Originally published on January 27, 2021 9:59 am
Diana Muhammad, who teaches PE and dance in Chicago Public Schools, was unsure, uncertain and reluctant about her district s plan for in-person classes starting Monday. At a Chicago Teachers Union press conference earlier this month, she said the plan felt rushed. And then things got really scary. Over the winter break, my life was devastated when my daughter, who was sick with various symptoms all over the place for an entire week, woke up one morning and could not see.
Her daughter ended up in intensive care for a week, she said. It turned out to be a case of multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C. That s an extremely rare, and very dangerous, complication of COVID-19 found in children, particularly in Black and Latino children. Noting this disparate impact, and the fact that Chicago Public School students are about 90% nonwhite, Muhammad said, Now I am seriously concerned about us rushing back without having a we
Chicago Teachers Union leaders appear outside City Hall with a list of their demands and a box of coal in December. As of Tuesday, the union has failed to reach an agreement with Chicago Public Schools on a return to in-person learning. Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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Chicago Teachers Union leaders appear outside City Hall with a list of their demands and a box of coal in December. As of Tuesday, the union has failed to reach an agreement with Chicago Public Schools on a return to in-person learning.
School districts in Greater Washington are taking different approaches to reopening amid calls for returning children to classrooms during the coronavirus pandemic.
A 100-day headache: Biden’s vow to quickly reopen schools
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DCPS teachers will receive vaccine 1 week before the return to in-person learning Delia Goncalves
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DC Public School teachers will likely not be fully inoculated against COVID-19 by the time DCPS expects them to return to the classroom on Feb. 1.
DCPS staff are slated to receive their first dose of the vaccine on Jan. 25. But the second dose must be administered three weeks after the first, which means educators wouldn’t get that booster until at least Feb. 8.
“That s even if Jan. 25 actually happens,” Laura Fuchs, a teacher at H.D Woodson High school in Ward 7, said. “Do we have to sign up in the pool? Like the people who were 65 had to sign up and where? It took less than 24 hours and there were no more slots left for the week.