The New York State Nurses Association is a prominent labor union representing 42,000 nurses. The Union released a statement warning that there is a clear and present danger for in-person schooling in NYC and calling for a postponement. We have copied the statement in full below (sorry links are missing). You can read about it in Patch. It's very helpful to have the health professionals with us.
NYSNA BOARD SAYS COVID-19 STILL A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, WARNS OF PUBLIC HEALTH RISKS FROM IN-PERSON SCHOOLING
New York, NY — With COVID-19 cases spiking around the country, New York City remains the only school district, among the five largest, still planning for in-person schooling this fall. As nurses—working for months at the epicenter of the pandemic—we’ve seen firsthand how deadly this virus can be. And we do not want to see our children, other families, our teachers, and all those who work in our schools put in harm’s way.
Like other essential workers, nurses have struggled to balance the demands of our job and the needs of our families. After serving on the frontlines during the COVID-19 surge, all while navigating remote learning for our children, we understand the deep desire to return to some semblance of normalcy.
But the fact is, COVID-19 remains a clear and present danger to New Yorkers. Even the head of the federal COVID-19 Task Force, Dr. Deborah Brix, recently declared that we are in a “new phase” of this virus, telling CNN that the major threat at this moment is "not super spreading individuals, it's super spreading events and we need to stop those."
Bringing people together in enclosed spaces, without the robust public health infrastructure nurses have called for since the beginning of this pandemic, will undoubtedly increase the spread of the virus. Opening in-person schooling could easily erase the progress New York has made, and spark a resurgence of COVID-19.
We now know that adults and children transmit this virus, and that between 25 to 50 percent of those infected with the virus are asymptomatic. There is no question that reopening in-person schooling will accelerate the spread of COVID-19 and expose educators and school staff to greater risk of infection. According to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly 25% of school staff are already at a high-risk for serious illness and death from COVID-19. Although the immediate health impact on children remains less severe than for adults, there is still so much we don’t know about how COVID-19 impacts our kids. It is a worrisome sign, for example, that pediatric ICU admissions have more than doubled just in the last 6 weeks.
As a union of frontline nurses, we must also speak up because New York remains unprepared for a resurgence of COVID-19. Our testing and tracing infrastructure is overstretched, with many results delayed by days or even weeks. Our hospitals are still rationing rapid testing reagents, PPE, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes because of federal shortages and persistent supply chain constraints. Frontline nurses, along with other essential workers, suffered the consequences of New York’s lack of preparation for the first COVID-19 surge. We cannot let that happen again.
Because of the grave risks, NYSNA calls on state and local officials to postpone in-person schooling for the fall, and to make the investments in public health and human services necessary so that in-person learning can happen safely.
We understand that working parents and families need support during this unprecedented time, including childcare subsidies, extended unemployment, nutritional assistance, and other social programs. Our union continues to call on Congress to pass the HEROES Act, which would provide critical aid to working class New Yorkers, as well as billions of dollars of state and local aid to help mitigate budget shortfalls and protect vital services. State and local officials must also do more to raise revenue in New York, and NYSNA supports several legislative initiatives to tax the rich, so corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers pay their fair share.
Increased funding could help pay parents to stay home with their children and provide the technology necessary for remote learning. It would also enable more mental health and IEP support services for families with special needs. We could also invest in the staff and planning necessary to do outdoor and other safer forms of in-person instruction.
New York cannot remain a sheltered island in a national storm surge of COVID-19. Pandemics don’t work that way, especially as many New Yorkers have travelled extensively throughout the summer.
While New York City’s citywide infection rate remains low, the rates in many Black, Latinx and low-income neighborhoods are 4-5 times higher. One of the profound revelations of the COVID crisis thus far has been its impact on Black and Latinx communities, where death rates are a staggering 2-3 times that of whites overall, and a horrifying 8-10 times higher for younger Black and Latinx people. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control finds similar racial disparities also exist among children hospitalized with COVID-19. Perhaps this is why a recent national poll found Black and Latinx parents were nearly twice as likely to consider in-person schooling unsafe than white families.
Cuts to the New York City’s public sector, where people of color constitute the vast majority of the workforce and those who utilize city services, will only compound these inequities. Simply put, we cannot let reopening schools exacerbate the devastating impact of this virus and the economic collapse on New York’s communities of color.
Frontline nurses spent months fighting for proper PPE, access to testing and adequate sick leave. NYSNA stands in solidarity with educators and other school employees fighting to protect their own health and safety, as well as that of their students and families.
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) represents more than 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. For more information, please visit nysna.org.
ABOUT NYSNA
We are 42,000 nurses working together to win safe staffing, keep hospitals open for care, stop the Wall Street attack on our patients, and win healthcare for all
38 comments:
Dont bother, you are 2 faced.
The mayor was just asked how does he know for sure how many teacher will show up in September.
The answer was based on the assumption that since 15% of teachers applied for reasonable accommodation, the remaining
85% of teachers is fine with returning to school buildings in September.
Is it possible for Barr and Hinds to stop tweeting anti Trump stuff for 1 minute and do their jobs?
