31
Speaker
This podcast will be an outline of the immediate danger that reopening schools presents.
00:01:36
Speaker
This is adapted from an article I wrote recently, and it's not going to be a relaxing listen.
00:01:42
Speaker
The fact is, is that there is evidence to support our anxiety in reopening schools that goes beyond the what-ifs.
00:01:48
Speaker
It is a legitimate problem.
00:01:51
Speaker
We'll start with just acknowledging that COVID is a serious issue.
COVID-19 Risks and School Reopenings
00:01:55
Speaker
Almost all school districts in the United States closed during mid-March.
00:01:59
Speaker
Using March 17th as an example, at that point, there were 6,300 cases total in the United States with 108 deaths.
00:02:04
Speaker
The previous day, there were 4,500 cases and 88 deaths.
00:02:12
Speaker
That's a 40% increase in cases and 22% increase in deaths in one day.
00:02:17
Speaker
On March 17th, we saw a range of closures of schools from Oklahoma to Ohio.
00:02:23
Speaker
As of the date of this recording, July 13th, there have been 3,415,590 cases with 137,797 deaths.
00:02:36
Speaker
To put that into perspective, from when we closed schools until now, there has been a 75,802% increase in cases.
00:02:45
Speaker
In the past day alone, there have been 60,768 cases in the United States.
00:02:51
Speaker
Only two states in the entire country are seeing a decrease in cases, Maine and New Hampshire.
00:02:57
Speaker
And despite this, teachers are being forced back into the workplace.
00:03:00
Speaker
Many families, without access to government support,
00:03:03
Speaker
want schools to reopen as essentially daycare facilities.
00:03:07
Speaker
Many schools, without access to government support, don't have the means to operate virtually.
00:03:12
Speaker
Hypothetically, let's say that we open schools.
00:03:14
Speaker
There's plenty of stories on the future of teaching, their students, and their families.
00:03:19
Speaker
By the time Mungin was hospitalized at Brookdale, she needed a ventilator.
00:03:23
Speaker
Hydroxychloroquine didn't work for her.
00:03:25
Speaker
So Senator Chuck Schumer, a fellow Brooklynite, wrote the Food and Drug Administration to get the teacher accepted for clinical trials.
00:03:33
Speaker
And she was transferred to Mount Sinai March 27th.
00:03:36
Speaker
Up until Wednesday, last Wednesday, she was improving.
00:03:40
Speaker
She had woke up.
00:03:42
Speaker
I was able to FaceTime with her, you know, and she looked well.
00:03:47
Speaker
But once Munjin was transferred to a New Jersey facility already fighting a sepsis infection, things went south.
00:03:54
Speaker
Mia last FaceTimed her sister Sunday afternoon, apologizing for bringing COVID home.
00:04:00
Speaker
I didn't consciously bring it into the house, but it's just something that I was exposed to.
00:04:05
Speaker
And I told her if I could, I would trade places with her.
00:04:07
Speaker
I told her that I loved her and that I needed her to keep fighting.
00:04:11
Speaker
But I know she's tired and her body is warm.
00:04:14
Speaker
At 1225 p.m.
00:04:15
Speaker
Monday, Rana Zoe Munchen, just 30, took her last breath after 37 days in the hospital.
00:04:23
Speaker
Rana Zoe Mungin was actively teaching when she succumbed to COVID-19.
00:04:27
Speaker
Likely due to her being a black woman and the known discrimination that exists, despite showing symptoms and visiting a hospital multiple times, she was denied treatment initially.
00:04:36
Speaker
And to reiterate, Mungin was only 30 years old.
00:04:40
Speaker
Even without the increased influx of people moving about in school, teachers have lost their lives to COVID-19.
00:04:46
Speaker
Here's a very short list.
00:04:48
Speaker
There's Lisa Steelman, a 14-year veteran elementary school teacher.
00:04:52
Speaker
Diagran Nazare, 42, a high school math teacher.
00:04:55
Speaker
Emma Clark, 35, a science teacher.
00:04:58
Speaker
Reyna Chavez, an English teacher.
