Monday, September 27, 2021

FEDERAL 3 JUDGE PANEL RULES VACCINE MANDATE IS ON AGAIN; TELL US ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL'S COVID CONDITIONS ON ZOOM SPEAKOUT ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6 (New Date) AT 7:00 PM

This is from US News and World Report this evening:

A vaccine mandate for more than 150,000 teachers, custodians, school aides, cafeteria workers and other school staff in New York City can proceed as planned, a federal appeals panel ruled Monday evening – a decision that reverses the temporary block put on it over the weekend.

Unions representing the city's teachers and principals had been urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to delay the vaccine requirement as concerns mounted that the country's largest public school system could find itself with a shortage of 10,000 teachers and staff overnight.

More from the AP and PIX11:

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s largest school district can immediately impose a vaccine mandate on its teachers and other workers, after all, a federal appeals panel decided Monday, leading lawyers for teachers to say they’ll ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

Teachers and school staff will have until Friday to get vaccinated. The city will implement the vaccine requirement on Monday, Oct. 4, according to the Department of Education and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“Vaccinations are our strongest tool in the fight against COVID-19 — this ruling is on the right side of the law and will protect our students and staff. The mandate will go into effect on Friday, end of day so that by Monday, Oct. 4, 100% of educators and staff in our buildings will be vaccinated,” a DOE spokesperson told PIX11.

Further down:

On Sunday, the city submitted written arguments to the appeals court, saying the preference by some teachers “to remain unvaccinated while teaching vulnerable schoolchildren is dwarfed by the public’s interest in safely resuming full school operations for a million public school students and ensuring that caregivers citywide can send their children to school secure in the knowledge that sound safety protocols are in place.”

City lawyers said courts have long recognized that vaccination mandates do not spoil the constitutional rights to due process that workers enjoy and have rejected similar challenges for over a century.

“Put bluntly, plaintiffs do not have a substantive due process right to teach children without being vaccinated against a dangerous infectious disease,” they wrote. “The vaccination mandate is not just a rational public health measure, but a crucial one.”

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers union, said Monday night that while about 97% of its teachers are vaccinated, a recent survey revealed only one-third of UFT chapter leaders believe their schools can operate under the mandate without disruption.

“The city has a lot of work before it to ensure that enough vaccinated staff will be available by the new deadline,” Mulgrew said. “We will be working with our members to ensure, as far as possible, that our schools can open safely as the vaccine mandate is enforced.”

Is it safe in the schools? Tell us what is going on in actual school buildings.

The Independent Community of Educators and Educators of NYC will be cosponsoring along with Educators of NYC a speakout on Wednesday, October 6 at 7:00 PM. (New Date)




You don't want to miss New York City educators speaking out about the UNSAFE school conditions due to lax COVID-19 protocols during the ongoing pandemic.

____________________________________

Hello, New York City public school family!

How UNSAFE are NYC schools during this 2021-22 reopening in the midst of the pandemic?

Educators of NYC and the Independent Community of Educators will team up this month to share educators' stories about the lax COVID-19 protocols and unsafe conditions we are seeing in New York City schools on Wednesday, October 6 (New Date) at 7 p.m.  It will be a Zoom and Facebook Live event.

RSVP now at:  http://toounsafe.educators.nyc

This is all framed on the heels of a recent internal UFT survey that shows that chapter leaders are overwhelmingly in consensus that protocols are not being followed with fidelity, along with a flawed COVID-19 testing program, relaxing of quarantine requirements, a poorly implemented vaccination program, refusal to provide a remote option, ongoing ventilation issues and a fluid city plan that changes almost weekly.



Do you have a story you want to share?  Want to stay anonymous?

Send it to us via email to: info@educators.nyc

Please omit any identifying details within your story. We will have another educator read & share it during our online live event.

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, October 6th.

Love always wins.

55 comments:

johnny said...

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Zoom Meet sounds great. One question comes to my mind after reading this. Why now, does Mulgrew wants to hear our stories?
Every teacher knows our schools cannot maintain 3 foot distance. The kids are packed in like sardines in a can in every cafeteria across the city, Masks off, removal of ventilators, no air conditioner or fan and 1, 8 inch open window.

Anonymous said...

This is good news!

Anonymous said...

Email link is dead....

Anonymous said...

Depending on the age students and if D75 of not some virologist and Drs guess 50-70% have already been exposed.

This plus all the vaccinated/immune teachers should help with not getting positive for COVID but not too sick.

If worried don't wear cloth masks. Wear medical or k95 that show some likely effectiveness in school.