Anything important going on? Nah. UFT leadership just jeeps tweeting about Harris/Biden. I'm glad we are well represented.
Alright, the uft is speaking up. Satisfied? I would laugh but I am crying.
UFT
@UFT
Some schools are already flunking COVID-19 safety tests https://nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/some-schools-are-already-flunking-covid-19-safety-tests-89918021863 via
@nbcnews
Most parents are just waiting closer to September to opt for fully remote.
As days go by nobody can deny the effects that reopening schools is having in spreading the virus amongs students, school staff and families.
Even nurses are supporting full remote: NYSNA stands in solidarity with educators and other school employees fighting to protect their own health and safety, as well as that of their students and families.
All this nonsense waste of energy and time planning for a ridiculous plan to reopen schools will collapse as families become aware of all its failures. Anyone who has ever worked inside a NYC school building knows how impossible it would be to comply with the proposed health and safety plan. For example, who is going to be designated by the principal (and accepting) to stay in the isolation room with a potential covid case? How are custodians expected to work around the clock to keep every surface clean and sanitized? How can schools manage attending students when staff is absent or leaves the premises if showing symptoms?
We could all list dozens of questions that challenge this plan in every area.
Exposing staff and students, and their families to the virus is inhumane and irresponsible.
No worries, uft.
Reported coronavirus deaths yesterday:
• United States: 1,450
I am a NYC teacher. I am terrified for myself and my family. I am lucky to have no pre existing conditions . This same “luck” now means I have to go into school and risk sickening myself or my husband who is high risk because I do not qualify for remote learning . This is genuinely perverse. What are you doing Mayor deblasio? Please stop creating the false narrative that teachers want to go back. Not until it’s safe. We are angry. And scared . We have been abandoned by our city leader and are now faced with having to leave our profession. It is shameful . Go remote until the covid curve is flattened in our country. NYC teachers have given so much to the city. Don’t we deserve to be protected and given the chance to do our job safely? Isn’t that the human thing to do? Please , go remote .
NJ Governor is allowing any district now to start remotely in the fall. This is going to be a domino effect. So far Elizabeth, Jersey City and one other place decided to start remotely. other districts will soon follow. Hopefully this will spread to NYC. At least their unions are strong.
SO if i am assigned the isolation room- a real possibility-since the nurse will not be staffing one once i am in there with a student with covid- do i quarantine for 14 days? then come back - sit in isolation room at some point and again quarantine for 14 days?
Remember back in March, the same false dilemma debate about closing NYC schools vs childcare for workers who needed it? The delays in closing schools ended up accelerating the spread and the death hit black & Latinx communities the worst. We can’t afford to fall for this again.
Teachers are non-essential. Close down the school year and hold back their pay for a year.
Nurses are our real heroes.
UFT? Any couterpoint? De Blasio was just asked about the NJ teachers and how they do not have enough teachers willing to go back. He went off on a tangent and said that other than the accommodations, he knows that teachers want to go back into the school and know that we think remote learning does not accomplish our goals and we WILL be there in the buildings in september.
AGAIN....Cuomo says that teachers have a say. NO ONE is asking us if we are comfortable going back! Not having a medical accommodation DOES NOT mean we are comfortable going back. SOMEONE NEEDS TO SAY SOMETHING at the call tomorrow.
Any other thoughts on how we can get heard?? I know principals have sent letters and people have sent emails. Has anyone heard back from anyone when they've done this? Are their numbers to call? I do not like being TALKED FOR, saying that remote learning was such a failure. I could be sitting on a Zoom right now learning new remote learning techniques instead of listening to this garbage.
Is this what you want?
BREAKING: Effective this Fall, Boston University will begin approving the issuance of degrees to students who die before completing their college education.
Brooklyn neighborhood Sunset Park sees ‘uptick’ in COVID-19 cases
How much manipulation of data...!
Do officials really think that people are stupid? If only 15% of staff has applied to work remotely, they choose to assume that 85% wants to go back to school buildings?
That 85% was unable to apply for an accommodation! It does not mean that they are willing to go back in person!
DOE never shared, as far as I know, the results of the survey DOE staff was given in late June. If you recall, this survey had very similar questions to the one families submitted. How is that? They only share, and interpret, what works for their own interest and agenda?
The repetitive slogan that "parents want us to reopen" is inaccurate and deceiving.
Anybody that takes some time to analyze everything that has happened since early March cannot trust anything they are so strongly trying to convince families to believe.
Can we switch to their union? - We need a union with leadership that stands up for its members and not as an extension of the DOE!
Despite the loophole that we can call out sick for signs of covid; the reality is too many teachers feel that there is retaliation for doing so and we'd lose days in our bank. A UNION is supposed to stand up for all of us - so that none of us need to be singled out and retaliated against.
Our UNION must fight this insane "plan" that is full of hot air and no ground in the realism of our schools.
We PAY our dues - WE should be represented. WE should be polled/vote upon before making insane backdoor agreements with the DOE that modify our contractual work-day.