00:05:00
Speaker
Therese Kerr, a 27-year veteran teacher.
00:05:03
Speaker
I want to call specific attention to Kimberly Bird, a 35-year veteran teacher in Arizona who contracted COVID-19 while teaching virtually at school.
00:05:12
Speaker
Her and two of her co-workers were working in a school office space during the summer.
00:05:17
Speaker
All three of them were diagnosed, and Bird sadly passed away.
00:05:21
Speaker
I think it's further important to note that about half of these teachers are young, and many did not have any pre-existing conditions.
International Responses vs U.S. Approach
00:05:28
Speaker
This is only a short list found by searching the news.
00:05:31
Speaker
According to the New York City Department of Education, within their schools alone, 28 teachers, two administrators, two guidance counselors, two school aides, two facility staff, one parent coordinator, two food service staff, and a technology specialist have died.
00:05:49
Speaker
Given that the majority of these deaths occurred when teachers were not actively teaching their students, it is highly worrisome what will happen when they are placed in a non-open-air, difficult-to-social-distance location.
00:06:00
Speaker
Some may claim that children cannot spread COVID-19, but the research is still incredibly unclear.
00:06:06
Speaker
Further, children tend to be asymptomatic but can still spread the virus, and their rate of catching COVID-19 increases with age.
00:06:14
Speaker
According to the research, there's mixed results.
00:06:16
Speaker
Overall though, the language is very telling.
00:06:19
Speaker
Research agencies, such as the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
00:06:24
Speaker
state that children are not the primary source cases, but children can still spread the virus.
00:06:29
Speaker
To quote Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University who's actively looking at conducting his own research, quote, to open schools because of some uninvestigated notion that children aren't really involved in this, that would be a very foolish thing, end quote.
00:06:45
Speaker
Not to mention, many of us teach in buildings or work actively with students older than 10 to 12 years old, which is usually referenced as children in these studies.
00:06:55
Speaker
Therefore, the research involving said children doesn't encompass all students.
00:06:59
Speaker
This doesn't even mention the movement of adults, from teachers to faculty to student family members, who are still actively moving around the building.
00:07:07
Speaker
We can look to other countries to find out how they're containing COVID-19.
00:07:11
Speaker
For many countries, they're just flat out handling containing the virus better than the US on a per capita basis.
00:07:17
Speaker
Let's look at how some other countries are handling the coronavirus outbreak in schools.
00:07:22
Speaker
On May 29th, South Korea ordered the closure of 500 schools after an outbreak of 100 new cases linked to a commercial logistics center.
00:07:33
Speaker
South Korea, which is a country of 52 million people, has had a total of 11,402 cases and 269 deaths since the outbreak began.
00:07:43
Speaker
The majority of their schools continue to be remote or at one-third capacity, and additional precautions are being taken.
00:07:51
Speaker
Or on June 3rd, Israel schools closed after reopening two weeks earlier.
00:07:57
Speaker
130 cases were reported at a single school, and at least 244 students and teachers tested positive for COVID-19 during that time.
00:08:05
Speaker
Israel has reported 362 deaths total, with 38,670 cases in a country of 8.8 million people.
00:08:14
Speaker
Or on July 10th, Hong Kong reported that they would be closing schools after reopening at the end of May.
00:08:20
Speaker
Hong Kong had believed that they had virtually stopped the spread of the virus, already getting past a first and second wave.
00:08:27
Speaker
There have been no new cases in schools, yet the government ordered the closure due to a fear in rising COVID cases throughout the country.
00:08:35
Speaker
There were 38 new cases reported in Hong Kong on the day of this order.
00:08:39
Speaker
7.4 million people live in Hong Kong.
00:08:42
Speaker
There have been articles circulating that claim that the United States should look at other countries which have reopened their schools successfully during the pandemic.
00:08:50
Speaker
However, I think we're ignoring the most obvious elephant in the room that we could possibly have, that most other countries have stopped a first wave and taken proactive measures to socially distance, and are seeing a decrease in their number of cases.
Mental Health and Safety Measures
00:09:04
Speaker
The U.S. has never solved its initial outbreak, and is now reopening the economy, and with it, planning on reopening schools.
