Chicago Teachers Union on verge of strike for virtual teaching during COVID-19 surge



Most schools nationwide are supposed to return students to the classroom this week as Christmas break ends. But Chicago teachers could upend the city's plans for in-person learning with a strike over what they say are unsafe working conditions because of a surge of coronavirus cases.

The Chicago Teachers Union will vote Tuesday on whether its more than 25,000 members will refuse to go to work in person on Wednesday and demand that they be allowed to phone in to their jobs virtually. According to WBEZ-FM, 80% of the 8,000 members who attended a CTU virtual town hall Sunday evening did not want to work in person in Chicago Public Schools under current conditions.

The union has been foreshadowing a strike for days. Last week, the union surveyed its members asking if they would "support a district-wide pause and temporary shift to remote learning." They also polled members on whether they'd be willing to "participate in a city-wide work stoppage" if the union's demands are not met.

Studies have shown that viral transmission for COVID-19 in schools is "extremely rare" and that schools can reopen safely. Additionally, virtual learning has been demonstrated to negatively impact student performance, with math and English test scores plummeting in Chicago Public Schools during the pandemic, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Classes in Chicago resumed Monday after a two-week break for the Christmas and New Year holidays. City and district officials have vowed to keep schools open with students and teachers physically present in the classroom, potentially putting them in conflict with the union's demands.

“What we have learned from this pandemic is that schools are the safest place for students to be: we have spent over a $100 million to put mitigations in place, most CPS staff members are vaccinated, and we generally see little transmission in school settings,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement Monday.

"Keeping kids safely in school where they can learn and thrive is what we should all be focused on," she said.

Chicago Public Schools echoed the mayor's support for in-person learning in a statement also issued Monday. The district warned that "districtwide, unwarranted and preemptive mass school closures could actually fuel community spread." CPS also said it has been meeting with union representatives and has "reiterated that a case-by-case, school-by-school approach is the best way to approach COVID-19 concerns in schools."

The city is making its case for in-person learning as a surge of COVID-19 hospitalized 6,294 people statewide on Monday, the highest number of hospitalizations since the pandemic began, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

IDPH also reported a daily average of 23,069 new COVID cases and an average of 59 COVID-related deaths per day.

CPS maintains that safety measures including masking, contact tracing, testing, cleaning, air purifiers, and widespread vaccination are sufficient to protect teachers from serious COVID-19-related illness or death.

However, several issues with the virus test kits provided to parents for their children over winter break have complicated the debate over reopening. WBEZ reported that CPS provided 150,000 at-home testing kits for students. But many parents who tested their children and returned the sample by last week's deadline were told the tests could not be analyzed.

Parents were told via email that the tests could not be processed within the required 48-hour window "due to weather and holiday related shipping issues," WBEZ reported.

Further, more than half of the test results submitted came back as "invalid." Of the 35,831 tests completed over the past week, 24,989 were invalid and 18% came back positive, according to CPS' COVID tracker.

On top of the processing problems, CPS said that more than 100,000 of the 150,000 tests made available to parents of schoolchildren were never submitted.

The teachers' union has seized on the testing issues as justification for keeping teachers away from in-person learning. CTU has demanded that the school district require students and staff to present a negative COVID-19 test before attending in-person classes. In the absence of adequate testing, the union wants to switch to remote learning for two weeks.

“Here we are, a year later in the cold in January, performing another remote action, because [CPS] can’t get it right,” CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said Monday.

The union is also demanding high-quality masks for all students and staff and a policy to switch to virtual classes if 20% of a school's staff is in isolation or quarantine for COVID-19.

Teacher told student he had 15 seconds to remove a Trump flag or he’d be kicked out of online class



A high school teacher in Northern California threatened to kick a student out of a virtual class unless he removed a "Trump 2020" flag from his camera background.

According to KOVR-TV, the 16-year-old student was in his bedroom participating in an online class for Colusa High School when his chemistry teacher took issue with the sign and demanded that he take it down or adjust the camera view.

"Since school has begun, my son has had this Trump flag hanging in his background," the student's mother, Tiffany, told the news outlet. Their last names have been withheld from reports.

According to the student's mother, the teacher told her son, "You can sit up, remove the flag, or reposition your camera within the next 15 seconds or I'm kicking you out of class."

In a video of the incident, recorded by another student and included in the news video below, the teacher can be heard counting to 15 seconds while repeating the threat.

Colusa Student Says Teacher Threatened To Kick Him Out Of Virtual Class Over Trump Flag youtu.be

As the video shows, the teacher wasn't able to complete the count before the student decided to sign off from the class on his own. He can be seen waving to the camera before the screen goes black.

According to KOVR-TV, the teacher has since apologized. The student's mother said she isn't blaming the teacher so much as she is the school board for not giving clear guidance on the issue.

"She is a new teacher and it's a mistake," she said. "There hasn't been any guidance given to her as a teacher for the school."

