This is the Form Letter That WTU Members Sent to Mayor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rate of deaths in schools is already zero. And why does the decline in numbers have to be TWICE what Fauci says it should be? Do teachers realize that some government employees (like me) are already back at work?? And we didn’t have a choice other than if we could whether we had a pre-existing condition or lived with a vulnerable person.

You have the same choices that teachers do - you can quit or return.

How many teachers have lost their job because if refusing to return? If that was an actual consequence, I’m okay with that. If they’re refusing and being accommodated in the form of schools being entirely shut down, I’m not okay with that. I don’t feel like a real attempt st hybrid was attempted. Just ultimatums and politics.

Also the death rate in DC is pretty close to 0. In the past 14 days, 7 people have died.

Why don’t you ask DCPS how prepared they were for hybrid? Do you actually think they had worked out the specifics? As of last week, my principal said central office had not provided any guidance for reopening or organizing cohorts. Individual schools still were on their own and were floundering. I don’t know why people on this board think that DCPS had figured out all this and if only for the teachers schools would be open. You KNOW that is not the case and it’s just easier and more convenient to blame the scary useless teachers than to open your eyes to lack of planning DCPS did for the last 5 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can the OP stop with the teacher bashing. Every single public schools union (minus custodians) was pushing the mayor for distance learning. That includes the administration.

The return to work form was not signed by any administrator or EMPLOYEE OF CENTRAL OFFICE. No one signed them. Stop blaming all of this on the teachers. Why do you want your kid to be a guinea pig? Let another state open and see if this country can sustain a school without a major break out of Covid. We have way more active infections that Europe. Let someone else take the chance with their kids and lets see what happens. I’d rather not be the trailblazer here.

Seriously. This is not unique to DCPS.
MCPS, Fairfax, Loudon, Arlington, Alexandra, Howard, PG County, Anne Arundel.
All the Special needs private schools.
Georgetown U, George Washington U, American U.

ALL ARE VIRTUAL for fall.
And don't worry--the regular privates will follow. Given them until Mid August.

And everyone else in the country too aside some states in the south (Bat shit insane) and New England (virus under control).

Your anger is grossly misplaced.

[Anonymous]

Until we can meet the criteria mentioned above, it remains unsafe to open school campuses. We want to firmly reiterate that the acceptable number of COVID-19 related deaths in our schools is zero. Thank you for your time regarding this matter, and we look forward to the July 31st announcement that we will continue distance learning.

As somewhat who works in research, there are so many problems with this statement. It’s fear-mongering, hard to quantify, and not evidenced-based. What data are they basing this figure on? How do they imagine the death rate will be determined if schools have been closed? Do they have anyone with public health expertise advising them?

I imagine that even if data were offered from other countries that show a close to zero death rate per school/per capita, they’d find some way to reject it.

[Anonymous]

Marc Thiessen had a great article in the post pointing out how lower elementary (where kids most need in person instruction and parents most need kids in school so the can work) is not as high risk as many other jobs people are doing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rate of deaths in schools is already zero. And why does the decline in numbers have to be TWICE what Fauci says it should be? Do teachers realize that some government employees (like me) are already back at work?? And we didn’t have a choice other than if we could whether we had a pre-existing condition or lived with a vulnerable person.

You have the same choices that teachers do - you can quit or return.

How many teachers have lost their job because if refusing to return? If that was an actual consequence, I’m okay with that. If they’re refusing and being accommodated in the form of schools being entirely shut down, I’m not okay with that. I don’t feel like a real attempt st hybrid was attempted. Just ultimatums and politics.

Also the death rate in DC is pretty close to 0. In the past 14 days, 7 people have died.

I bet if all the employees at your job refused to report in person, your boss would okay continued WFH. This is why my pediatrician is still doing televisits. She’s have to fire all the nurses and office staff.

[Anonymous]

Let’s be honest. It’s DRIZZLING outside and the Mayor is closing testing sites. This has never been about the Teachers or Administrative Union wanting distance learning. You guys are falling for it hook, line and sinker. She got you guys to believe the boogeyman instead of wondering what the hell DCPS and the DC government has been doing for 5 months. You aren’t as smart as you think you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rate of deaths in schools is already zero. And why does the decline in numbers have to be TWICE what Fauci says it should be? Do teachers realize that some government employees (like me) are already back at work?? And we didn’t have a choice other than if we could whether we had a pre-existing condition or lived with a vulnerable person.

You have the same choices that teachers do - you can quit or return.

How many teachers have lost their job because if refusing to return? If that was an actual consequence, I’m okay with that. If they’re refusing and being accommodated in the form of schools being entirely shut down, I’m not okay with that. I don’t feel like a real attempt st hybrid was attempted. Just ultimatums and politics.

Also the death rate in DC is pretty close to 0. In the past 14 days, 7 people have died.

I agree with your statement completely. It was simply an issue of the teachers not showing up. Even if they all completed the form saying they could not return because of a health reason, at least DCPS and the Mayor have something to work with. However, to not even respond leaves everyone in the lurch. What if there were 30% of teachers who DID want to return? Couldn't we have brought in those kids who are struggling the most and/or those with IEPs. WTU screwed everyone but mostly, they screwed the kids. This is not a childcare issue for me - I work from home and my kid and I can manage DL but she learns much better when in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Until we can meet the criteria mentioned above, it remains unsafe to open school campuses. We want to firmly reiterate that the acceptable number of COVID-19 related deaths in our schools is zero. Thank you for your time regarding this matter, and we look forward to the July 31st announcement that we will continue distance learning.

