The News Service of Florida
The head of a union that represents thousands of school employees said Monday that Florida’s push to reopen schools in August is rushed and “putting lives in danger.” AFSCME Florida President Vicki Hall said in a statement the state lacks a comprehensive plan to ensure students and employees will be safe when they return to school campuses amid the coronavirus pandemic.
State Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran last week issued an order requiring school districts to come up with individual reopening plans by the end of the month. The order also said districts must offer students the option to return to in-person instruction at school five days a week.
Hall said thousands of janitors, bus drivers, food service workers and other school workers, represented by AFSCME, are concerned about coming back to work as Florida emerges as the nation’s “epicenter” of coronavirus cases. “As one of the last states to impose stay at home orders and one of the first to reopen, we are now paying the price for hasty decisions on public health.
Florida is currently setting new records of coronavirus cases and deaths almost every day,” Hall said. “We cannot afford to make the same mistakes again that put the health and safety of our children and those that care for them at risk.” Hall urged Gov. Ron DeSantis and Corcoran to come up with a “responsible plan” that will minimize the risk of spreading the virus at schools. “That plan currently does not exist. We must do better,” Hall said.
Union Says Push to Reopen Schools is Rushed added by Staff on
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Since liberals insist we “listen to the science”, then let’s all do that (liberals won’t, if science doesn’t support the agenda). So – below is exhaustively researched, peer-reviewed, cross-referenced medical science, written by groups of medical experts from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Hardly a group to be dismissed as unqualified on the subjects discussed:
Mask Facts:
• Advice to decision makers on the use of masks for healthy people in community settings:
As described above, the wide use of MASKS by healthy people in the community setting is NOT supported by current evidence and carries uncertainties and critical risks.”
• The use of medical masks in the community may create a FALSE sense of security, with neglect of other essential measures.
• From the New England Journal of Medicine:
“We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if ANY, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.”
link: https://aapsonline.org/mask-facts/
So – all this fake hysteria about masks and keeping schools and businesses closed is just that – fake hysteria. Recent news on FL labs (and other states) and the CDC reporting enormously inflated numbers for “positive” cases of C-19 show that the numbers reported are mostly lies, falsely inflated to follow the liberal agenda of shutting society down and wrecking the economy. Survival rate for C-19 still stands at 96.6%, which is an actual proven fact.
Hahahahah. That is hilarious. And so true!
I do have to wonder though, considering the number of times you’ve pouted about how you are forced to help education children through your tax dollars, even though you have no children of your own, how is it that you’ve come across so many teachers? Curious.
No doubt you read the Kaiser abstract which lists diabetes, being more than 65, having COPD, severe asthma, or having a comprised immune system were listed alongside BMI of 40. That is what makes your joke so hilarious, not only do we make obese people risk their health, but also those lefties with asthma, or those that might have undergone cancer treatment or have a spouse with Lupus. People with COPD dying from COVID19 is pretty funny, even I must admit! HAHAHAHAHA!
There you have it everyone, the height of Conservative thought; devoid of any rationale to defend the plan, it’s #TubbyTeachers and the thought that maybe this is all 4D chess, a tricky plan to to rid our schools of communists.
Mmmmm, a nice bowl of panic porn in the morning is delicious! Nice try, but facts don’t care about your feelings. If you even bothered to listen to Dr. Scott Atlas you might have a few facts under your belt. All your statements have been about emotions and feelings with no facts. Fact, the risk of spreading from a child is very low. Fact, all over the world in-class schooling is open and in most cases have been open for a couple of months now. Where are the smoking bodies of dead teachers? Fact, we are the only country left that seems to have a problem with re-opening schools. Could it be because of people like you who care more about their feelings than facts? Step away from the panic porn media and ignorant government apparatchiks and try to learn a few facts before spouting off vitriolic feelings.
@Disgusted – Yet another top level conservative thought leader who thinks random idiots on YouTube are to be respected because they say something they agree with, thinks that if they keep saying things are facts, they are in actually true, and who gleefully thinks we should be comparing ourselves to the rest of the world in terms of COVID. Unlike NewsMavens knuckle dragging screed, this did actually make me laugh. LOL.
Hey, Disgusted, did you see this camp in Missouri closed down after 82 kids tested positive?
https://kmox.radio.com/articles/82-test-positive-for-coronavirus-at-missouri-kids-camp
If only they’d listened to Dr. Scott Atlas!
What about this WSJ article wherein the Israeli experiment to re-open schools led to a re-emergence of the virus?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/israelis-fear-schools-reopened-too-soon-as-covid-19-cases-climb-11594760001
Here’s the other part that seems to be missing from your list of ‘facts’, except this one is actually true; Florida has more new daily cases of COVID than the rest of Europe combined, so maybe the decisions to open schools in those areas was in line with the success of their shelter in place orders that actually stuck, as opposed to what we did here. If you have extremely low cases of COVID in the community, you can (and should) do things differently than if you have extremely high cases of COVID in the community.
You’re very wordy, a few would make your point, but insults and vitriol seem indispensable to form the majority of your remarks. Guess the going troll-rate paycheck is worth it.