Tiffany said that when she reached out to a board representative requesting a clarification for the code of conduct, she was rejected.

"He flat out told me no. We've just not been given any guidance," she said.

The Colusa County Code of Conduct includes a dress code ban for clothing with "vulgar, obscene, or profane" messages, or messages which "degrade any race or other group of individuals" — but nowhere in the document does it mention anything about politics or campaigns.

State Education Code 48907 states: "[Students] of the public schools, including charter schools, shall have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press including, but not limited to, the use of bulletin boards, the distribution of printed materials or petitions, the wearing of buttons, badges, and other insignia, and the right of expression in official publications, whether or not the publications or other means of expression are supported financially by the school or by use of school facilities, except that expression shall be prohibited which is obscene, libelous, or slanderous. Also prohibited shall be material that so incites pupils as to create a clear and present danger of the commission of unlawful acts on school premises or the violation of lawful school regulations, or the substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school."

The student has reportedly not been punished over the incident.

Louisiana 4th grader suspended because BB gun was visible during virtual class session



A fourth grader in Louisiana was suspended from school and nearly expelled after his BB gun was seen on camera during a virtual class session, according to the New Orleans Advocate.

Ka Mauri Harrison, 9, was participating in a virtual class session with his Woodmere Elementary classmates. He was on the computer in his bedroom.

Ka Mauri's younger brother entered the room and tripped over the BB gun while Ka Mauri was taking an English test. Ka Mauri leaned over and grabbed the BB gun and moved it away from his brother, next to his chair — and within view of his computer's camera.

Ka Mauri was disconnected from the virtual class session minutes later. He had the computer muted during the test, so he hadn't heard his teacher and didn't know why he was kicked out of the class. The school called his parents and informed them of the suspension.

"Ka Mauri presented a weapon that appeared to be a rifle/shotgun during his Google Meets classroom session," the behavior report said. "This is a violation of weapons in the classroom setting and a violation of the internet usage policy. He will be recommended for expulsion as per JPPSS policy."

The school opted not to expel him, but suspended him for six days, citing the violation as "displaying a facsimile weapon while receiving virtual instruction."

Ka Mauri's family is considering legal action against the school system, after their appeal of the suspension was rejected. Their attorney, Chelsea Cusimano, told the Advocate, "It's not ending here. It's our intent to explore further options.."

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced that the state Department of Justice would open an investigation into the incident, citing a possible constitutional infringement.

"I am alarmed by what appears to not only be multiple violations of both the State and Federal Constitutions, but also blatant government overreach by the school system," Landry said in a news release. "I have begun investigating this matter and plan to take action in defense of this young man and his family and all families who could suffer the same invasion of their homes and constitutional rights.

"For anyone to conclude that a student's home is now school property because of connectivity through video conferencing is absurd," the statement continued. "It is ludicrous for this All-American kid to be punished for taking responsible actions just as it is for his parents to be accused of neglect."

4th grader in Louisiana suspended when he picks up BB gun during virtual class youtu.be

Furious NYC mom says hackers streamed porn during her child’s online class, demands the district return to school



A New York City mother is furious after her 10-year-old daughter's first day of remote learning was interrupted by hackers streaming pornographic images across the screen.

What are the details?

Devon Morales tweeted the horrifying news Wednesday, directing her anger at NYC Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the city's Department of Education, using the hashtag #returntoschool2020.

"Day one of remote learning. 5 minutes into my daughter's Google meet with her first class, and several 'students' have hijacked the meeting, the first posting Trump pics, and then someone streamed PORN!!" Morales posted along with a screenshot of the video.

"I shut the laptop in horror," she wrote in a subsequent tweet. "I'm INFURIATED. My daughter and all the other students present were sexually assaulted today."

Morales added: "No teachers should be hosting online classes without remote conference managers or IT monitoring them. Intro to b******s should NOT have been part of my daughter's 6th grade curriculum. Do better!"

Mayor de Blasio announced this week a delay to the start of in-person schooling in the city, even for parents and students who opted to return to the physical classroom.

What else?

WNBC-TV reported that a Department of Education spokesperson had confirmed the incident and that an investigation had been launched.

"We have strict security settings for DOE-approved platforms to prevent outside parties from entering. The class was immediately taken offline, and this incident is being investigated," DOE spokeswoman Miranda Barbot said in a statement. "We will provide [any] necessary follow up support to the school community."

Carranza said that there is no evidence of an external breach, but rather it appears that someone within the school "decided not to play by the rules."

In response to the news, Democratic City Councilman Justin Brannan said, "I thought we had this figured out. This is totally unacceptable and completely avoidable."

According to the New York Post, another DOE spokesperson said that "troubleshooting" was a goal of the first week of remote orientation.

"Instructional orientation this week exists to get students and families reconnected with their school communities and to troubleshoot any device or connectivity issues," said Sarah Casasnovas. "As with the first days of school every year, there are initial adjustments that need to be made, both technical and otherwise, and that's what we accounted for during these orientation days."