Allowing students to EAT in our classrooms w/o masks is endangering the health of everyone (teachers and students). It is possible for a custodian to clean one cafeteria and impossible to clean hundreds of desks.
12:23 - if it means saving the life of one of my students or their parents or my family members - then I'm fine with that. However, holding back teachers' pay means NO REMOTE INSTRUCTION.
Many people have blamed the teachers for the poor quality of the remote instruction in the Spring - it was not their fault. Despite the lies of the DOE that staff was given a full week of professional development to prepare for remote learning in March - the truth is - that didn't happen. Our administration waited by the phone everyday of that week. Finally by Thursday the most useless information was given.
Luckily our staff (including our admin) didn't wait on the DOE.
Here we are months later and there is still no training on remote instruction being given by the DOE - so what can we expect in September? An epic fail. Staff & students getting COVID - check; remote instruction a complete disaster - check; money being filtered to corporations and corruption - check; the checklist goes on.
12:23,
Oh, so you're saying that those same teachers that you think should have their pay removed should just go on unemployment and be yet another strain on the government?
F'ing idiot.
Mr DonewithUFT, I have it from an extremely reliable source that one of the main reasons deBlasio backed down and shut schools down in March was because so many teachers were calling in sick for March 16. This is in spite of the UFT telling teachers not to.
The Union is not Michael Mulgrew. It is all of us willing to stand up for ourselves and each other. Mulgrew will react if we are willing to be bold to protect oucollective selves.
CSA just sent out letter asking to delay live instruction where is the uft
My source says it was the change of opinion of the largest health care union 1199 SEIU that forced di Blasio's hand in closing the schools. My source is a nyc lobbyist and he told me in the morning of march 15th, a few hours before the public announcement, schools would close. Word of a sick out did not reach us so we would have been there Monday.
Di Blasio only cares about the optics. Closing the schools was seen as a weakness so he went against it. He has never considered our opinion and consistently skews facts to push his narrative.
The NYSNA opinion should be the final word on opening safely. Sadly it wont be.
I wouldn’t mind going fully remote in the building itself
I think people would be ok with that. I just can not afford it, so I’d be willing to go in.
Officials who have tested roughly 3,300 residents in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Sunset Park say they have identified 228 cases of Covid-19—the equivalent of a 6.9% infection rate
I am a scab. I would gladly resign. Simply offer me a severance package.
I agree with steve, I would accept a sabbatical which we have already available or a buyout of some kind. I am not eligible to retire. I'm ready to resign. Save my salary, save my medical, etc.
Good thing that the principal's have real union leadership.
https://nypost.com/2020/08/12/nyc-principals-union-says-city-doe-must-delay-school-reopenings/
@ 2:53:00 PM Do you take public transportation?
I drive, but with BLM/Antifa controlling the streets and cops understandably standing down I don't feel safe that way either. I visited my school neighborhood yesterday and it is a wreck; from a reasonably safe, pretty clean area to a filthy war zone in only a few months.
Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, NYC...is there a pattern here?
mayor just said, again, all teachers want to go back so badly. He also acts as if students are robots and do whatever we ask. These are both false.
If half the students are in school on any given day, and all of the teachers are in school who is doing remote with the students who are at home, How can teachers be doing both at the same time
OMG, they said something.
Brian Gibbons
@BrianUFT
·
20m
The @UFT is calling on a delay to the opening of school buildings.
@NYCMayor
@NYCMayorsOffice
UFT on the need to delay reopening of school buildings
August 12, 2020 Press Releases
On Aug. 12, 2020, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to delay the start of in-person learning for the 2020–21 school year.
In response, UFT President Michael Mulgrew issued the following statement:
The UFT has said repeatedly that we cannot re-open schools unless they are safe for students and staff. The principals union — whose members will be responsible for enforcing coronavirus safety protocols in the schools — now believes that school buildings will not be ready to open in September.
We need both safety and sanity in this crisis.
Will any parents be willing to put their children in a school whose principal believes the building is not ready to open because it is not safe?
Soon every district in NY will be remote except NYC.
The uft likes cnn, right?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why I am not sending my kids back to school
By Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent
Updated 4:11 PM ET, Wed August 12, 2020
If there is a delay in the school opening in NYC, we will have to give back Christmas vacation? February vacation? Easter vacation? extend the school year? The school year will be a catastrophic mess no matter when we start. If we go 100% remote, it will still be a mess but a smaller mess.
The only two/three days I will gladly work are the two or three (in HS) useless, aggravating, torturous PD days. (The ones in November, January (for HS), and June).
Why is DeBlasio still mayor?
Dr. Gupta also had several weeks ago a piece on CNN how to reopen schools safetly. Perhaps having school age children of his own provides a different perspective as schools reopening is scheduled.
5:24 PM - Schools can open as scheduled, but remotely. Don't even write such a thing.
Worked during Spring break and we will get monetary compensation for putting in those extra days of work.
James is right. Teachers can take control. If teachers ignore Mulgrew and enough call in sick the first day students arrive, they will take our concerns seriously. If we just obey we're in for a rough year. More teacher obits to follow.
TOWNHALL today 3 30
Get the latest facts
Post a Comment