3 teachers taught from a empty classroom, all caught COVID & 1 died

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why all the drama over teachers. Hospital workers have gone to work for months. Grocery workers have gone to work for months. Drug store workers have gone to work for months. Restaurant workers have gone to work for months. Office workers have gone to work for months.

In completely different working conditions with 25-30 kids, but besides that, no difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So three adults shared a space and spread the virus among each other.

This has nothing to do with schools.

+1 there people could’ve been hospital workers, fire, police, factory, grocery store employees.

All the whining from/about teachers is getting old. No one is physically forcing you into the room, just like no one is forcing any of the other workers to go. It’s a choice.

This kind of bass ackwards thinking is exactly the opposite kind of approach that needs to be taken during a public health crisis, much less a pandemic. It's not about individual choices whatsoever, it needs to be about public good and weighing risks with rewards. Calling a teacher a whiner who is concerned about their life is beyond the pale.

Then we have to agree to disagree. Teachers are essential to a functioning society, just like the guy checking out your groceries.

Honestly I now consider the grocery workers true heroes. Teachers are just whiners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why all the drama over teachers. Hospital workers have gone to work for months. Grocery workers have gone to work for months. Drug store workers have gone to work for months. Restaurant workers have gone to work for months. Office workers have gone to work for months.

In completely different working conditions with 25-30 kids, but besides that, no difference.

I don't know, the grocery store worker probably has 300 - 400 people coming through his/her line per day. Maybe more. Plus the grocery store worker gets exposed to a new pool of people every day. Repeat 5 days a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So three adults shared a space and spread the virus among each other.

This has nothing to do with schools.

+1 there people could’ve been hospital workers, fire, police, factory, grocery store employees.

All the whining from/about teachers is getting old. No one is physically forcing you into the room, just like no one is forcing any of the other workers to go. It’s a choice.

This kind of bass ackwards thinking is exactly the opposite kind of approach that needs to be taken during a public health crisis, much less a pandemic. It's not about individual choices whatsoever, it needs to be about public good and weighing risks with rewards. Calling a teacher a whiner who is concerned about their life is beyond the pale.

Then we have to agree to disagree. Teachers are essential to a functioning society, just like the guy checking out your groceries.

Only in America is the discussion predominately revolving around rhetoric such as: "no one is forcing you to go back to work. It's a choice." Do you really not get that this piecemeal kind of thinking never gets us out of this situation? Grocery store workers are vital, teachers are vital. And government policies greatly shape how those two populations are affected by Covid-19. Far fewer grocery store workers died in countries that had stricter lockdowns and enforced six feet distancing in outside of store lines. And far fewer teachers feel thrown to the wolves in other countries because they were never asked to keep teaching in conditions where virus was surging with no real metrics to ensure their safety. You don't just say "you have to go back to work, or you should quit, it's your choice, because my child needs an education". That's truly asinine. I don't need my Ivy League degree in education policy to know this.

“Don’t whine about wanting your kids to have an education!” - says the poster with an Ivy League education. Good lord. Aren’t you glad you had teachers and got to go to school when you were younger?

Yes, I am, because there wasn't a PANDEMIC when I was in school, but there is now, so let's live in reality instead of fantasy land, shall we?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So three adults shared a space and spread the virus among each other.

This has nothing to do with schools.

+1 there people could’ve been hospital workers, fire, police, factory, grocery store employees.

All the whining from/about teachers is getting old. No one is physically forcing you into the room, just like no one is forcing any of the other workers to go. It’s a choice.

This kind of bass ackwards thinking is exactly the opposite kind of approach that needs to be taken during a public health crisis, much less a pandemic. It's not about individual choices whatsoever, it needs to be about public good and weighing risks with rewards. Calling a teacher a whiner who is concerned about their life is beyond the pale.

Then we have to agree to disagree. Teachers are essential to a functioning society, just like the guy checking out your groceries.

Honestly I now consider the grocery workers true heroes. Teachers are just whiners.

You’re a hero and you’re a hero! Everyone’s a hero! Now go to school or you’re a big whiner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why all the drama over teachers. Hospital workers have gone to work for months. Grocery workers have gone to work for months. Drug store workers have gone to work for months. Restaurant workers have gone to work for months. Office workers have gone to work for months.

None of which have both a) a workforce that is largely 45 and older and b) locked in small rooms with 30-40 other human beings 8 hours a day.

Everyone also knows american public school facilities suck. They can’t even get water fountains and proper desks in certain areas but you want to believe teachers will get PPE and air filtration systems?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why all the drama over teachers. Hospital workers have gone to work for months. Grocery workers have gone to work for months. Drug store workers have gone to work for months. Restaurant workers have gone to work for months. Office workers have gone to work for months.

In completely different working conditions with 25-30 kids, but besides that, no difference.

I don't know, the grocery store worker probably has 300 - 400 people coming through his/her line per day. Maybe more. Plus the grocery store worker gets exposed to a new pool of people every day. Repeat 5 days a week.

