BROOKLYN TECH TEACHERS TELL CHALKBEAT OF DOE CALLOUSNESS IN SENDING TEACHERS TO WORK THIS WEEK

This was up at Chalkbeat NY last night.

New York City teachers streamed onto their campuses Tuesday through Thursday for training on moving instruction entirely online during a citywide school shutdown. In some cases, they walked in without any official word on whether they might have been exposed to someone with the new coronavirus.

City health officials have stopped publicly confirming instances of COVID-19 among school communities, as cases have skyrocketed to more than 3,600 as of Thursday morning in New York City.

But the principal of Brooklyn Technical let his teachers know on Monday afternoon that at least one person from the school community self-reported testing positive for the disease. Still, the staff at the country’s largest brick-and-mortar high school had to report for duty as they spent three days training to transition to remote learning. 

The Tech teachers then spoke out to Chalkbeat. They used their names and went on the record.

“I feel like the DOE really let us down,” said Katie Moylan, who teaches Advanced Placement U.S. History, Advanced Placement macroeconomics, and world history at the school. “We’ve been left out to dry.”

And another:

“There is so much to clean and disinfect,” said Sujay Sood, who teaches Advanced Placement Language and Composition at Tech.  

Sood said the training that teachers have been asked to complete involves webinars and could easily be done online, eliminating the need for them potentially to expose themselves to the virus by traveling to campus or being inside the building together.

“We don’t understand why teachers are being asked to commute from the five boroughs,” he said. “It makes no sense. It’s callous disregard for the wellbeing of teachers.” 

The DOE's pathetic defense:

A spokesperson for the education department said that school buildings were being “deep cleaned” every day and defended the decision to continue to ask teachers to show up in person for training.

“Our teachers are best suited for success in a remote learning model by first participating in in-person training and meetings while practicing social distancing,” spokesperson Katie O’Hanlon wrote in an email. 

In the Chalkbeat article, there is no request for a quote from UFT President Michael Mulgrew. Here is some of what Mulgrew said in telling parents that the buildings weren't safe last Saturday:

Because of his irresponsible decision to keep the public schools open, Mayor Bill de Blasio can no longer assure the health and safety of our students and school communities.

The mayor is recklessly putting the health of our students, their families and school staff in jeopardy by refusing to close public schools. We have a small window of time to contain the coronavirus before it penetrates into our communities and overwhelms our health care system’s capacity to safely care for all the New Yorkers who may become gravely ill.

After schools were closed for the kids, Mulgrew was perfectly fine with sending his members into buildings that had coronavirus in them. We would practice social distancing. Here is what the latest science says about the spread of the virus. 

From NPR:

The new coronavirus can survive on hard surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel for up to 72 hours and on cardboard for up to 24 hours. To prevent transmission, keep surfaces clean.


In addition,  people can be asymptomatic and still be carriers.

Does anyone trust a DOE deep cleaning? Why weren't teachers and other UFT members told to work exclusively from home all week? The best the UFT would do is tell members they would not be disciplined if they worked from home instead of outright saying that buildings might not be safe so do not go in. We can certainly talk about getting sick days back if a member worked at home. We will recommend grieving and/or going to court when the time is right.

DOE, with the backing of the UFT and CSA, sent employees into what were probably contaminated buildings for no good reason. I tried to convince people to stay home but I do not have the outreach of the UFT.

Is worrying about the Taylor Law's anti-strike provisions being invoked where the UFT would lose automatic dues checkoff more important to Mulgrew than protecting the health of members? Under these circumstances, the anti-strike provisions were not going to be implemented in my opinion. I agree with the Brooklyn Tech people that the DOE didn't care about our wellbeing.  As for the UFT, did they do enough?

For today, Friday, UFT members are supposed to work from home.  Check in please.

Stay safe!