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A teacher advertises more safety with a poster
Photo: Ashlee Rezin / AP
A fundamental dispute has broken out in the US city of Chicago over the corona rules in schools in the country. After classes resumed in attendance on the Monday after the Christmas break, the teachers' union voted on Tuesday evening to teach virtually instead, US media unanimously reported. The school district responded by canceling school for Wednesday and insisting that students return to classrooms. The approximately 340,000 schoolchildren will probably stay at home on Thursday as well.
The trial of strength in the country's third largest school district exemplifies the debates that are currently being waged in the USA: When and how should students return to the classroom during the rise in the Omikron variant? The union sees the conditions for face-to-face teaching as unsafe. She pointed to inadequate staffing and lack of testing after the number of new Covid-19 cases and child hospitalizations hit record levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot appealed to teachers to return to the classroom: "We must remember how stressful this process is for individual parents who have to work and cannot afford the luxury of staying at home." fight so that the children can study again in school.
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Pedro Martinez, the head of the school district, said on Tuesday that he would address the closure of school buildings if a large number of employees and students there were infected with the coronavirus.
However, he opposed a circle-wide closure, saying the fear of reopening was due to misinformation.
Teachers want distance learning or PCR tests
On Wednesday, the chairman of the Chicago Teachers' Union said that if the two sides fail to agree on Covid-19 security measures, students may not be able to go to school for two weeks.
Over the holidays, teachers had already asked for a two-week transition period to prepare distance lessons for January - or consistent PCR tests for schoolchildren.
Educator Keyonna Payton expressed concern on CNN: “I'm scared because I have a husband.
I have a young child.
I have a 90-year-old grandmother with health problems. "
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