With mostly adults who maintain distance with plexiglass, gloves and masks. Again, no difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all workplaces are created equal, and people have a right to fear for their lives.

Sure. And you have the right to decide whether or not you go to work. You don't have the right to decide that your employer will continue to pay you. It is the same for all of us.

So what are you going to do when teachers retire or quit rather than go to work, and they can't be replaced (at all, or in time for the school year)? What are you going to do when teachers do go back to work, and then get sick, and then schools have to be closed? What are you going to do when there are no subs, because subs are quite often older women (often retired teachers), and they don't want to work, either? Treating it like a purely individual decision is missing the point. It's a systemic issue that needs a systemic solution.

Many many other countries have dealt with this with covid numbers comparable to the dmv and rest of Northeast. There really wasn’t much of an impact from schools opening.

Same poster, of course, AZ, TX, Fl and SoCal should not reopen schools until they get their numbers down to our levels. But we don’t live there, we live on an area with an extremely competent covid response.

Oh, for God's sake. You do know that those neat little lines between the states on the map don't functionally exist, that our state borders are porous and that right now, people from all over the country are being idiots crowding into Florida beaches because "they were soooo cooped up and their kids were boooooored and they NEEDED THIS VACATION," who will then come home and spread the virus? You know how exponential spread works?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why all the drama over teachers. Hospital workers have gone to work for months. Grocery workers have gone to work for months. Drug store workers have gone to work for months. Restaurant workers have gone to work for months. Office workers have gone to work for months.

I"m "not sure why" you're confused. Please explain how hospital workers, grocery workers, drugstore workers or restaurant workers spend 7 hours a day shut in the same poorly-ventilated room, often without windows that open, breathing each other's air (and, as we all know, prolonged indoor exposure is the very highest existing risk factor), with small people who lack the capacity to meaningfully socially distance with any consistency (or, if middle school and above, will just refuse to do so), who cough and sneeze without covering their mouths 90% of the time despite umpteen reminders, who need help opening juice boxes, tying shoes and going to the bathroom.

So are you "sure" yet? Or just going to make more excuses because you demand your kids be out of your house, safety be damned?

[Anonymous]

How is it not safe? Those teachers should not have been sharing a room.

When we go back in September, several adults will be sharing a room with 15 children. I don’t know any class, at least at the ES level, that doesn’t have ESOL, SPED, or other teachers push in for the day.

[Anonymous]

I've been obese and I know how tough it is. I clicked on the article and the woman appears to be a very nice lady and well loved by her family but she is also morbidly obese which is the biggest risk factor you can have.

Sure, it’s a risk factor. But lots of non-obese people have died, too. It’s something people can point to that makes covid death feel less threatening; “it can’t happen to me because she was obese and I am not, so I am safe.” It’s no different than someone getting attacked and people saying “it happened because they were in the wrong neighborhood/dressed to provoke it/did something to cause it.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very convenient for parents to pretend that teachers should just accept that they will contract the virus and whatever outcome that means, or they are whiners with no work ethic. I don't know who you think is going to run the school when all the teachers are out sick. Some people test positive for over a month. No substitute in their right mind would walk into a school with COVID being passed around.

As much as I want the hybrid option, the reality is that teachers will get sick. Kids will get sick. Once that happens, the hyrbid model is dismantle. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just wishing upon a star. It is a lot more disruptive to set our kids (and ourselves) up to think that this is even possible.

I would advise we all push the county to ensure proper investment is put into a great distance learning model. If anyone wants to do afterschool sports, join the math club, do orchestra or whatever else, let them. But that would be out of school purview and that should be another conversation all together.

[Anonymous]

As much as I want the hybrid option, the reality is that teachers will get sick. Kids will get sick. Once that happens, the hyrbid model is dismantle. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just wishing upon a star. It is a lot more disruptive to set our kids (and ourselves) up to think that this is even possible.

I think this is a great point. as the PP says above, the illness can drag on. Everyone is acting like the students and teachers will miss a week and bounce back, but the reality might be that large swathes will be out for weeks. We aren’t talking about that possibility because we don’t want it to happen, but that doesn’t make it less real.

[Anonymous]

People want and need childcare. We get it. Schools are the largest free providers of childcare. But what will happen is that they will end up closing schools due to outbreaks and parents will need to find childcare elsewhere. They already need to find it because the most their kids will be in school is two days per week. Teachers provide an education. If you want them to provide childcare, pay them. Sadly they will make more money babysitting than teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People want and need childcare. We get it. Schools are the largest free providers of childcare. But what will happen is that they will end up closing schools due to outbreaks and parents will need to find childcare elsewhere. They already need to find it because the most their kids will be in school is two days per week. Teachers provide an education. If you want them to provide childcare, pay them. Sadly they will make more money babysitting than teaching.

Where the hell do you think.all those.kods have been since March? Why exactly do you think you are more important the daycare employees ( who really are underpaid) that are caring for those kids now? If you don't want to work, its,.ok. I can't see a lot of people getting behind paying you to sit at home, though. Your job is not fundamentally different or special in any way. It is a job, you are paid, you can be fired.