Amy Jacobson, a mother at a public school in Chicago, argued on Monday that children are suffering “mental abuse” for not returning to the classroom amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying “we are killing our children mentally” with the closure schools.
Jacobson made comments on “Fox & Friends” amid a stalemate in Chicago, when public schools and the teachers’ union failed to reach an agreement over the weekend to resume personal learning.
Jacobson said that teachers who refuse to go back to the classroom are about “their needs and not our children’s needs”.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is ordering teachers to return to classes amid the ongoing dispute between Chicago public schools and the Chicago teachers’ union.
“All teachers, from pre-primary to eight and teachers in the group must report,” said Lightfoot at a news conference on Sunday night. “If you don’t have approved accommodation, we hope to see you back to school. Those who don’t report to work … we will have to act. We will avoid that.”
CPS CEO Janice Jackson has warned that teachers who refuse to attend face-to-face classes will be expelled from the district’s remote learning computer system, Google Suites.
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According to Lightfoot, the Chicago Teachers’ Union did not show up for negotiations on Sunday. Lightfoot said he expects union leaders to continue to negotiate and asked CTU to have “a renewed sense of urgency” to reach an agreement quickly.
The original CPS plan called for a return to the classroom on February 1 for face-to-face learning, but it did not work after a vote by the Chicago Teachers Union last month instructed members to continue remote learning. In addition to 10,000 teachers, some 65,000 students are expected to report on Monday.
As negotiations continue to stall, Lightfoot said parents should not bring their children to school for face-to-face learning on Monday, encouraging them to send their children to learning centers offered by CPS. The CPS said that parents should aim to bring students back to school as of Tuesday, according to a letter sent to parents on Sunday night.
“We’ve been on pins and needles all weekend asking ourselves what’s going on,” said Jacobson on Monday.
Both sides pointed the finger at each other on social media on Sunday, with the teachers’ union tweeting that their negotiating team was “instructed not to participate in the negotiations today, unless our teachers, clinicians, PSRPs, nurses, librarians and other ordinary educators were prepared to make big concessions. “
“It is difficult because every day you have to check with your children to make sure they are okay,” said Jacobson, noting that “we are approaching a year when some children had to sleep in their rooms and then stay in the room Zoom’s classroom for eight hours and don’t socialize. ”
“There is social isolation,” she continued. “There is no dancing, there is no sports. It has been horrible. We had 40 suicides that I know in our area … and we only had eight children dying from COVID and I am sorry that these 8 children died, but we are killing our children mentally . “
Last week, an Illinois mother of a teenager who killed herself during the pandemic, who is suing Governor JB Pritzker over COVID-19 restrictions, told The Faulkner Focus that her son “died of isolation of COVID “.
Lisa Mara Moore’s son Trevor Till, who hoped to go to the state pole vault championship in his senior year of high school but was unable to because of coronavirus restrictions, committed suicide in October. Moore said he believes “100 percent” that the blockade “changed Trevor from who he was to the person who did it.”
Moore joined the parents of three other student-athletes who are suing Pritzker for his decision to cancel the college’s winter sports season, claiming that his children suffered serious emotional and physical damage because of the restrictions, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
Jacobson argued that the teachers’ union does not “care about children”.
“This is all about power,” she said. “They come up with different excuses to show what they want every day.”
“One day it was, ‘We just need a vaccination’, and the next day it was ‘we need both vaccinations to get back to school’,” continued Jacobson, noting that the union has a “ridiculous” list of requirements.
Jacobson emphasized that the parents are “tired of it and we can’t take it anymore, but we don’t know how to fight back anymore”.
Chicago Teacher’s Union did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment.
The union is asking for schools to reopen as soon as all teachers are vaccinated. In addition, they want teachers in a situation of medical vulnerability or those living with individuals with compromised health to have the option of working remotely and for schools to provide guidance based on health metrics if schools need to end face-to-face education due to a peak in COVID- 19 cases.
Lightfoot explained that the Chicago Public Schools has been working with the union to find solutions that would allow students to return to face-to-face learning, with more than 70 formal meetings since June and an investment of $ 100 million in health checks, temperature checks, equipment individual protection and regular cleaning.
In addition, she noted that pre-kindergarten and group teachers returned to classrooms for three weeks without major problems and insisted that the CPS plan was examined by medical experts, including the Director of the Chicago Department of Health. , Dr. Allison Arwady.
But CTU noted that, despite what Lightfoot and CPS say, the parents of more than 80% of eligible students in Chicago public schools have chosen to continue remote learning.
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The last ad comes after progress in negotiations was made on Saturday, with four interim agreements on health and safety protocols, ventilation, contact tracking and health and safety committees, according to the Chicago Public Schools.
Lucas Manfredi of Fox News contributed to this report.