Open window and HEPA..or even maybe the things DOE supplied should help.

In Europe and much of the world schools didn't close much. We can do the same.

We will eventually get exposed to covid again or 1st time Vax masks will help some but better to do it now not in Dec/Jan/Feb

Really maybe time to focus on eating your veggies, going for walks maskless before it gets colder.

https://vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/vaccinated-older-people-face-risks

Anonymous said...

So, the LA teacher clarified that the 5% increase just begins to start making up for lost ground in pay. She explains that most teachers there at maximum do not even make $100,000 per year. So let's walk back some of those statements about incompetence of uft, shall we James? Wait, hell didn't freeze over, so James won't admit he was wrong.

Anonymous said...

NY max 128,000. LA max 100,000. Go UFT!!

Anonymous said...

Lol. Just told a student someone tested positive in the building, which is true...Student walked out and went home after saying "fuck this". Smooth, right mulgrew?

Anonymous said...

If you really want to compare LA and NYC ask which has done more for the DNC because that’s who they really work for. As long as they keep the Democrat Party happy they have done their job. They’re a political wing fighting for a political party. They are not a union that fights for its members. I don’t know any LA teachers but I know plenty of NYC teachers. Every one of them hates Mulgrew, the UFT and Weingarten too.

Anonymous said...

Retired NYC employees sue to block new ‘inferior’ Medicare coverage

https://nypost.com/2021/09/27/retired-nyc-employees-sue-to-block-inferior-medicare-coverageretired-nyc-employees-sue-to-block-new-inferior-medicare-coverage/

James Eterno said...

I concede LA teacher salaries lag behind NYC. That wasn't the point of the piece. It was about dignity and how Los Angeles teachers got their respect back by voting out entrenched union leaders in 2014 and then striking in 2019. That has helped them in the COVID era as they are not being mistreated now. Our LA teacher commenter who also emailed me complained about salary, not COVID working conditions.

The UFT traded higher salaries for fewer rights (ATRs, can't grieve a file letter, etc.) in the 2000s. I don't think it is the model for how to move ahead.

James Eterno said...

LA was the last post. That discussion belongs there, please.

Anonymous said...

I teach in LAUSD. I love Cecily Myart-Cruz. I am thankful for the protections we have had during Covid compared with everywhere else.

Anonymous said...

As a former healthcare worker & first responder let me leave you with this: if 70,000 healthcare workers are willing to be fired rather than take a mandatory shot - what does that say to you?

Anonymous said...

James, your point was about the salary so don't say that now that you have been proven more or less inaccurate that you can just say that it's about dignity. Also it's an easy way to bury something where you're on the weak end of an argument by posting something new and telling everyone to put their posts in the past where no one will look at it.

And to that guy who says that everyone hates Mulgrew. It is amazing isn't it that absolutely everyone you talk to despises the uft, has pulled their dues, and is voting for the opposition but higher ups I talk to in the UFT Borough offices say the opt-out rate is less than 1% and Mulgrew gets way over 80% in every election and will do so again this year. Do you think you're living in a bubble some place?

Anonymous said...

Harvard went remote with just about 100% vaccinated.

James Eterno said...

The point was about dignity and respect. Money is part of that but not everything for sure. The LA post was the most recent so asking for comments there is not out of line.

James Eterno said...

CBS:

"With the support of Harvard University leaders, advised by city and state public health officials, we have decided to move all first-year MBA students and some in the second year, to remote learning for the week of 9/27 to 10/03," HBS spokesperson Mark Cautela said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch Monday.

The move comes after "a steady rise in breakthrough infections" among the business school's student population.

"Contact tracers who have worked with positive cases highlight that transmission is not occurring in classrooms or other academic settings on campus. Nor is it occurring among individuals who are masked," Cautela added.

Harvard is requiring vaccination against COVID-19 for all of its community members, including students, faculty, staff and researchers. There were 62 positive tests among graduate students and three in its undergraduate population for the week of September 19.

Anonymous said...

Maybe there wouldn't be required observations if the teachers on this blog didn't brag so much about doing nothing and taking their pay.

Anonymous said...

2 Vaccinated teachers test positive all students who were in "close contact " need to quarantine(10 days). Question if these two cases were breakthrough cases how come the other teachers who they were in contact with don't have to quarantine? There is a hole in the Covid guidelines a mile wide.

Anonymous said...

11:33 maybe you should make sure nyc doesn’t have a mayor and chancellor who like it that way. Nyc has exactly what nyc deserves because the residents are fine with all of it. Meisha says kids don’t have to show up and can pass. Take up the substandard education with Meisha. Let me know when the protestors start demanding we fail kids who don’t show up or do work. I’ll join them.