00:09:11
Speaker
In addition, some pundits are citing the American Academy of Pediatrics, who have recommended that schools reopen.
00:09:18
Speaker
That's been walked back.
00:09:19
Speaker
The new statement says that teachers and stakeholders should be at the center of decision-making.
00:09:24
Speaker
There have been some that say that there's a danger in not reopening schools because of the mental health toll it will take on students, which to me is the ultimate concerned role.
00:09:33
Speaker
I mean, that's bullshit.
00:09:34
Speaker
We haven't had mental health counselors or adequate resources for this issue in schools for years.
00:09:40
Speaker
And now we're worried that if we don't open schools, we're going to harm students' mental health.
00:09:45
Speaker
And that's not even bringing to light the fact that the school is the reason why many of these students face mental health crises to begin with.
00:09:52
Speaker
The opening of schools isn't the root cause of that issue.
00:09:55
Speaker
It's our inadequate systems to deal with mental health in the first place.
00:09:58
Speaker
I want to revisit the fact that
00:10:00
Speaker
that the U.S., in the last day as of recording, has had fucking 60,768 cases in one day.
00:10:10
Speaker
And Hong Kong is shutting down their schools when they had 38 cases in one day.
00:10:15
Speaker
Israel had 1,528 cases on the day that it shuttered its schools after 244 students in that time period, 244 students and teachers in that time period, reported testing positive.
00:10:29
Speaker
Even in a best-case scenario, could you imagine how horrific that bodes for the United States?
00:10:35
Speaker
In the majority of states, we're seeing thousands of new cases per week.
00:10:39
Speaker
And let's not forget that internal CDC documents warn that the full reopening of schools is at the highest level of risk for coronavirus spread.
00:10:50
Speaker
Now let's move into the proposed solutions by districts and policymakers.
00:10:55
Speaker
Most school responses have consisted of the quote-unquote hybrid model, a system where the number of students are limited at school and the rest follow along online.
00:11:05
Speaker
This means that classrooms, on average, will house about 10 to 15 students at half capacity, which is the most common plan that assumes that the average classroom size is 20 to 30.
00:11:14
Speaker
But that's still a lot of people in one spot.
00:11:18
Speaker
In Texas, child care facilities recommended face coverings, required temperature checks of staff and children, and mandated a staff-to-child ratio of 1 to 10.
00:11:29
Speaker
This was back in May.
00:11:30
Speaker
As of July 8th, there were 1,695 cases of COVID-19 attributed to Texas child care facilities at 1,078 different locations.
00:11:42
Speaker
1,140 were staff members, 555 were children.
00:11:45
Speaker
That is a 707% increase since last month.
00:11:50
Speaker
Simply stated, there's absolutely no way that schools are adequately prepared, resourced, staffed, and maintained to avoid that exact same scenario.
00:11:59
Speaker
except far worse, as the number of schools greatly outweighs the number of child care facilities.
00:12:05
Speaker
Even in a perfect scenario, where all staff members are protected by PPE, how will they even enforce that students do the same?
00:12:12
Speaker
Children are unpredictable, and although I love being a teacher, I know that students often see themselves as invincible, and it's incredibly difficult to monitor that number of students with this much regulation.
Challenges of Hybrid Models
00:12:24
Speaker
Between conversing and bathroom breaks, hallway monitoring, late arriving students, students leaving early, just the regular sicknesses that happen, and all the other types of movements that occur, it's nauseating to even think about how rapidly COVID-19 will spread in the hallways.
00:12:40
Speaker
That's not to mention our small classrooms, lack of vents in AC, handing out lunch,
00:12:45
Speaker
and a culture that's been established where 25% of Americans don't even believe that the masks are needed.
00:12:51
Speaker
Could you imagine policing students to keep their masks on?
00:12:55
Speaker
What if a student wears a mask improperly?
00:12:56
Speaker
Hell, I was at the doctor's office the other day, and some of the nurses didn't even cover their nose with their mask.
00:13:02
Speaker
What if a student doesn't believe in mask wearing?
