Beloved D.C. teacher and salon owner remembered for dedication to Southeast Washington Perry Stein When Helenmaire White closed her Anacostia hair salon in 2014, her children hoped she would retire. She and her husband raised five children, and they operated a bustling salon for 30 years on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue that doubled as a friendly and spiritual gathering spot for so many Southeast Washington residents. Her son Tony White II thought it was time. But White wasn’t ready. She wanted to continue with her second job as a cosmetology teacher at Ballou STAY, an alternative school for students who struggled in mainstream classrooms to receive high school diplomas and vocational degrees. White became a mother to many young women in her classrooms, teaching some how to be mothers themselves and, of course, she taught them how to complete her signature finger-wave hairstyle.
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
From USA TODAY Network and wire reports
Alabama
Montgomery: The state is preparing to execute an inmate by lethal injection in what would be Alabama’s first death sentence carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Willie B. Smith III, 51, is scheduled to be put to death Thursday at a south Alabama prison for the 1991 shotgun slaying of Sharma Ruth Johnson. U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker Jr. on Tuesday denied Smith’s lawyers’ request for a stay. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled the execution could go forward with precautions. Smith’s attorneys have sought a stay arguing that the pandemic and the prohibition on in-person prison visits had made it difficult for them to adequately represent him. They said Smith has been unable to receive the number of in-person visits from attorneys, friends and a pastor that death row inmates normally do before their date in the execution chamber. Attorneys also argued the execution would be a super-spreader event. Some COVID-19 cases have
Among the requests the union is making is the opening of a “Situation Room” to identify and respond to emergency issues requiring responses within 24 hours. The union said it wants to work with D.C. Public Schools on the matter.
The members also want reassurance that the school system is following coronavirus guidelines from DC Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the provisions from the memorandum of agreement between the school system and the union.
“We must make sure schools are safe. What keeps me up at night is that the District is putting the health of our city’s educators and students at risk with in-school learning because of continuing exposures in schools, numerous reports of violations of agreed-upon safety protocols and tragically, the death of a beloved teacher,” union President Elizabeth Davis said in a statement.