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Empty classrooms in times of the pandemic (archive photo): »School closings are constitutional as an› ultima ratio ‹«
Photo: Jörn Wolter / wolterfoto.de / imago images / wolterfoto
The German Teachers Association has welcomed the fundamental decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court on the legality of school closings during the period of application of the so-called federal emergency brake.
The decisions created the necessary legal clarity, said association president Heinz-Peter Meidinger of the news agency dpa.
"School closings are therefore constitutional as an 'ultima ratio' if they serve the higher-ranking protection mandate of the state for life and health and there are no milder measures with the same effect," said Meidinger.
In this context, he described it as a "serious political mistake" that the traffic light parties had ruled out general school closings with the amendment to the Infection Protection Act.
The teachers' association rejects extended holidays
Nobody, not even the teachers' association, wants a new, long phase of distance teaching.
"But to leave schools completely outside of a possibly necessary renewed temporary lockdown, even though we have the highest incidences in this age group and schools are hubs of the pandemic, would be just as wrong."
The association rejects extended Christmas holidays, as decided in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, if they are "not embedded in comprehensive measures of contact restrictions in society as a whole, for example a simultaneous short lockdown".
Otherwise, such an extension of the vacation will not have much effect.
The Federal Constitutional Court had declared school closings linked to certain incidences to be legal in the spring on the basis of the federal emergency brake, which was in force from the end of April to the end of June, and dismissed complaints from students and parents against it.
The court also referred to the special situation in the spring with vaccinations that have just started.
kfr / dpa