00:13:04
Speaker
At what point are teachers going to have to become even more of a police force than they already are?
00:13:09
Speaker
I know that I would certainly feel a ton of pressure and stress to maintain safety in the classrooms,
00:13:15
Speaker
And I see that argument causing so many problems in classrooms everywhere.
00:13:19
Speaker
But even then, the CDC only recommends face covering for students.
00:13:25
Speaker
So basically, we're screwed because we know that masks limit the spread of COVID-19.
00:13:30
Speaker
And if one isn't wearing a mask, then they're going to spread to other people.
00:13:33
Speaker
The mask really doesn't protect the user that much.
00:13:36
Speaker
Well, I teach in a fairly conservative area, as I'm sure many of you do.
00:13:39
Speaker
Sadly, our country's administration has made mask wearing into a political issue, and I know for a fact that there are going to be a sizable number of students who choose not to wear a mask purely due to the president's actions.
00:13:51
Speaker
This is further complicated by many schools not having well-ventilated areas.
00:13:55
Speaker
I've never, ever been in a school building
00:13:58
Speaker
that doesn't at least have a few rooms without windows, and many rooms that don't have windows that open.
00:14:02
Speaker
Most schools have serious HVAC problems, and many rooms or buildings don't have AC.
00:14:07
Speaker
Plus, we know that COVID has a higher chance of spreading via restrooms, and most schools don't have that many restrooms.
00:14:14
Speaker
Usually you're seeing hundreds of students share one, which tends to be a fairly gross place to begin with, even on normal days.
00:14:20
Speaker
And yet, it gets even worse.
00:14:23
Speaker
What we're really overlooking with the COVID-19 pandemic is the irreparable damage.
00:14:28
Speaker
We tend to only look at deaths.
00:14:32
Speaker
To quote an article from the New York Times, quote, It's not just, oh, I had a terrible time in the hospital, but thank goodness I'm home and everything's back to normal, said Dr. David Petrino, Director of Rehabilitation Innovation at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.
00:14:48
Speaker
It's,
00:14:49
Speaker
I just had a terrible time in the hospital, and guess what?
00:14:52
Speaker
The world is still burning.
00:14:53
Speaker
I need to address that while still trying to sort of catch up to what my old life used to be.
00:14:58
Speaker
Here is a short list of complications that can last months, years, or potentially the rest of one's life after surviving COVID-19.
00:15:09
Speaker
An increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and lung disease.
00:15:12
Speaker
Permanent memory defects.
00:15:14
Speaker
Confusion to the point of not being able to work.
00:15:17
Speaker
extreme mental health issues of anxiety and depression, as well as post-intensive care syndrome, lung and or heart impairments, the potential need for lung and heart transplants, lung scarring, stroke, blood clotting problems, extreme damage to the vocal cords to the point of not being able to speak, a high chance of never being able to recover completely physically, prolonged muscle weakness, and male infertility.
00:15:44
Speaker
It is estimated that
00:15:45
Speaker
that 45% of COVID patients will require ongoing care.
00:15:49
Speaker
And we don't know the long-term effects.
00:15:52
Speaker
Oh, and of course, how can we forget that the United States also has a completely unsustainable medical insurance system?
00:15:59
Speaker
Some patients are receiving $80,000 bills for medical care, with insurance not even covering half of it.
00:16:05
Speaker
As a result, they're refusing follow-up care, and there's still no in-depth plan for covering COVID-19 treatment outside of some areas still offering free testing.
Staffing and Health Concerns
00:16:15
Speaker
That doesn't even begin to implicate how some of the spread of COVID-19 will impact students and their families, their extended families, and their communities.
00:16:23
Speaker
So let's look at a few hypothetical scenarios.
00:16:26
Speaker
If a teacher gets sick, do they quarantine for weeks?
00:16:29
Speaker
If so, who will replace them?
00:16:31
Speaker
There's barely any subs to begin with.
00:16:33
Speaker
The sub shortage was a serious reported upon problem in 2019.
00:16:37
Speaker
There is absolutely no way that you're going to see people signing up to work in schools if they weren't even doing it before.
