Despite generous proposals from Chicago Public Schools, including improved testing and safety measures, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) “delegates” were voting overwhelmingly early Wednesday morning to crush vulnerable students and hard-working parents again by closing schools indefinitely.
Breaking: Chicago Public Schools classes are canceled Wednesday after the Chicago Teachers Union voted to refuse in-person work, defying district plans because of post-holidays COVID concerns.
This is the third time CPS classes are disrupted by labor strife in the past 27 months
— Nader Issa (@NaderDIssa) January 5, 2022
The union called for no in-person work until Jan. 18, or until the city’s COVID-19 wave falls below the threshold set last year to trigger school closures.
Families of nearly 300,000 students will learn, if they even turn into the news around midnight, that classes are canceled barely seven hours before they’d normally begin. Working parents — some no doubt working the night shift, unlike teachers — now must scramble to make accommodations for their children, since union thugs shut them out again.
This is the third time Chicago schools have been closed by selfish labor radicals in the last two years.
The average Chicago teacher, who is already in their third consecutive paid week of vacation, makes nearly $80,000 and takes annual pay raises.
Best part about not knowing if CPS/CTU are having school tomorrow at 10:30 pm is the Robocall update that’s coming from CPS that will wake up kids who are already asleep.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) January 5, 2022
“There is no evidence that our schools are unsafe,” Chicago Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said. “The amount of noise that’s out there right now, the amount of misinformation, we have so many people that are afraid, from parents to staff, because of the misinformation.”
Embattled Mayor Lori Lightfoot expressed frustrations with the union’s vote and emphasized that schools are among the safest places, especially now that vaccines are widely available.
“We should not allow the CTU to shut down an entire school system, and for what?” Lightfoot asked. “We don’t know how long the CTU will stretch its work stoppage.”
She also accused union leaders of “politicizing the pandemic.”
HAPPENING NOW: Mayor Lightfoot joins Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and Dr. Allison Arwady for a media availability. https://t.co/snZYxLJnBK
— CPS – Chicago Public Schools (@ChiPubSchools) January 5, 2022
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the city has seen very few COVID hospitalizations among children during the Omicron surge. She said the risk to children from COVID remains similar to influenza and is even lower for vaccinated children.
“I just want to reassure you, if you’re vaccinated, your child is vaccinated, this is behaving really like the flu,” Dr. Allison Arwady said. “And we don’t close schools, especially for an extended period of time, for the flu.”
The union demands all students, teachers and vendors test negative within 48 hours of returning to class, along with requiring KN95 masks for all students and staff.
Martinez offered most of this, including a purchase of 200,000 KN95s to be distributed immediately, temperature checks at schools, and the creation of a tactical team to meet daily with CTU reps to address specific concerns.
The nation’s third largest teachers’ union has no interest in working or children; they value money and power.
If you can sort through the anger or poor grammar, follow CTU on Twitter for updates here.
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