The Science-Denying Teachers' Unions and Their War on Children

COVID-19 is not spreading in schools that are open. According to research from overseas and here at home, the spread of the Chinese epidemic is not coming from the schools. NPR published that research in detail.

Some countries, such as Thailand and South Africa, fully opened when cases were low, with no apparent impact on transmission. Others, such as Vietnam and Gambia, had cases rising during summer break, yet those rates actually dropped after schools reopened. Japan, too, saw cases rise, and then fall again, all while schools were fully reopened. But the United Kingdom saw a strong upward trend that started around the time of reopening schools.

“We’re not saying at all that schools have nothing to do with cases,” Grob-Zakhary said. What the data suggests instead is that opening schools does not inevitably lead to increased case numbers.

What is certain is that children are suffering due to school closures.

“As a pediatrician, I am really seeing the negative impacts of these school closures on children,” Dr. Danielle Dooley, a medical director at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., told NPR. She ticked off mental health problems, hunger, obesity due to inactivity, missing routine medical care and the risk of child abuse — on top of the loss of education. “Going to school is really vital for children. They get their meals in school, their physical activity, their health care, their education, of course.”

Despite all evidence proving that open schools are a low risk to both students and teachers—and is necessary for the mental health of children—the science-denying teachers’ unions have only one goal: keeping schools shut down while they bargain for more perks for teachers. Using tasteless scare tactics like piling body bags up in front of schools to terrify parents has become their phony ploy to get more time off for the same amount of pay or more, as some have demanded “hazard pay.”

D.C Public Schools teachers briefly lined up “body bags” outside school system offices, protesting plans that could send them back to classrooms in the fall

Mayor Bowser is expected to announce if schools will partially open in the fall later this week pic.twitter.com/ARmqgkBfrG

— Debbie Truong (@debbietruong) July 27, 2020

Because of the teachers’ unions’ selfish demands and insistence that teachers are not essential workers—but are in fact a higher class of worker than anyone else and should be protected from this virus even at the cost of the well-being of the children they teach—many schools across this nation have gone fully remote, bowing to the union bullies. Whenever I hear that teachers’ unions care about children my eyes get stuck in the back of my head from the vigorous rolling. If it were so, they would look at the facts and get back to work. The Washington Post reported the failure that distance learning has been.

With teachers relegated to computer screens, parents have to play teacher’s aide, hall monitor, counselor and cafeteria worker — all while trying to do their own jobs under extraordinary circumstances. Essential workers are in perhaps the toughest spot, especially if they are away from home during school hours, leaving just one parent, or no one at all, at home when students need them most.

Spencer's dad, Jay, says our kids and teens need to be together during this time. He says he wants school boards across the state to allow that, as long as the student feels comfortable #NEWSCENTERmaine pic.twitter.com/mvMYbDykSz

— Jackie Mundry (@j_mundry) December 8, 2020