00:16:44
Speaker
Also, I'm sure every single teacher has been in a scenario where they cover for another teacher.
00:16:49
Speaker
I've had many times where I've watched students in another room or combined students into a gym or common area.
00:16:55
Speaker
This happens once, twice, three times a month because we can't get enough subs.
00:16:59
Speaker
We can't do that with social distancing, so what do we do?
00:17:02
Speaker
Do we just leave students in a room by themselves?
00:17:04
Speaker
Or if a teacher gets sick, do their students quarantine for weeks?
00:17:08
Speaker
Will they still be attending school?
00:17:11
Speaker
What does the workload then look like for teachers expected to teach both in person and virtually?
00:17:16
Speaker
We can pretend that teachers can stream their lessons to students at home, but we know, because this isn't something new back in March, that the workload of teaching online is a full-time job by itself.
00:17:26
Speaker
There's a lot of new challenges when it comes to teaching online.
00:17:29
Speaker
It isn't just an add-on.
00:17:30
Speaker
What if a faculty member gets sick?
00:17:32
Speaker
Who quarantines?
00:17:33
Speaker
Does everyone quarantine?
00:17:35
Speaker
What if a food service worker or janitorial staff member becomes sick?
00:17:38
Speaker
Further, think about this.
00:17:40
Speaker
Many food service companies make the majority of their income off of a la carte items, not the lunches themselves.
00:17:46
Speaker
So if students can't enter the cafeteria, because just imagine how long lunches would take with social distancing and all these different measures, how are students going to get their food?
00:17:55
Speaker
If they're eating in classrooms, will students be able to select their food?
00:17:58
Speaker
As of right now, it's being advised in multiple districts that food service employees can't put their food out for students to just grab.
00:18:05
Speaker
So will food service providers even be able to stay in business?
00:18:09
Speaker
If not, who will provide food to free or reduced lunch students?
00:18:12
Speaker
If a family member or a student gets sick, what about the other students in the class?
00:18:17
Speaker
Are they going to have counseling if someone were to become extremely sick or even die?
00:18:23
Speaker
How will we provide that?
00:18:24
Speaker
Guidance counselors are already grossly understaffed at most schools.
00:18:28
Speaker
The average student-to-guidance counselor ratio in the United States is 1 to 482.
00:18:34
Speaker
I hate to bring this up, but I'm sure many of us have had situations where a student has committed suicide or died in a car accident or succumbed to another form of sickness.
00:18:44
Speaker
Imagine if a teacher or student dies at our school due to COVID-19.
00:18:47
Speaker
Imagine if more than one does.
00:18:50
Speaker
The mental health toll of this is absolutely absurd, and we won't have the tools to help students and staff throughout this process.
00:18:57
Speaker
If a school employee is sick, will their health insurance cover their absence?
00:19:02
Speaker
How will their employment be affected?
00:19:04
Speaker
Can schools afford to keep teachers on payroll if they're also paying for more subs if they can find them?
00:19:09
Speaker
Where are we going to find long-term subs and pay them accordingly that can handle this environment?
00:19:14
Speaker
Plus, there are so many questions circulating that are part of this quote-unquote experiment.
00:19:20
Speaker
I hate that people are using the word experiment.
00:19:23
Speaker
I'm really not someone's lab experiment, and I'm sure many of you, including myself, live in households or are yourselves high risk.
00:19:30
Speaker
There is a high probability that if I got sick, I would literally kill someone.
00:19:35
Speaker
Regardless of these serious ramifications, everyone feels like their hands are tied.
00:19:40
Speaker
Teachers must go to school, or they feel, or they likely be, fired.
00:19:44
Speaker
Administrators have to enforce the policies given to them by the district, and districts feel held back by parent demand and lack of resources to sustain virtual classrooms.
00:19:53
Speaker
Ultimately, the federal government is responsible as their financial resources would allow schools to easily transition to virtual.
Virtual Learning Advocacy
00:20:01
Speaker
However,
00:20:02
Speaker
Does that mean that we'll just then lockstep to our potential doom come fall?
