Virtual Schools Better Than Death Traps
Educators Demand Virtual Schools as ‘Least Bad’ but Safe Option
As the coronavirus continues to spread, teachers and school employees are being handed reopening plans that require them to be in their classrooms at the bell—and they are resisting.
The Detroit Federation of Teachers has scheduled a vote to decide if educators will refuse to enter the buildings when school starts. After the West Virginia United caucus held well-attended Zoom meetings to address concerns about reopening, the leadership of the West Virginia Education Association is calling for full remote learning to start the year. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is insisting schools will open and continue even when positive tests are reported. In Arizona, a district outside Phoenix closed before it could open when too many teachers called out sick.
The various strengths and weaknesses of unions are becoming more evident as the school year begins. We have yet to know the strength of educators’ internal organizing or the ways fear might ignite wholesale disruptions as they simply refuse to enter schools.
Returning to schools that often have old and ineffective HVAC systems and windows that don’t open, where the question of what to do about students who refuse to wear masks goes CONTINUE READING: Virtual Schools Better Than Death Traps - LA Progressive