Teachers in US state of Georgia herded back into unsafe classrooms wsws.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wsws.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Teachers Are Fighting Back Against Bipartisan Push to Reopen Schools
Students wait to enter the school at Freedom Preparatory Academy on February 10, 2021, in Provo, Utah.
George Frey / Getty Images
On Christmas Day, Georgia Elementary School teacher Patrick Key died of complications due to coronavirus. A few days later, the district confirmed the deaths of two more educators: Dana Johnson, an elementary school teacher, and Cynthia Lindsey, a paraprofessional. Three teachers died in less than a month.
This is the price of reopening schools.
Across the country, there are still many regions with consistently high infection and death rates. Even with schools closed, over one in three people in Los Angeles has gotten the virus. And now there is an all out onslaught against teachers unions in order to force through unsafe plans to get teachers and students back in the classroom. Itâs coming from the top, with the Biden administration placing school reopenings at the top of its
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Caption Bob Sapp gets vaccinated against COVID-19 in Cochran, Ga. on Monday January 25, 2021. The South Central Health District which includes Cochran was on pace to vaccinate as many as 300 people at the six hour vaccination event where Sapp was able to make an appointment. Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News
An ethical dilemma is coming to a boil in Georgia: Who should be at the front of the line to get the COVID-19 vaccine?
Health care workers and long-term care staff and residents were first on the list when the shots arrived in Georgia in mid-December. Later that month, Gov. Brian Kemp and Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey announced people 65 and older, law enforcement and first responders would be added to the list.
When an employee of the school district in Cobb County, Georgia, asked unmasked - though appropriately distanced - school board members to don mask for 13 seconds in tribute to a COVID-afflicted teacher's dying request, the ones not already wearing them just sat there.
A Georgia teacher s obituary pleaded for mask wearing. At a school board meeting, 3 officials refused. Grace Hauck, USA TODAY
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In the wake of three teacher deaths from COVID-19 in Cobb County, Georgia, school board officials refused to wear face masks at a board meeting Thursday when asked by a district employee.
It was kindergarten art teacher Patrick Key s dying wish. Patrick felt passionate about wearing masks during the pandemic, his obituary said. In lieu of flowers, please buy and wear a mask to protect others and yourself in honor of him.
Key, 53, a Marietta resident, died Christmas Day after a 41-day battle with COVID-19 in the ICU, according to the obituary. He was a life-long lover of all things comic books, science fiction, Star Wars and Manga, the obituary said. He taught in Cobb County, a suburban county of Atlanta, for 23 years.