00:20:06
Speaker
Because I don't see a situation where the federal government, who has barely assisted regular people in this pandemic, will all of a sudden change course on schools, especially when the president is threatening to cut funding to schools who don't reopen.
00:20:19
Speaker
Is our society so misplaced that we will readily accept dying because no one knows what to do?
00:20:25
Speaker
The plan should be,
00:20:26
Speaker
to just simply go online and find ways to mitigate in any way possible the inequity of access that will result because of that.
00:20:34
Speaker
At Sarah J. Teacher on Twitter shared her school's reopening plan, which seems to be better than most.
00:20:39
Speaker
Start with 90% of students not in the building, except for students with disabilities or homeless and foster youth.
00:20:45
Speaker
It isn't included in the graphic, but I would hopefully assume that the majority of staff wouldn't be on campus either.
00:20:50
Speaker
I think really any other measure would be an extremist position.
00:20:54
Speaker
So what now?
00:20:56
Speaker
I would implore districts to take the perceived-as-radical action of going completely virtual, or close to it.
00:21:03
Speaker
Nothing is going to change between now and fall.
00:21:06
Speaker
If anything, it will get worse.
00:21:08
Speaker
I don't understand the notion that we're going to have magically different numbers in August.
00:21:12
Speaker
It's July, and cases are way up.
00:21:15
Speaker
The government is not taking any proactive actions.
00:21:18
Speaker
Why would numbers go down?
00:21:20
Speaker
If anything, they're going to go way up, especially when we reopen schools.
00:21:24
Speaker
There's been a call for schools to delay past Labor Day.
00:21:27
Speaker
But unless we're talking about preparing for virtual learning past Labor Day, that idea is really laughable.
00:21:34
Speaker
The case would be higher past Labor Day.
00:21:37
Speaker
Again, we're not doing anything different.
00:21:38
Speaker
This is mind-boggling.
00:21:39
Speaker
If cases are surging and we're opening more things, there isn't going to be a miraculous disappearance of the virus, as the president has infamously said.
00:21:47
Speaker
There is a literal article on USA Today called, quote, With teachers throughout the country talking about returning to work just because they have to, knowing that they might be dead or irreparably harmed.
00:22:05
Speaker
Therefore, this leads to a major point through all of this.
00:22:08
Speaker
Given what I've just spoke about and cited, teachers should organize and refuse to work at school, both union and non-union.
00:22:16
Speaker
There is absolutely no way that teachers will get what they desire without using their leverage to stop the opening of buildings.
00:22:22
Speaker
There's a lot of power here.
00:22:24
Speaker
Schools can literally not replace teachers with long-term subs right now, and they can't maintain the student-to-staff ratio if teachers leave.
00:22:31
Speaker
I know that's a really scary proposition to seek out fellow staff members and organize and make demands, but at the same exact time, I don't consider that any scarier than killing someone as a result of the actions that I do not take.
00:22:45
Speaker
If one of my students died because I just went along with the status quo, I don't know how I would face myself.
00:22:50
Speaker
If I killed someone in my household because I left it up to district policy, I don't think I could just blame someone else.
00:22:57
Speaker
The fact is, it's a life or death situation.
00:22:59
Speaker
And I completely understand
00:23:01
Speaker
why parents want schools to reopen.
00:23:03
Speaker
I get that schools are facing a ton of pressure to reopen from their communities.
00:23:07
Speaker
It isn't just the government.
00:23:08
Speaker
Families are concerned about their children quote-unquote staying ahead.
00:23:12
Speaker
Families are struggling to raise their children and work, and they rely on schools to operate as daycares.
00:23:17
Speaker
And many families are out of work.
00:23:19
Speaker
I mean, the real unemployment rate is estimated to be about 25% of people.
00:23:23
Speaker
I'm not pretending like keeping children at home is desirable.
00:23:26
Speaker
However, if the choice is between an undesirable time at home with some added stress to families versus staff and students dying, I'm always going to choose the first option.
Responsibility and Preparation for Virtual Learning
00:23:37
Speaker
If we act early enough or delay schools opening until we're ready for virtual learning, we can remedy some of the equity issues.
