Vallas gets Tribune endorsement despite hits
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Pragmatism with a pinch of politics
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No vaccine, no in-person education, teachers say Safia Samee Ali and Corky Siemaszko © Provided by NBC News
CHICAGO - Children who have been marooned at home for months by the pandemic are slowly returning to classrooms, but many teachers say they won’t go back until they’ve received the Covid-19 vaccine.
Especially in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest public school district, where teachers who were supposed to return to classrooms Wednesday worked from home again and are once more threatening to strike.
“Community spread is still so high in Chicago, and so many people are sick and dying. I don’t know how to keep myself safe in an old building with so many people, said Kirstin Roberts, a preschool teacher at the Brentano Math and Science Academy, on the city’s northwest side “I don’t understand why we have to risk our lives when we’re so close to a vaccine.”
Chicago educators are resisting the push back into classrooms. Some took personal days off January 15 and led a car caravan though the streets of Chicago to City Hall and the homes of members of the Board of Education. Photo: Joe Brusky
UPDATE, January 25: Chicago teachers announced the vote results yesterday: With 86 percent of members voting, 71 percent voted to work remotely, defying the order that would have sent K-8 educators back into schools today (a week ahead of their students). The vote also authorized a strike if the district should retaliate by locking educators out of access to the remote learning system through Google Classroom. The district meanwhile has pushed its return order back from today to Wednesday, January 27. Editors.