Pre-K Madness!

CPS Decision to Send Teachers Into Burning Buildings Insane!

Almost all the children and teenagers who died of Covid-19 were Black or Hispanic.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot decided to listen to the business community and start sending teachers and students back into the classroom starting next month with the Pre-K and Special Education Cluster.

The Pre-K teachers we spoke with are infuriated and don't know what to do. The Chicago Teachers Union has vowed to fight and held a special tele-town meeting October 18 to discuss options, which include rallying resistance. Even though Covid-19 is spreading, more people are getting sick and in some areas of the city there is a 20 percent positive rate of getting infected (almost all children and teenagers who died of Covid were either Black or Hispanic according to Business Insider).

A poll indicated 93 percent of the teachers who responded in a survey during the conference said they want to fight this latest attempt by the mayor to force children and teachers back into buildings while the virus rages.  The union said only 10 percent of the buildings have up to code ventilation.

This is what one Pre-K teacher wrote:

*CPS is saying remote isn't working for prek (I would beg to differ because under the circumstances it is going very well for us, all things considered) - because of lack of social interaction - well, interaction is going to be non-existent if we go back. Covid prevents us from being social. What are we going to be expected to do when a child is having a hard time separating from their parents (WHICH THEY WILL) We cannot hold them, comfort them, or peel them off of their parents quite literally which we sometimes need to do

*For the social aspect - this is going to be incredibly difficult for our EL and special needs students with sensory issues (can't wear a mask, need physical redirection, close up verbal prompts and being close so they can see pictures that teachers are showing them to help them transition) or if they're having a tantrum or being physically aggressive and we have no other option than to physically remove them from a situation (I imagine a child who has ripped off their mask or mask is having off and they are crying or screaming (again, THIS WILL HAPPEN) 

*They will be unable to share toys or sit close to friends or even snack or drink water. 

*Piggybacking off of that - most of our day will be spent disinfecting the classroom - taking children's temperatures(?) and toys before and in between, after and sometimes during our classes. It will basically be managing them moving around the classroom so that way they don't touch each other or anything that is not theirs - not social distancing, not safe, not actually teaching 

* The data - Little Village is a hot zone and it puts not only teachers and multi generational families at risk for health problems and even death. There are two preschoolers in my classroom who had covid in the spring and even one of their infant siblings. The whole family! So they can't tell me kids won't get covid. And think about staff having to take public transportation to and from school. Schools are going to become super spreading events 

*Parents who are struggling and finally have their kids back at school - sending their children to school even when they are sick because they are forced to choose between paying the bills and figuring out child care will send their children to school kids. Parents did it all the time before covid, again THIS WILL HAPPEN! 

*Lack of ventilation in the building. The old heater in the classroom - no air filtration system. Cold and flu season and children who don't know how to social distance or have been exposed to someone in their family who is an essential worker again adds up to a very very dangerous health concern for everyone in the building. It's reckless and downright selfish for the mayor and Janice Jackson to even think about sending teachers and babies back to school when cases are rising and I for one refuse to put my health at risk for my job and no one else should be asked to either. 

*The bathroom situation - children having to go - having to disinfect the bathroom after every child uses it and having to help children who physically need it in the bathroom. Children with IEP's and diapering on them. (Teacher aides) cannot be expected to change the child which would mean that A PARENT would have to come into the building and the classroom to change their child - parents should not be allowed in the building so I'm not sure how this would even work

*Making routine chaotic - pulling them out of remote learning when we will most likely have to go back into remote learning. This is emotionally draining and quite frankly traumatic for our youngest children