From a teacher............thoughts to consider

[aubiefifty 16,774]

From a teacher...
These are all good relevant questions.

Questions for School Openings:

• If a teacher tests positive for COVID-19 are they required to quarantine for 2-3 weeks? Is their sick leave covered, paid?

• If that teacher has 5 classes a day with 30 students each, do all 150 of those students need to then stay home and quarantine for 14 days?

• Do all 150 of those students now have to get tested? Who pays for those tests? Are they happening at school? How are the parents being notified? Does everyone in each of those kids' families need to get tested? Who pays for that?

• What if an elementary specials teacher (PE, Art, Music, Computers) is diagnosed with COVID-19? They see every class in the school once a week.

• What if someone who lives in the same house as a teacher tests positive? Does that teacher now need to take 14 days off of work to quarantine? Is that time off covered? Paid?

• Where is the district going to find a substitute teacher who will work in a classroom full of exposed, possibly infected students for substitute pay?

• Substitutes teach in multiple schools. What if they are diagnosed with COVID-19? Do all the kids in each school now have to quarantine and get tested? Who is going to pay for that?

• What if a student in your kid's class tests positive? What if your kid tests positive? Does every other student and teacher they have been around quarantine? Do we all get notified who is infected and when? Or because of HIPAA regulations are parents and teachers just going to get mysterious “may have been in contact” emails all year long?

• What is this stress going to do to our teachers? How does it affect their health and well-being? How does it affect their ability to teach? How does it affect the quality of education they are able to provide? What is it going to do to our kids? What are the long-term effects of consistently being stressed out?

• How will it affect students and faculty when the first teacher in their school dies from this? The first parent of a student who brought it home? The first kid?

• How many more people are going to die, that otherwise would not have if we had stayed home longer?

30% of the teachers in the US are over 50. About 16% of the total deaths in the US are people between the ages of 45-65.

We are choosing to put our teachers in danger.

[aubiefifty 16,774]

Pressley hits DeVos over reopening schools: 'I wouldn't trust you to care for a house plant let alone my child'

Aris Folley 13 hrs ago

4-5 minutes

---

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) swiped at Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Sunday after the Trump administration official doubled down on her push for students to return to school.

© Getty Images Pressley hits DeVos over reopening schools: 'I wouldn't trust you to care for a house plant let alone my child'

In a tweet knocking DeVos on Sunday afternoon, the first-term lawmaker directly called her out, writing, "@BetsyDeVosED you have no plan. Teachers, kids and parents are fearing for their lives."

"You point to a private sector that has put profits over people and claimed the lives of thousands of essential workers. I wouldn't trust you to care for a house plant let alone my child," she continued.

Pressley's tweet came in response to remarks DeVos made in an interview on CNN's "State of The Union" early Sunday. During her appearance, she reiterated her call for schools to resume in-person classes in the fall and pushed back on social distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommending children's time meeting in groups be limited to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

"What we're saying is that kids need to be back in school and that school leaders across the country need to be making plans to do just that. There's going to be the exception to the rule, but the rule should be that kids go back to school this fall," DeVos said. "Where there are little flare-ups or hot spots, that can be dealt with on a school-by-school or a case-by-case basis."

When discussing the role CDC guidelines should play in schools reopening, DeVos said, "The CDC guidelines are just that, meant to be flexible and meant to be applied as appropriate for the situation."

Earlier this month, DeVos said she was "very seriously" looking at holding back federal funding from schools that don't reopen in the fall, despite CDC guidelines warning that children meeting in groups "can put everyone at risk."

"We are looking at this very seriously. This is a very serious issue across the country," she said then.

President Trump also threatened to do the same to schools that don't reopen in a tweet around the same time earlier this month.

"The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!" Trump tweeted at the time.

However, it's unclear how much, if any, funding the Trump administration would be able to cut from schools that don't reopen come fall, as Congress is tasked with appropriating federal funding for schools.

i like ms Pressley. short and to the point. if the feds make this happen i hope they put ms devos right in the middle of these classrooms and see how safe it is to her then.

[gr82be 14,423]

1 hour ago, aubiefifty said:

From a teacher...
These are all good relevant questions.

Questions for School Openings:

• If a teacher tests positive for COVID-19 are they required to quarantine for 2-3 weeks? Is their sick leave covered, paid?

• If that teacher has 5 classes a day with 30 students each, do all 150 of those students need to then stay home and quarantine for 14 days?

• Do all 150 of those students now have to get tested? Who pays for those tests? Are they happening at school? How are the parents being notified? Does everyone in each of those kids' families need to get tested? Who pays for that?

• What if an elementary specials teacher (PE, Art, Music, Computers) is diagnosed with COVID-19? They see every class in the school once a week.

• What if someone who lives in the same house as a teacher tests positive? Does that teacher now need to take 14 days off of work to quarantine? Is that time off covered? Paid?

• Where is the district going to find a substitute teacher who will work in a classroom full of exposed, possibly infected students for substitute pay?

• Substitutes teach in multiple schools. What if they are diagnosed with COVID-19? Do all the kids in each school now have to quarantine and get tested? Who is going to pay for that?

• What if a student in your kid's class tests positive? What if your kid tests positive? Does every other student and teacher they have been around quarantine? Do we all get notified who is infected and when? Or because of HIPAA regulations are parents and teachers just going to get mysterious “may have been in contact” emails all year long?

• What is this stress going to do to our teachers? How does it affect their health and well-being? How does it affect their ability to teach? How does it affect the quality of education they are able to provide? What is it going to do to our kids? What are the long-term effects of consistently being stressed out?

• How will it affect students and faculty when the first teacher in their school dies from this? The first parent of a student who brought it home? The first kid?

• How many more people are going to die, that otherwise would not have if we had stayed home longer?

30% of the teachers in the US are over 50. About 16% of the total deaths in the US are people between the ages of 45-65.

We are choosing to put our teachers in danger.

As my wife is a teacher these are our concerns as well. The problem us that we can all be exposed anywhere we go and that goes for the students parents as well. Based on what I'm seeing in some areas many people don't seem to give a flip about being in a crowd with no protective mask on. The mask is the least we can do to stop the potential spread. People are careless and I don't think that school will be any more at fault than Walmart, the neighborhood Mexican restaurant or the baseball field. This teacher raises valid points about the cost of testing and such. The working parent will probably roll that dice because school is the cheap daycare for their little ones. They won't want to stay home and miss the income from their job not will many want to pay childcare if school is not in session. The distanced learning is not going to work long term and that's the delimia. It's tough.

[aubiefifty 16,774]

what disturbs me is devos was on one of the talk shows yesterday and she could not really say how they would handle things but she kept saying over and over that those that did not comply have a strong possibility of losing federal funding. that is an overreach to me. there is not enough testing available as well from what i understand. he also said the fedes would pay for test funding when this things kicked up and now other than to try to force stuff on people that will absolute kill some people is an outrage. all trump wants to do is win reelection at any cost. i do not have any children but if i did i would be very scared for them right now. i understand education is important but does it matter at the end of the day if it kills you? i have been accused of being political on this subject but the truth is we are not prepared yet in too many places. this covid mess is all screwed up and anyone with half a brain should be able to admit this.