why can't teachers just wear masks in the fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe most of the people on here saying they are teachers are actually teachers, for one. Second, every single teacher I know is planning on going back to work once the governor lifts the order. I don't know anyone independently wealthy who can afford to stay home. I could see a handful of young teachers with small children at home deciding to take another year's worth of unpaid leave, but it won't be more than a very small percentage. Yes, I know, the people on this board would love to see teacher's be out of a job. I know you don't think we deserve our pay or our job security. You'd love to watch teachers be told "you're out". But it isn't going to happen. You are stuck with us, just like we are stuck with you. The decision to open schools or not is 100% in the hands of the governor. No one else.

That’s sad! I don’t want to see teachers out of a job. I love my child’s teacher. I think the fact that everyone wants teachers to go back to school is a positive thing, right? I feel like it’s the teachers that are refusing to return to work that bother parents.

They want teachers to return to work because they think we're getting away with something. Teachers aren't refusing to go back to school because the schools aren't open. When schools do open again, and I hope they do in the fall, we'd like some measures to protect ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a nurse married to a doctor and we've been working in the hospitals since this began. I work on a Covid unit and my husband works in the ER.
Most of our coworkers have kids as we do too. Many of us do have various health concerns.

We have worn masks religiously since this started. Sometimes we wear a N95 and more recently we wear surgical masks. We wear them non-stop for 12 hour shifts.

It's not fun (the masks are hot, it's a pain) but we've worn them each and every day for almost 2 months. Why can't teachers do this?

becase mask do not work

[Anonymous]

Plexigass booth for evryone!. Make it portable, wrap it up for to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids wear shirts to school, wear pants and shoes. They'll wear masks too. Probably not N95 masks but masks.

No, they won’t. Look at the teen board and you will see hundreds of posts from frustrated parents and rebellious teens. I can demand they wear them in my class and then they will ask to go to the bathroom. Some will take them off for a break, others to vape or have time with the SO. At the end of class the 30 students will scatter in crowded hallways to go to 30 other classes. Masks are uncomfortable and most are not going to keep them on all day.

You say they wear shirts and pants. We struggle to get them to wear shirts and shorts to cover their private areas. That’s hard enough to enforce. You think they will all wear masks?

Then send them home. Tell them they can’t come back until they’re in a mask.

+1

For a global pandemic, you can enforce rules.

Look I try not to post on this board often because I know most people on here don’t know the reality of working in a school but PP is absolutely right about middle and high schoolers wearing masks. And who is going to send them home? Part of the reason there is a teacher shortage is administration and districts don’t enforce any behavior rules. They will not send every kid home who won’t wear a mask. They don’t even send kids home who bring weapons to school.

[Anonymous]

Half of the kids would suffocate .. six hours in hot surgical mask, not even N95. The kids growing bodies need a TONE of oxygen.
Masks can cause a panic attack. Nothig saer then online learning. If and once organize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids wear shirts to school, wear pants and shoes. They'll wear masks too. Probably not N95 masks but masks.

No, they won’t. Look at the teen board and you will see hundreds of posts from frustrated parents and rebellious teens. I can demand they wear them in my class and then they will ask to go to the bathroom. Some will take them off for a break, others to vape or have time with the SO. At the end of class the 30 students will scatter in crowded hallways to go to 30 other classes. Masks are uncomfortable and most are not going to keep them on all day.

You say they wear shirts and pants. We struggle to get them to wear shirts and shorts to cover their private areas. That’s hard enough to enforce. You think they will all wear masks?

Then send them home. Tell them they can’t come back until they’re in a mask.

+1

For a global pandemic, you can enforce rules.

Look I try not to post on this board often because I know most people on here don’t know the reality of working in a school but PP is absolutely right about middle and high schoolers wearing masks. And who is going to send them home? Part of the reason there is a teacher shortage is administration and districts don’t enforce any behavior rules. They will not send every kid home who won’t wear a mask. They don’t even send kids home who bring weapons to school.

+1
It's not easy to send a kid home from school. Maybe there could be some sort of emergency declaration that would allow schools to do that but you'd need a willing guardian to pick them up.

[Anonymous]

I'll go back when a policy is implemented in which a sick child is sent to the ER if a parent refuses to pick them up. This happens all the time and I'm not accepting a student who shows up coughing and feverish into my classroom during a pandemic.

[Anonymous]

20+ years of teaching and now is the first time I can kick a kid out of my class for the day. That and the ability to mute make teaching awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m so sick people asserting that since nurses do something, then teachers should do the same. It’s a false equivalency. The job of a nurse is to provide care to sick or injured people. They are fully aware of what they’re signing up for when they decide to go to school to become a nurse. They are aware that they will be on the front lines in the event of a pandemic or whatever health issue people are facing. Same with EMTs/firefighters/police officers etc. They are first responders. It’s in the job description that they will be putting themselves in danger and they knowingly sign up for that.

In what world are teachers in the same category as the aforementioned? No one gets an education degree assuming they will have to teach germy children in a pandemic. Let’s keep it real here. No one would care this much or be this opinionated about how teachers do their job in a pandemic if they weren’t just upset that they lost their free childcare. That’s what this is about.

And with this post, I’m out. I’m not even a teacher but I’m so so done with these threads and the teacher bashing that goes on here. It’s gross and reveals how disgusting most of humanity is when people don’t have control over a situation and would prefer for others (who didn’t sign up for it), plus their own children, to put their health at risk so that they don’t have to be inconvenienced in any way.

Good luck, all. I hope you get some perspective one day. You sorely need it.

