Teachers in our area are preparing to return to the classrooms next month, but many will do so at great peril to their health without any backup.
Both the Ouachita Parish and Monroe City Schools have elected to open schools next month using a hybrid system combines homeschooling (virtual) and face to face instruction.
Monroe City School Board President said Tuesday night that face to face instruction is the most effective way, but it’s not the safest way.
The fact that both school boards would even entertain the idea of ordering teachers to step into an arena that is unsafe and could kill them is disturbing.
Both systems are making elaborate plans to reduce the risk for as many students as possible, but both know that there will be many students who will ultimately get sick.
In fact, both systems are designing contingency plans for students who come to school sick or get sick during the day.
Special bus runs are being planned to reduce the number of riders to meet COVID standards. Temperature gauges are being installed in schools to check student temperatures along with hand sanitizing stations.
Students are being kept in small groups, and will not be allowed to mingle outside of their groups during recesses. They will stay in the same class and won’t mingle, wearing masks (Grade 3-12) seven hours a day.
For safety reasons, students are even given the option of not participating in the face-to-face classes, but to receive their instruction at home by internet. Even though students will be instructed at home, parents won’t have the freedom of homeschooling because kids will be stuck in front of a computer screen for six or seven hours a day. It will be uncomfortable and unusual, and not as effective, but it will be safe.
A third of parish students, and over 2,500 city school students have opted out of face-to-face instruction. The system will try to give them some semblance of regular instruction in the safety of their homes.
However, neither system gives teachers the option of teaching from home, which is a safer approach.
While both districts will require teachers to show up for face-to-face instruction, after they show up teachers are on their own.
Neither system has plans to insure that teachers are regularly tested. Since a teacher who tests negative on Monday, could be infected by the end of the week and not know it, regularly testing is a necessity to protect them from contracting the virus and spreading it to others.
However, COVID tests are not free. Some of the cheapest tests in this area are $125 with at least a three-day delay on the results. Neither system is willing to pay the cost of testing its teachers on a regular basis. Some teachers have insurance, but many teachers carry no insurance coverage.
In addition, if a teacher has to quarantine because of COVID exposure, the teacher is expected to use his/her accumulated sick benefits to cover the quarantine period which could be as many as 14 days per instance; neither district will help with any of the cost. The same is true if the teacher tests positive.
The state of Louisiana requires all its employees to be tested every ten days, but the state pays the costs.
The local school boards are not requiring the tests and won’t pay for tests if teachers have them performed.
It all amounts to sending a soldier into a battle, but telling the soldier that he must pay for his own health care if he is wounded or falls in battle.
Something doesn’t seem right about that.
On the parish school board, only Harold McCoy has raised this concern.
On the city school board, only B.J. Johnson questioned the protections for teachers.
What’s amazing is that unlike teachers around the country, there is no visible protest from teachers or their organizations. There are no signs, protests, marches or organized resistance.
Their lack of resistance seems to suggest that teachers have accepted their fate.
When given the choice of effectiveness or safety, the board has chosen effectiveness over safety.
If there is another way, we think the board should use it; board members must assume responsibility for every teacher or staff member that becomes infected or dies as a result of their decision.
If schools open up, we should protect the students, but we should also remember teachers can’t teach from ventilators or from the grave.
