If we know one thing for sure about teachers’ unions, it’s that they don’t care much for students.
While the parents of those unable to attend school are in dire straights, the Chicago Teachers Union continues to demand money for nothing… and vacations.
According to Fox News:
A Chicago Teachers Union leader is under fire for pushing for Chicago public schools to remain remote because of coronavirus risks while vacationing in the Caribbean.
Chicago Teachers Union area vice president Sarah Chambers opposes requiring teachers to return to the classroom and posted a photo that appears to show her poolside in Puerto Rico, WGN-TV reported. Chambers has since deleted her Instagram account, according to the station.
“Hearing of an educator revolution happening,” she wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “Tons of members are emailing their admin: Iâll be asserting my right to continue to work in a safe remote environment on January 4th, 2021. I have signed the pledge, along with over 8,000+ union educators to continue to work remotely[.]”
Just a few hours earlier, Chambers posted a picture on her Instagram that appears to show her pool side in Puerto Rico and talking about going to Old San Juan for seafood.
In response to the criticism this hypocrisy predictably garnered, she responded to criticism that nobody made, and tried to rebut non-existent concerns that she could’ve exposed people to coronavirus in Puerto Rico.
“I got 4 covid tests (2 rapid, 2 PCR) b4 coming here & wore 2 masks (N95). Scientists said airplanes are safer than grocery stores bc airplanes have ICU level filtration & everyone wears masks” she wrote.
She then debunked her entire case for not teaching physically in school: “My doc said itâs extremely unlikely for me to get Covid again since I had it so badly.”
Chicago Public Schools plan for students to return January 11th, but the Chicago Teachers Union has raised the possibility of a strike.
That keeping schools closed in the age of coronavirus is bad policy is no secret, and it’s hardly just a right-wing position.
In November Dr. Fauci said “I think one of the things we need to do is, to the best of our capability, try to keep the kids in school. The numbers you said are true. If you look at the rate of infectivity â I mean, obviously, you want to be sensitive to the safety and the health of the childrenâŚthe teachers. You want to do that. ⌠Having said that, my feeling is the default position, keep the schools open if you possibly can. And youâre absolutely correct. I agree with you completely on that.”
Meanwhile CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield pushed back against closures in November, saying “The infections that weâve identified in schools when theyâve been evaluated were not acquired in schools. They were actually acquired in the community and in the household.”
Children are the demographic least at risk from the coronavirus. Over 50% more people above the age of 85 have died of coronavirus than those aged 0-64 combined. Fewer than 500 coronavirus deaths out of 217,348 recorded deaths (through the end of October) were people age 24 and younger.
While the coronavirus is far more deadly to older people than the flu, the flu is far more dangerous to young people than the coronavirus. We reported back in July that during the 2018-19 flu season, 21,012 of the 53.6 million children aged 5-17 in the United States required hospitalization because of the flu. That equates to a hospitalization rate of 39.2 per 100,000. According to the CDC, âthe cumulative COVID-19-associated hospitalization rate among children aged <18 years during March 1âJuly 25, 2020, was 8.0 per 100,000 population.â
Or in other words, we donât close schools for something that has over four times the hospitalization rate as the coronavirus, but we do for the coronavirus.