00:23:44
Speaker
As Jennifer Saravallo states, quote, end quote.
00:24:03
Speaker
I can't agree with that sentiment enough.
00:24:05
Speaker
Quite frankly, I'm pissed off at schools who are dedicating just a ton of time to the most obtuse things.
00:24:12
Speaker
360-degree webcams, putting markers on the ground at school for students to stand, sterilizing lockers in special ways, when we could be using that money to ensure that teachers are prepared to teach online.
00:24:23
Speaker
I know for a fact that I need a lot of help doing that effectively, and ensuring also that families have all the tools necessary to learn from home.
00:24:29
Speaker
I think it's a gigantic disservice to our communities that barely have any schools doing this.
00:24:35
Speaker
So here is my proposal that teachers begin to leverage with their positions.
00:24:39
Speaker
Number one, schools remain remote in almost every area of the country that is seeing any kind of COVID-19 increase or stagnation.
00:24:47
Speaker
Schools in the few areas where this isn't the case could open at a low capacity.
00:24:51
Speaker
But if there's any indication that cases are increasing, any school that was open would immediately close.
00:24:56
Speaker
The only exception could be students with disabilities or unsafe environments.
00:25:01
Speaker
Certain staff members could operate at a very small capacity to ensure these students are cared for.
00:25:06
Speaker
Number two, if a school is not ready to carry out remote instruction, schools could delay to open past Labor Day and push the school year back.
00:25:15
Speaker
3.
00:25:15
Speaker
If a school will never be ready to open remotely, push the school year back to 2021 and simply go through the summer, or just find a way for students to complete work on their own to make up that semester.
00:25:27
Speaker
4.
00:25:27
Speaker
Teachers and other faculty members should be included in all reopening talks and procedures, and it should be on the record for policymakers, administration, and teachers, and publicly known.
00:25:38
Speaker
Number five, schools should demand funding from state and or federal sources to adequately equip students, educators, and faculty members for sustained virtual learning.
00:25:47
Speaker
I implore you to reach out to your coworkers and begin that conversation about organizing.
00:25:52
Speaker
Demand change or refuse to go back.
00:25:55
Speaker
That is the teaching as a superpower move.
00:25:58
Speaker
It's not sacrificing your life or your students' lives in the name of a building reopening.
00:26:03
Speaker
It's calling to the fact that people are literally going to die if we go back into the building.
00:26:08
Speaker
I also want to call attention to the work of Allison Collins, Stacey Schubetz, Julie Gee, and Sarah Mullen-Gross, who have provided a template that I'll link in the show notes for communities to write to their school boards to demand safe schools.
00:26:21
Speaker
I can't emphasize enough how important it is that we remain virtual.
00:26:25
Speaker
We could deliver a really amazing virtual curriculum with the necessary training and resources.
00:26:30
Speaker
I want to state that the references I provided in this podcast are just the tip of the iceberg.
00:26:35
Speaker
There are unions gearing up for widespread strikes.
00:26:37
Speaker
There are teachers across various news outlets talking about leaving the profession.
00:26:41
Speaker
There are rapid surges in COVID cases due to child care facilities, and school heads are openly talking about how they don't even know what they're doing.
00:26:48
Speaker
They don't know the next steps.
00:26:50
Speaker
There are an exhausting number of articles related to the questions and dangers of opening school that continue to surface.
00:26:57
Speaker
I understand and recognize that districts must be beholden to their stakeholders as well as to what their budget can afford.
Conclusion and Consequences
00:27:03
Speaker
Yet again, this is a life or death situation, so I fail to see those actions as responsible.
00:27:08
Speaker
How many teachers will die as a result of a district's inaction?
00:27:11
Speaker
Can a district blame the federal government when one of their teachers, students, or their family members die as a direct result of their experiment with reopening?
00:27:19
Speaker
I'm not making a hypothesis of what will happen.
00:27:21
Speaker
We've already seen what will happen.
00:27:23
Speaker
As Mitchell Robinson best puts it, I'd rather lose a semester than a single student or colleague.