As Dr. Scott Atlas says: “Don’t say you believe in the science and then act to the contrary – either you believe in the science or you don’t.” He cites numerous ongoing studies from the rest of the western world (Europe, Iceland, the British Isles) that already have children back in school: Teachers aren’t dropping dead, kids are getting an education/socializing and are much healthier and happier than being stuck at home, and normal classroom life goes on with no mass death apocalypse. Dispute as you try, the facts in from Western nations that already resumed normal school life won’t support it.
Right on every point. Dr. Scott Atlas and his science facts on children and C-19 is a perfect example of “liberals not listening to the science”. That is, ANY science that disputes, refutes, or disproves the “liberal science” is targeted by the MSM, google, facebook etc. to be silenced and ridiculed. When liberals say “listen to the science and the experts”, they mean only THEIR “science and experts”. Coincidence how the liberal “science and experts” always parrot liberal talking points.
Published July 8:
“Taking a holistic view of the situation, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a new report that advocates opening schools while providing age-based safety guidance.
The academy’s report emphatically states: “The APP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”
Lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of supportive services often results in social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits, as well as child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation. This, in turn, places children and adolescents at considerable risk of morbidity and, in some cases, mortality.”
link: https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/07/08/school-closures-threaten-kids-more-than-covid-19-pediatricians-say/
So – try to ignore or refute the American Academy of Pediatrics if you want, but I’ll take Dr. Scott Atlas and the Academy’s facts over any liberal panic-mongering and name-calling, which is all liberals have.
Could we change the focus here and start talking about the responsibility to provide adequate targeted testing with timely results and follow up tracing? With that basic information in hand we can make informed plans and decisions about reopening schools based on accurate data. Without it we have to guess or go to extremes to ensure safety. We’re talking taxes; why aren’t we all joining hands in anger that are tax dollars are not being spent on sufficient targeted testing and tracing? Why aren’t we united about that obvious failure of national/state government? This seems like a chance at common ground and agreement we can all rally around. Adequate tests, chemical reagents, health care tracers is what government is supposed to provide. Any other discussion let’s government off the hook and Frustrates all of us.
Of all of the dumb ways that Trump and DeSantis have screwed up their response to COVID, this will go down as one of the worst, which is really saying something. I mean, that sausage in a suit DeSantis said “If we can open Home Depot safely we can open schools”, like yeah, when I goto Home Depot, I usually go with thirty kids, shove them in a small room, and stay there 7 hours, and do it five days a week. Right. How dumb is this dude? Also, Home Depot isn’t opened safely, almost nobody in the place wears a damn mask!
Roughly a quarter of teachers nationwide have pre-existing conditions which make them susceptible to series effects from COVID:
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/how-many-teachers-are-at-risk-of-serious-illness-if-infected-with-coronavirus/
The saddest part is that however many teachers get sick and die due to this experiment in accelerated viral spread, the state will be fully shut down again before November first, it will all be in vain, we will have put our teachers, staff, and children, and grandparents at additional risk and will have accomplished nothing.
The commentators here, as usual, have done nothing but exemplify the most ignorant lamentations of the American right; namely, that any adult can be a teacher because it is just reading from a book, that there is no evidence the disease will spread in schools (what?), immediate requests for their precious tax dollars to be returned, or accusations that schools are indoctrination machines, as if their diet of Faux news was somehow preferred.
What a sad, sad state of affairs.
You’re right about one thing: many teachers (and 100% of the teacher’s union types I’ve seen) have a pre-existing condition: THEY ARE MORBIDLY OBESE!
#TubbyTeachers
And many smoke on top of that.
Perhaps the “Sausage in a Suit” is trying to “eliminate” the Leftist Lecturers?
You said everything I was thinking. A wasted experiment with our kids and their teachers. No wonder he didnt veto their raises. He knew he’d be asking for their lives in exchange.
This is the same union that added Rocky Hanna to its workgroup. You added a man to your workgroup that did not pay child support for 10 years although he admitted he knew he was the father but did nothing until sued, a man that as Principal dated teachers in his campus, bullied at least one teacher into a transfer when she stopped dating King Rocky, a man that falsified information to state and federal authorities… All credibility from the Union is gone. When you gave a platform to Rocky Hanna you lost all credibility.
Fire em all!
I suspect the response from the union would be very different if teachers and all the support staff and district administrators were not going to be paid while schools were closed.
Overwhelming “scientific” evidence shows that reopening schools does not pose a threat to the children, but keeping them closed does. If some teachers (elderly and/or medically vulnerable) need to stay safe at home, then make accommodations for them.
Any other teacher that refuses to return to work, should be given the opportunity to resign and seek another career path. Those that simply refuse to return to work and do not resign, should be terminated on the grounds of Job Abandonment. Reagan had to do it to the ATCs, and Trump May have to do it here as well.
There are plenty of qualified adults who can step up to the plate, read from the textbook, follow the curriculum, and teach our children while we restructure what has become a dangerous, ineffective, and failed Public Indoctrination System.
If schools do not physically reopen, every dime in property taxes should be refunded. We are paying for children to be in front of teachers, not computers.
!!!AMEN!!!!
No indoctrination?
No paychecks & NO PROPERTY TAX!
These miserable union cowards need to get a dose of reality from Dr. Scott Atlas. I guess they don’t care about the children one bit. Fire them all if they don’t want to do their jobs. Open the schools with little to no restrictions! Stop the lies and stop the panic porn insanity, now!
https://www.hoover.org/profiles/scott-w-atlas