Anonymous said...

You fools on the left might be OK with this for this particular vaccine. But what about the next one? Suppose you don't want or feel you don't need that one? Or your children? This sets a very bad precedent for governments to take control of your body as well as your children's. If you're ok with that then you are a shortsighted fool

James Eterno said...

The precedent on mandated vaccines was set in 1905 by the Supreme Court.

Anonymous said...

Boo hoo precedent. @ 12:54 what difference does it make if we're ok with it oe not. Many of us made the decision to vaccinate before the mandate. Nobody took control of anything it was our CHOICE. Should quit our jobs in support? Well, we're not. What exactly do you want people to do?

waitingforsupport said...

@1220 pm...
Hey you're back. So did you find the page in the NYCA Doe's policy that indicates that students can pass without doing work?

waitingforsupport said...

@12:20 pm...
PS..."the protestors" started demanding change years ago. It's called leaving the DOE and going to charter schools. What have you done aside from being a tool for the system?

Anon2323 said...

Trump in office all I hear is he is a nazi, projectionist! Who are the nazis now?? Only the demonic liberals would coerce health care , municipal, and teachers to a vaccine that is faulty at best with 99.7% survival and where natural immunity holds more weight than this leaky vaccine.

Where are the covid outbreaks in schools from vaccinated?? Vaccinated people have been testing positive. If it was reverse it would be all over the place. Stir crazy people here, the city is doomed no turning back from this.

Anonymous said...

All of a sudden, there are some NBA stars that are pushing back against mandated vaccines like they have in the NFL. I just read that Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal are questioning the vaccine-they haven’t gotten them. A quarantined Devin Booker — has Covid-and won’t say if he was ever vaccinated because it’s a private matter. These players are suggesting that the vaccine doesn’t prevent Covid because of breakthrough cases—and some fear that side effects could jeopardize the career, They claim its also a personal decision and that people need to be re-educated on the merits of the vaccines.

What is wrong with these guys? They are the ones that need to be re-educated. The vaccines are safe, effective and prevent serious Covid i symptoms. And all they have to do is look at data. Stats show that 98% of all hospitalizations are the non-vaccinated. Many do have minor expected side effects that last 24-48 hours from these shots. But there is only a .03% of a serious side effect—and of course the non-vaccinated are about 10 times greater of getting Covid compared to the vaccinated.

In the game of Covid—the only shots they care about are the ones with the basketball. These players would foul out. Just let them sit on the bench far away from their vaccinated teammates.

Anonymous said...

James, can't email with address above. In my D75 school not one of my students has filled in the health screening, not once, this year.

Anonymous said...

Sets a precedent? Where have you been? You can thank George Washington for setting the precedent with the troops and then Massachusetts in 1905 with smallpox. It's been argued for over 100 years with the same result. Courts always side with local government and vaccine mandates. Please read this and try to understand...

"If an employee believes his or her individual liberties are more important than legally permissible conditions on his or her employment, that employee can and should choose to exercise another individual liberty, no less significant—the right to seek other employment."

Anonymous said...

Total of 6 teachers now positive in our building all vaccinated, only thing they have in common is the work in our school.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I love this!

"If an employee believes his or her individual liberties are more important than legally permissible conditions on his or her employment, that employee can and should choose to exercise another individual liberty, no less significant—the right to seek other employment."

waitingforsupport said...

@anon2323.... so now it's okay for you to use the word "nazis"? Remember you blew a blood vessel in the past when someone used the word. Liberals are demons to "coerce...". Remember when you said your family came to this country and made it without complaining? Well why aren't you following tradition? You b*tched about POC complaining and protesting. You said you didn't care. Life's a b^tch. Come get your lessons on.

Anonymous said...

COVID-infected teacher forces nearly half of Upper West Side school to go remote https://trib.al/ZwFSar8

Anonymous said...

802. paras ~58000 max. boo uft!

Anonymous said...

I won't get the vaccine. I have had covid and have been tested for the antibodies, which I have.I have natural immunity which according to my doctor is far better than the vaccine. I will just wait and see if the DOE removes me from payroll. It also goes against my religious beliefs to take this vaccine since it was developed with cell tissue from aborted fetuses. You might be ok with that but I'm not. I already have an attorney who will file suit on my behalf. I have been an educator and dues paying member for 29 years and I expect the uft to stand by my decision.

Anonymous said...

4:14. Exactly!

James Eterno said...

