[ad_1]
Chicago Public School mother Amy Jacobson argued on Monday that children were suffering from “mental abuse” by not returning to class amid the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that “we are killing our children mentally” with school closures.
Jacobson made the comments on “Fox & Friends” amid a deadlock in Chicago as public schools and the teachers’ union failed to strike a deal over the weekend to resume learning in no one.
Jacobson said the teachers who refused to return to class were about “their needs, not those of our children.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot orders teachers back to class amid the ongoing conflict between Chicago public schools and the Chicago Teacher’s Union.
“All teachers, pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and teachers in the group have to report,” Lightfoot said at a press conference Sunday night. “If you don’t have approved accommodation, we expect to see you again in class. Those who don’t show up for work… we’ll have to take action. Let’s avoid that.
CPS CEO Janice Jackson has warned that teachers who refuse to show up for in-person classes will be kicked out of the district’s distance learning computer system, Google Suites.
CHICAGO PROMISES FROM PARENTS TO FOLLOW THE TEACHERS UNION IN THE EVENT OF A STRIKE
According to Lightfoot, the Chicago Teacher’s Union did not show up for negotiations on Sunday. Lightfoot said she hoped union leaders would continue to negotiate and urged CTU to have “a renewed sense of urgency” to reach a deal quickly.
CPS’s original plan was to return to the classroom on February 1 for in-person learning, but failed after a vote from the Chicago Teachers Union last month that asked members to continue distance learning instead. In addition to the 10,000 teachers, around 65,000 students were due to show up on Monday.
As negotiations stall, Lightfoot said parents should not bring their children to school for in-person learning on Monday, encouraging them to send their children to learning centers offered by CPS. The CPS said parents should aim to get students back to school starting Tuesday, according to a letter sent to parents on Sunday evening.
“We’ve been on pins and needles all weekend wondering what’s going on,” Jacobson said Monday.
Both sides took to social media on Sunday, with the teachers’ union tweeting that its bargaining team was “instructed not to participate in negotiations today unless our teachers, clinicians, PSRP, nurses, librarians and other basic educators are not prepared to make major concessions. “
“It’s hard because every day you have to check in with your kids to make sure they’re okay,” Jacobson said, noting that “we come over a year that some kids have had to sleep in their rooms and then be in Zoom class for eight hours and they don’t socialize. ”
“There is social isolation,” she continued. “There is no dancing, there is no sport. It has been horrible. We have had 40 suicides that I know of in our area … and we have only had eight children dead from COVID and I’m sorry those 8 kids are dead, but we’re killing our kids mentally. “
Last week, an Illinois mother of a teenager who committed suicide during the pandemic, who is suing Governor JB Pritzker over COVID-19 restrictions, told “The Faulkner Focus” that her son “is death due to COVID isolation “.
Lisa Mara Moore’s son Trevor Till, who hoped to compete in the State Pole Vault Championships in his senior year of high school but was unable to due to coronavirus restrictions, has gone committed suicide in October. Moore said she believed “100%” that the lockdown “changed Trevor from who he was to the person who did this.”
Moore joined the parents of three other student-athletes who are suing Pritzker over his decision to cancel the high school winter sports season, saying their children had suffered severe emotional and physical damage as a result of the restrictions, reported the Chicago Sun Times.
Jacobson argued that the teachers’ union “doesn’t care about the kids.”
“It’s all about power,” she says. “They find different excuses every day to prove what they want.”
“One day it was ‘We just need one shot,’ then the next day, ‘We need both shots to go back to school,'” Jacobson continued, noting that the union had a list of “ridiculous” claims. .
Jacobson pointed out that the parents “are fed up and we can’t take it anymore, but we don’t know how to fight back.”
The Chicago Teacher’s Union did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
The union is demanding that schools reopen after all teachers have been vaccinated. In addition, they want medically vulnerable teachers or those who live with people whose health is compromised to have the option to work remotely and for schools to provide advice based on health measures if schools have to interrupt learning. in person due to a COVID spike. 19 cases.
Lightfoot explained that Chicago Public Schools were working with the union to find solutions that would allow students to resume in-person learning, with more than 70 formal meetings since June and a $ 100 million investment in medical exams, temperature controls and personal protective equipment. and regular cleaning.
Additionally, she noted that the preschool and cluster teachers were back in classrooms for three weeks without any major issues and insisted that the CPS plan had been approved by medical experts, including the Dr Allison Arwady, Director of the Chicago Department of Health.
But CTU pointed out that despite what Lightfoot and CPS say, the parents of more than 80% of eligible Chicago public school students have chosen to pursue distance learning.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The last announcement comes after progress in negotiations was made on Saturday, with four tentative agreements on health and safety protocols, ventilation, contact tracing, and health and safety committees, according to Chicago Public Schools.
Lucas Manfredi of Fox News contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link