Opposition grows in Chile to school reopenings amid COVID-19 surge
Four days after face-to-face education was resumed in Chile, 30 schools were temporarily closed due to the detection of coronavirus infections of children and staff. Another 21 schools quarantined the infected but kept the facilities open. Nonetheless, the ultra-right Chilean government of President Sebastian Piñera is proceeding with a reckless policy of progressively opening all public and subsidized private schools in the country.
The 2021 academic year started on March 1 with mixed modes of teaching and amid opposition from the wider community. Demonstrations rocked the capital at the beginning and the end of this week as high school students and youth were confronted by a massive deployment of Carabineros Special Forces with the now standard operating procedure of brutal repression and arrests. Only a fraction of the primary and secondary public school population attended in-person classes.
Los Angeles's largest teachers' union told its members not to post spring break photos on social media because it would make it harder to fight against reopening schools.
The Jan. 7 death by suicide of Glenbrook North High School student Dylan Buckner is just one example of why parents are concerned. Buckner’s father in a Tribune interview said his son’s isolation and lack of school activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to his struggles.
“I would argue, and I believe strongly, that Dylan’s death is not going to show up in COVID statistics, and yet absolutely it’s a COVID death,” Chris Buckner said.
Las Vegas-area school officials moved quickly late last year to get schools reopened after noticing a spike in suicides and an uptick in a student mental health monitoring system. Eighteen students had died by suicide as of December. The superintendent of schools, Jesus Jara, wanted to move quickly to get kids back into their school routines.
The warning on the Facebook page, which has 5,600 followers, came days after the union announced that 91% of its ballot-casting members voted March 1-5 against returning for in-person instruction over novel coronavirus concerns.
The vote came in favor of resisting a “premature and unsafe physical return to school sites” until “safety conditions are in place,” including daily cleaning and improved ventilation; staff are fully vaccinated or have access to full vaccinations, and Los Angeles County “is out of the purple tier,” the most restrictive level.
“This vote signals that in these most trying times, our members will not accept a rushed return that would endanger the safety of educators, students, and families,” UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz said in a Friday statement.