Chicago Teachers Union president calls mayor 'relentlessly stupid' for asking teachers to return to work as union 'walkout' results in classes being canceled for 4th straight day



Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey held firm to his organization's demands over the weekend, prompting classes in the Windy City to be canceled for the fourth consecutive day on Monday. In his defiance, the union leader even called the city's mayor "relentlessly stupid" for asking teachers that teachers return to work.

What's the background?

The nation's third-largest teachers' union has been in a renewed standoff with political leadership since last week, its more than 25,000 members encouraged not to return to in-person classes until stringent health and safety rules are implemented.

Its desired rules include large-scale COVID-19 testing and KN95 mask-wearing as well as the establishment of thresholds for districts to shift to fully remote classes in accordance with citywide positivity rates, rather than positivity rates within the individual districts.

City leadership has so far refused to give in to the radical demands, calling them "noise" and "misinformation" intended only to scare parents. Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez insisted last week that “there is no evidence that our schools are unsafe."

Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, too, has called out union leaders for “politicizing the pandemic" and claimed there "is no basis in the data, the science, or common sense for us to shut an entire system down when we can surgically do this at a school level."

During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, Lightfoot characterized the union's latest actions as an "illegal walkout," adding about participating teachers, “They abandoned their posts and they abandoned kids and their families."

What are the details?

But in a press conference Monday morning, Sharkey fired back at Lightfoot, accusing the mayor of being "relentlessly stupid" in her dealings with the union.

“We feel like we’re at a point where we don’t have enough at the table to be able to go back to the people who, frankly, have sacrificed a lot at this point, and confidently say, ‘This is something that can help us ensure our safety,’” Sharkey said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “The mayor is being relentless, but she’s being relentlessly stupid, relentlessly stubborn.”

In a statement issued on Sunday, the union said, “Educators are not the enemy Mayor Lightfoot wants them to be.”

“The mayor is saying she is going to be relentless in prosecuting a case, but the mayor is not a prosecutor and I’m not a criminal being prosecuted," Sharkey similarly stated in the press conference. "Our members are not people who’ve done anything wrong.”

But Sharkey's last claim certainly rings hollow with city leadership, which views the union's walkout as overt disobedience. As such, Chicago Public Schools has threatened that teachers who fail to show up for in-person classes will be placed on "no-pay status" until they return.

Anything else?

Sharkey also called Lighfoot's opposition to remote instruction "just a talking point," even while admitting that remote instruction is "not as good as" in-person instruction.

"I hear the mayor say that she doesn't want to do remote. But honestly, that's just a talking point, it's an idea, ‘remote is bad.' Remote education is a tool. Teachers view remote education, yeah, it's not as good as in-person," he said, comparing the need for remote learning during the pandemic to the option of using it during winter blizzards.

But the city knows that in-person instruction is the goal and has rolled out a plan to get students safely back in classrooms. According to the Associated Press, school leaders have touted a $100 million safety plan, which encourages teachers to get vaccinated, requires masks indoors, and includes air purifiers in each classroom.

The plan is apparently not enough for union members, who claim teachers are being unfairly asked to risk their health and safety by showing up to work.

Sadly, amid the escalating war of words and continued standoff, Chicago students and parents are the ones truly suffering.

A survey published in April by the Children's Hospital of Chicago found that "across the board, caregivers reported significantly worse psychological well-being [for the children in their care] after school closures as compared to before."

Chicago teacher says in-person schooling allows white people to kill black families: 'If we do not speak up, nice white parents will get us killed'



A Chicago public school teacher says that in-person schooling amid the COVID-19 pandemic permits "nice white parents" to kill black families.

What are the details?

In an essay published Monday in the Education Post, Chicago public school teacher Mike Friedberg said that the city is catering to white parents' demands in reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The essay, titled, "Are We Going to Let 'Nice White Parents' Kill Black and Brown Families?" explained how Friedberg feels that white people are comfortable sacrificing the lives of black and brown families in order to force a return to a normal way of life.

"A new COVID-19 strain is more contagious than ever," he wrote. "The Trump administration's sheer neglect in the face of this deadly pandemic is enraging. Federal inaction has cost lives, and we are far from getting back to a daily normal life. Schools are no exception to this situation. Given the plans to offer vaccines to teachers over the next several weeks, it does not make sense now to force children and staff back into the building."

Friedberg added, "Students, parents, and teachers are fearing for their lives," and pointed out that the city is "catering to the [white] minority of parents" who demand school reopening.

"As the reopening debate gets hotter," he explained, "we are seeing a new breed of 'nice white parents' emerge. The parents who wished to open school buildings are disproportionately white. In meeting after meeting, I have witnessed black and Latinx parents voice concerns."

Recent findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that "students and teachers may be able to safely return to in-person instruction, even in communities with widespread coronavirus infection" so long as safety practices — including masking, social distancing, and proper disinfection protocols — are put in place.

Friedberg argued, however, that many Chicago-area schools are not "adequately equipped to take all the necessary preventative and protective measures."

"Here in Chicago, I have spoken with scores of teachers who do not have adequate HVAC systems in their buildings," he explained. "Some teachers were given air purifiers that only cover 500 square feet, vastly smaller than most classrooms. ... If we open schools in communities with higher positivity rates, especially when those schools are not adequately supplied with protective measures, the risk to staff, students, and families is much higher."

He added, "I do not want to risk my students' lives or my own."

Making an argument for remote learning, Friedberg said that he and his colleagues have been "working harder than ever" in order to deliver students and their families "high-quality instruction."

"Students can still learn remotely and have an engaging, rigorous curriculum," he added. "As an instructor, this is what I'm doing for my students, including focusing on research-based student choice activities. As a parent, that is what I am witnessing for my own children."

Friedberg pointed out that if people kowtow to the demands of white parents, then those voices will be placed above the demands of those from black and brown parents.

"Are we really at a point where not wanting our students to die, and not wanting to die ourselves, is a point of debate?" he asked. "This is completely absurd. We are putting the voices of white parents above black and brown parents, as well as teachers and all school staff, including disproportionately women of color."

He concluded, "As a teacher, I fear for my own life and the lives of my students and their families. I can't teach from the grave, nor can kids learn from there. If we do not speak up, nice white parents will get us killed."

(H/T: The College Fix)