Schools Need More Resources Before They Can Open Safely, Chicago Teacher Says

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'Remote learning is the best option temporarily until these numbers drastically decrease or the city decides to use some of those billions of dollars of relief money to give us resources to test and ensure our schools are safe places to be.'

interviewed Hala Karim, a Chicago teacher, about the experience and what schools need in order to keep students and staff safe.I am a 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts teacher at Curtis Elementary on the south side of Chicago in the Roseland neighborhood.

That’s what we have been breathlessly arguing for over 18 months now. But the other pressing concern that I want to highlight is what schools have looked like since our return. To reiterate what we’ve said again, we all think in-person schooling is best, but we have to have resources, adequate staffing, and hygienic facilities. We don’t have these things. School has not been normal this year. Even before the surge, there has been a big substitute teacher shortage.

I was awake pretty late the night that we democratically voted to go remote. I signed into my account around midnight, after Jesse Sharkey announced that we would be remote, and I was able to get in. Half an hour later, I saw a Facebook post that announced we were starting to get locked out of accounts. I checked, and lo and behold, I couldn’t access any of my work mail or tools.

Students, right before we voted to go remote, could definitely sense something was in the air. First of all, 30% of their fellow students were absent. Many of their teachers were already out with COVID or other illnesses, and they did not have a normal post-break return. They were sent home with packets and asked me if school was being canceled. The lack of consistency and transparency for students has definitely had an emotional effect on them. They deserve much better from the people in power.

 

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