Is it Safe to reopen Schools? Teachers weigh in.
“For many special education families, online learning is simply not working, and some parents say their children are regressing,” wrote Seattle Times.

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One of these was education.
“For many special education families, online learning is simply not working, and some parents say their children are regressing,” wrote Seattle Times.
Policymakers must
take decisive steps
to prevent the
learning gap widening
and damaging further
the lives of children
who are already at a
significant disadvantage
compared with their peers.
Brookings Institution
Support for diverse learners and access to internet are but two of the challenges with remote learning. A third challenge is the home environment in which some students live. The Washington Post said that “no group reports [child abuse] more than educators.” With schools closed and children stuck at home, reports of verbal and sexual abuse could go underreported.
Additionally, the Center for Disease Control declared that it was safe to reopen schools. After backlash, the CDC’s director defended their reopening guidelines. When it comes to reopening, there are mixed opinions.
Tilman teaches in the Gwinnett County Public School district in Georgia. Teachers in other districts have expressed different sentiments.
For Chicago Public Schools teachers like Angela Ross*, there is a lack of trust regarding reopening. Ross had been an educator for 14 years prior to the pandemic and wrote, “My level of trust for CPS having the environment clean at 100% is extremely low. The buildings weren’t clean prior to the pandemic.”
Ross was not the only CPS teacher skeptical of the district’s reopening plan.
Jeff Solin, an educator of 19 years, said, “I don’t see the need to rush by weeks…to rush to get back into the classroom and put people’s health at risk.” Solin is a member of the Chicago Teacher’s Union, who recently challenged the city on its reopening plans. After a months-long battle, the CTU and CPS reached an agreement on February 10, 2021.
RELATED:CPS SET TO REOPEN MONDAY, JANUARY 11; CTU DISAGREES
Although CPS boasted about giving 5,000 accommodations to teachers, Solin said that, “There’s a teacher with a spouse that has stage 4 cancer, and they were denied an accommodation.” In his interview, Solin shared a few “frustrating” parts of CPS’s reopening plan.
I have multiple students with covid right now, and one student who lost TWO immediate family members to covid in the past 2 weeks with a third testing positive. No dammit, I don’t think forcing everyone back into schools right now is safe. Wait and vaccinate. This is ridiculous.
— Jeff Solin ✶✶✶✶ (@JeffSolin) January 20, 2021
CPS used this metric to collect data on how many parents were willing to return to in person learning, and Solin stated, “That is a really bad way to collect data.” He went on to note that CPS has a history of using bad data to persuade public opinion, referencing the data used to justify the 2013 mass school closing.
Most clamoring for reopening don’t know CPS like educators, or Black and Brown parents, or many SPED parents do. The mayor included. Mass school closings, filthy buildings, multiple scandals, budget cuts, inequities, mismanagement, layoffs, strikes, etc. It’s a long list.
— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@CTULocal1) November 23, 2020
As school districts move to reopen schools, some teachers trust their district. However, others are justifiably skeptical, given the lack of access to testing for Chicago’s Black communities who make up 35.8 percent of the CPS school district, according to data published by CPS. Moreover, majority of the families who opt for in-person learning are White, a WBEZ report revealed.
These things true, one question is still on the table: is it safe to go back? ~ℝ
yes