✌🏼

That’s fine. Why do teachers then expect a paycheck if they can’t perform their duties. I would rather school districts procure online curriculum designed to work for remote learning and hire personnel that are are capable of providing remote learning supplementation. If that means a current teacher loses her job because he/she doesn’t have sufficient child care to perform a full day’s worth of remote learning work, so be it. Especially now since teachers say remote learning is not their area of expertise (their teaching degree did not provide them this training) and if remote learning is the new norm, school districts need to hire personnel who have the expertise or can obtain the expertise over the summer, weekends, and evenings if they want to teach in this new reality and receive a paycheck. Currently, the teacher’s attitude is poor me, I still deserve a paycheck and it’s the school districts responsibility in training me etc. In the real world, employees have to adapt and take initiative to keep their jobs, why should teachers be any different.

[Anonymous]

Good luck trying to find replacements! I’m sure they will be quality people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
That’s fine. Why do teachers then expect a paycheck if they can’t perform their duties. I would rather school districts procure online curriculum designed to work for remote learning and hire personnel that are are capable of providing remote learning supplementation. If that means a current teacher loses her job because he/she doesn’t have sufficient child care to perform a full day’s worth of remote learning work, so be it. Especially now since teachers say remote learning is not their area of expertise (their teaching degree did not provide them this training) and if remote learning is the new norm, school districts need to hire personnel who have the expertise or can obtain the expertise over the summer, weekends, and evenings if they want to teach in this new reality and receive a paycheck. Currently, the teacher’s attitude is poor me, I still deserve a paycheck and it’s the school districts responsibility in training me etc. In the real world, employees have to adapt and take initiative to keep their jobs, why should teachers be any different.

There are so many ways to respond to this but I'll just say, thank goodness that teachers like children, even children who have parents like you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m so sick people asserting that since nurses do something, then teachers should do the same. It’s a false equivalency. The job of a nurse is to provide care to sick or injured people. They are fully aware of what they’re signing up for when they decide to go to school to become a nurse. They are aware that they will be on the front lines in the event of a pandemic or whatever health issue people are facing. Same with EMTs/firefighters/police officers etc. They are first responders. It’s in the job description that they will be putting themselves in danger and they knowingly sign up for that.

In what world are teachers in the same category as the aforementioned? No one gets an education degree assuming they will have to teach germy children in a pandemic. Let’s keep it real here. No one would care this much or be this opinionated about how teachers do their job in a pandemic if they weren’t just upset that they lost their free childcare. That’s what this is about.

And with this post, I’m out. I’m not even a teacher but I’m so so done with these threads and the teacher bashing that goes on here. It’s gross and reveals how disgusting most of humanity is when people don’t have control over a situation and would prefer for others (who didn’t sign up for it), plus their own children, to put their health at risk so that they don’t have to be inconvenienced in any way.

Good luck, all. I hope you get some perspective one day. You sorely need it.

✌🏼

That’s fine. Why do teachers then expect a paycheck if they can’t perform their duties. I would rather school districts procure online curriculum designed to work for remote learning and hire personnel that are are capable of providing remote learning supplementation. If that means a current teacher loses her job because he/she doesn’t have sufficient child care to perform a full day’s worth of remote learning work, so be it. Especially now since teachers say remote learning is not their area of expertise (their teaching degree did not provide them this training) and if remote learning is the new norm, school districts need to hire personnel who have the expertise or can obtain the expertise over the summer, weekends, and evenings if they want to teach in this new reality and receive a paycheck. Currently, the teacher’s attitude is poor me, I still deserve a paycheck and it’s the school districts responsibility in training me etc. In the real world, employees have to adapt and take initiative to keep their jobs, why should teachers be any different.

Most teachers are adapting to the new platforms and the direction of their school systems. I would agree that people who can't/won't follow the directions should not have a job if this continues into next year. It is the school district's responsibility to provide access and clear direction for following the learning plan, otherwise it would be chaos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids wear shirts to school, wear pants and shoes. They'll wear masks too. Probably not N95 masks but masks.

No, they won’t. Look at the teen board and you will see hundreds of posts from frustrated parents and rebellious teens. I can demand they wear them in my class and then they will ask to go to the bathroom. Some will take them off for a break, others to vape or have time with the SO. At the end of class the 30 students will scatter in crowded hallways to go to 30 other classes. Masks are uncomfortable and most are not going to keep them on all day.

You say they wear shirts and pants. We struggle to get them to wear shirts and shorts to cover their private areas. That’s hard enough to enforce. You think they will all wear masks?

Then send them home. Tell them they can’t come back until they’re in a mask.

+1

For a global pandemic, you can enforce rules.

Take it up with administrators. As of last year they got rid of detentions, suspensions and didn’t even send the kids home who were high or suspected of selling drugs. There is not discipline anymore. It’s restorative justice. They would bring them in to speak with them and talk about their feelings. Students know rules don’t really apply anymore. Teachers do not have the ability to send anyone home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you give speeches in mask?

Yes, we do patient rounds on them every day.

Yeah, it’s actually fine hearing through them. I had a video conference with 5 different locations on Friday. Multiple people in those rooms were wearing masks and we had no problem hearing them.

I'm a special educator, my kids rely pretty heavily on nonverbal cues. I hope that if we return with a recommendation for masks that I can find masks with a clear area over the mouth. There are some people making them, but I imagine they're hard to get ones' hands on.

[Anonymous]

I’m okay with going back to work IF:

- it is actually the best decision to do so based on number of new cases per day

- everyone (including students) has to wear a mask

- class is structured to meet the guidelines by the CDC

- I know my job is protected and I will be paid should I or a family member get COVID-19


I don’t think the above is feasible or likely, which is why I’m pretty certain distance learning will continue in the fall. I’m actually teaching, reviewing work, grading, attending meetings, tutoring kids, etc, so it’s not like I’m expecting to be paid for doing nothing. I just expect either protection or flexibility.