To Teach or Not to Teach?

What Should Teachers Do During this Pandemic?

By Jim Vail

The Chicago Public Schools wants the schools to reopen and teachers go back to the buildings to teach.

But most teachers and parents do not feel it is safe to return to the schools in the middle of a pandemic where over 350,000 have died.

The Chicago Teachers Union has not called for a strike to stop the decision that they have said is reckless and dangerous. That is because they are close to the Democratic Party, and newly elected President Joe Biden and his party are telling teachers and students to go back to school.

But the union is telling teachers to not go back to school because the CPS plan is not safe. The union also said it will fully back any teachers who could be disciplined for refusing the order to go back to school.

Many teachers who have applied for ADA accommodations have either not been granted the possibility to work remotely or have not yet heard CPS reply.

The union says those teachers who applied and have not heard back yet have the legal right to continue to work at home until they hear back.

At first, as a teacher delegate I was confused and started to make phone calls to fellow teachers and read the social media. I wondered if the union's position to encourage teachers to not go back into the buildings was a bit risky since CPS chief Janice Jackson has threatened to take action, including firing teachers who refuse the order.

But one thing I know about our union is that they do not take unnecessary risks. They play to win, and have been winning a lot within the confines of a very corrupt and anti-worker regime.

The CPS plan to go back into the schools is a business plan that does not care about the health of the teachers and students. This has played out across the country as workers forced back into dangerous workplaces have contacted the virus and died.

The CPS plan is not an education plan. CPS lied about test scores being the reason to close a record 50 schools more than five years ago. It was also a business plan on behalf of real estate concerns, just like today where it is a business plan to get the economy back on track despite the enormous risks to the people. 

If there is a time to strike, a time to refuse orders from the bosses, the time is now. It is for our safety. It is for our health.

Once we are safe in the schools, then we can teach in the schools!