Email us directly. We will forward. Anonymity assured.
iceuft@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

You fakes,phonies, frauds on the left would be singing a different tune if it was Trump forcing you take the vaccine. You are really bad people

Anonymous said...

There are many breakthrough cases. Don't trust Deblozo, UFT or DOE. I got covid and my spouse got it. Spouse in hospital 12 days. Both of us fully vax. We should be remote or hybrid. Buildings are too packed. City, UFT won't be satisifed until someone dies.

Anonymous said...

You don't have to work for the City of NY. Just leave. You have choices. Just Leave.

Anonymous said...

6:46 nobody forced me to take anything. I volunteered. If you're being forced, oh well, grow a spine and dont do it. I was happy to take the vaccine.

Educat said...

Free and informed consent is a basic legal principle as well as a moral one.
Daily covid deaths are now one-fourth the average daily deaths from heart disease and one-third the average daily deaths from cancer. Look it up.
Sorry but I don't believe the lying corporate narrative wildly overhyping covid.

Educat said...

Because the country of Sweden decided it would not lock down, and never closed bars, restaurants, most schools, sports, or other businesses, an Imperial College report forecast Sweden’s COVID death count would be 100,000 by June 2020. It is never reached even 6000 by that date. Sweden now has a far lower death rate than the US, Italy, Spain, UK, and Belgium, countries which engaged in devastating lockdowns

Anonymous said...

@9:23, no vaccine for heart disease and cancer, and they are not contagious.

James Eterno said...

Statistica:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1113834/cumulative-coronavirus-deaths-in-the-nordics/

The highest number of confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths in the Nordic countries as of September 22, 2021, had occurred in Sweden at 14,767. Denmark followed with 2,634 deaths, Finland with 1,062, and Norway with 850.
Sweden was also the Nordic country with the highest number of people confirmed infected with the coronavirus, reaching a total of 1,147,879 cases as of September 22, 2021. More statistics and facts about the virus are available here.

The highest number of confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths in the Nordic countries as of September 22, 2021, had occurred in Sweden at 14,767. Denmark followed with 2,634 deaths, Finland with 1,062, and Norway with 850.
Sweden was also the Nordic country with the highest number of people confirmed infected with the coronavirus, reaching a total of 1,147,879 cases as of September 22, 2021. More statistics and facts about the virus are available here.

Just an endangered CL said...

So the teachers and staff must be vaccinated, but the students who are in real close contact with each other, pack the subways, use the bathrooms en masse, and eat without masks in the cafeteria don't need to be?!? Another typical DOE plan on effectively reducing spread during this "post-pandemic" city.

Anonymous said...

Jonathan Isaac gave a detailed intelligent explanation for refusing the vaccine.

Anonymous said...

9:23:thete will never be a medical establishment cure. That would dismantle their gravy train of chemo and radiation.it is all suppressed.read The Truth about Cancer.Sloan Kettering staff fired for wanting to go public about treatments that helped but werr less costly.

Anonymous said...

I will not subject myself to the abuse from my High School Administrators in Queens by taking and submitting pictures of my packed classrooms. We are told "only when possible." What a crock. Students are packing the halls and the cafeteria, but I guess our Mayor does not care. My son took a picture of his packed classroom and he complained he is also forced to sit in groups in a packed classroom. In my school we must have students in groups so they are able to do group work, Think, Pair and Share with consensus and other group activities. Withdrawing my son from NYC public school and end enrolling him in an online education program. There is no Remote Option, but there are many online programs that can be used as an alternative. No one seems to care about our kids. If they did, there would be a 3 food policy that is enforced. I also have students, unvaccinated, that were exposed in other classes, but are still coming to class. Hope the mayor rots for putting our students and teachers in so much danger.

James Eterno said...

Send things anonymously 11:05. NIt 8s for the health of the kids and adults.

Anonymous said...

This information needs to be passed along immediately to the NYS Education Department. The Commissioner of Education is Betty A. Rosa. Her email is commissioner@nysed.gov.

The Counsel to the Commissioner is Daniel Morton-Bentley, Esq. His email is Daniel.Morton-Bentley@nysed.gov.

Anonymous said...

The doe policy is kids who refuse mask get remote. Have your kid refuse the mask and he will get remote.

Anonymous said...

PARENTS CALLUNG FOR TO KEEP KIDS HOME TOMORROW.CAN SEEM TO LiNK IT.
International strike for school safety.
#parentstrike2021
#schoolstrike2021

Anonymous said...

Where can I report that my schools thermometer constantly checks my and all the other teachers temp between 93-96 degrees (and sometimes just says "lo")?