As somewhat who works in research, there are so many problems with this statement. It’s fear-mongering, hard to quantify, and not evidenced-based. What data are they basing this figure on? How do they imagine the death rate will be determined if schools have been closed? Do they have anyone with public health expertise advising them?

I imagine that even if data were offered from other countries that show a close to zero death rate per school/per capita, they’d find some way to reject it.

Exactly. They will never be happy, which is why we can expect DL for the entire school year. Once we gave in for the Fall, it's over. The only way WTU will come back to work is if their jobs are threatened. They may not want to come back, but they will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Until we can meet the criteria mentioned above, it remains unsafe to open school campuses. We want to firmly reiterate that the acceptable number of COVID-19 related deaths in our schools is zero. Thank you for your time regarding this matter, and we look forward to the July 31st announcement that we will continue distance learning.

As somewhat who works in research, there are so many problems with this statement. It’s fear-mongering, hard to quantify, and not evidenced-based. What data are they basing this figure on? How do they imagine the death rate will be determined if schools have been closed? Do they have anyone with public health expertise advising them?

I imagine that even if data were offered from other countries that show a close to zero death rate per school/per capita, they’d find some way to reject it.

Exactly. They will never be happy, which is why we can expect DL for the entire school year. Once we gave in for the Fall, it's over. The only way WTU will come back to work is if their jobs are threatened. They may not want to come back, but they will.

IT WAS NOT JUST THE WTU WHO WANTED DISTANCE LEARNING!!!!! Why is no one on here saying nasty things about the administrators union, the paraprofessionals Union, etc. There is more than one union that is associated with DCPS. But continue to believe this is all on the teachers. You all are sheep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What they’re asking for seems reasonable to me. They’re going to be exposed to a large cross section of the population in close quarters, it makes sense they’d want more days of decline to feel comfortable.

I agree. I wonder why we think their requests are unreasonable? Shouldn't we have the expectation that the government will do the following:

Increased access to testing and expedited turnaround time
All schools have adequate supplies to address health and safety needs
All schools have a comprehensive plan to address future outbreaks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The acceptable number of deaths is zero? This is a pandemic. Good luck with that.

Read it again. It says the acceptable rate of deaths IN SCHOOLS is zero. What is the rate of deaths in schools you are ok with?

I didn’t misread. People will die from this. Even with herd immunity and a vaccine.

[Anonymous]

I think the biggest concern, as a parent, was DCPS pretty much admitting they had no plans for when an outbreak occurred. There was no metric for when a cohort/grade/school would close. They would only say they would send an email. This was something that was obviously going to happen but they had not even planned for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rate of deaths in schools is already zero. And why does the decline in numbers have to be TWICE what Fauci says it should be? Do teachers realize that some government employees (like me) are already back at work?? And we didn’t have a choice other than if we could whether we had a pre-existing condition or lived with a vulnerable person.

You have the same choices that teachers do - you can quit or return.

How many teachers have lost their job because if refusing to return? If that was an actual consequence, I’m okay with that. If they’re refusing and being accommodated in the form of schools being entirely shut down, I’m not okay with that. I don’t feel like a real attempt st hybrid was attempted. Just ultimatums and politics.

Also the death rate in DC is pretty close to 0. In the past 14 days, 7 people have died.

I agree with your statement completely. It was simply an issue of the teachers not showing up. Even if they all completed the form saying they could not return because of a health reason, at least DCPS and the Mayor have something to work with. However, to not even respond leaves everyone in the lurch. What if there were 30% of teachers who DID want to return? Couldn't we have brought in those kids who are struggling the most and/or those with IEPs. WTU screwed everyone but mostly, they screwed the kids. This is not a childcare issue for me - I work from home and my kid and I can manage DL but she learns much better when in school.

I wanted to go back. I wanted to fill out the form. But I didn’t want to commit to either way without more information. When I asked for more info on what school would look like, I got no response. It wasn’t until after they changed course that they held “town halls” and took three paraphrased questions from teachers. I also attended the parent town hall where they answered tons of questions, but none of mine. They did, however, admit that DCPS has a well deserved trust problem.

So yes, I wanted to return, but I wanted to know under what conditions. Blame their failure to respond for my lack of answer, not WTU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The acceptable number of deaths is zero? This is a pandemic. Good luck with that.

Read it again. It says the acceptable rate of deaths IN SCHOOLS is zero. What is the rate of deaths in schools you are ok with?

So you’re in favor of shutting down schools every flu season? Kids die of that too.

Not accepting anything less than zero deaths is asinine.

[Anonymous]

Another poster mentioned this but I wanted to reiterate that DCPS had NO actual plan for hybrid. The logistics of hybrid are so complicated and they would need to have been worked out already for schools to prepare. DCPS wanted virtual but needed someone to blame. Even if 80% of teachers said they would return in person, it still would be impossible to adequately staff schools. And even with adequate staffing they didn't have a plan.