WEBVTT - Chicago Public School's Pro-COVID Lockout Part 1 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.040 Welcome to it could happen here a podcast about things 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.200 falling apart, and today it's it's there, there's there's a 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:14.880 little bit and I'm getting put back together, but today 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.239 is mostly them falling apart. I'm your host, Christopher Wong. 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:20.720 With me, I have Lucy who is a teacher in 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:22.959 Chicago public schools and as part of the Teachers Union, 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.560 and today we're going to be talking about just the 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:30.200 absolute shit show that is being inflicted on teachers and 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:33.600 students in public schools. And Lucy, how how are you? 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.519 How are you doing? Um? You know, it's it's been 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.360 kind of weird, but all in all, I'm in good spirits. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.800 I think my sisters and brothers and c to you 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.680 are in good spirits. So we're going to keep fighting 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.880 the good fight. Yeah. So, before before we fully start 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:56.800 to get into the teachers Union and Lord Lightfoot's fuckery, 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:58.480 I want to sort of get a bit of context 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.320 for people who don't live in Chicago or just don't 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.760 know much about the only politics because LORI, like you know, 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.360 if if you read sort of like media accounts of this, 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:09.800 like you, you, you you may be sort of misled 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.920 into into thinking that there's like even some semblance of 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.120 good faith going on here from Lord Lightfoot, and like 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.039 I just I just want to like do a great 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.840 like a Lord Lightfoot Greatest hits real for a second. 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.560 So Lightfoot like immediately after she got elected, like the 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:27.000 like the first thing she does is she she's she 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:29.760 literally she's like, Okay, there's too much crime on the subway. 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.120 We're gonna put swat teams on them. And so you know, 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:33.160 you just be on the red lighte and there's a 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.800 wat team and you know, because again this is what 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:37.959 happens when you put a swat team on the fucking subway. 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.559 They immediately shot a dude in the back for nothing, 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.000 you just literally no reason. They shot him in the back. Um. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.520 So that that was like that was like like the 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.160 first like few weeks of Lightfoot. And then during the uprising, 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.320 she like she she turned the rich party of Chicago 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.040 and she's like a medieval castle like she like like 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.400 like raised all the drawbridges into the middle of the 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:00.560 city so that no one could get into central part 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:02.920 of the city. It was like awful. And then you 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.520 know then as as as we sort of like there 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.600 there's more and more sort of bad lightfoot stuff. Most recently, 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:14.120 so Chicago got a bunch of aid money from the 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.760 federal government and she spent two and one million dollars 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.160 of it paying the police, not the schools. Yeah, nope. 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:26.480 And CPD like these Again, I think I talked about 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.840 this before, but like when when the CIA was like 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.080 our initial torturing program failed, where do we go to 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:34.760 like find people who know how to torture? They brought 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.799 into Chicago Police Detective like and you know, and and 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:39.400 this is the the CPD, Like like like there's there's two 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.160 half a CPD. Right, there's there's like the torture CPD. 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.359 And then related to them but not necessarily identical is 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.560 the part of the CPD that's just a cartel. Like there, 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.560 there's there's a thing in in at the beginning of 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:54.079 the tens were like it turned out that like the 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.600 almost like the huge parts of the CPD were literally 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:58.600 just a cartel. They're running drugs. They were just like 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:03.359 doing shakedown for and and like one person total, like 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.480 you got arrested by the FBI for and everyone else 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:07.400 is just still there. It's great, it's a it's a 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.120 time so that this is this is who Lorrie Lightfoot is, um, 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.000 she sucks. Like everyone hates her like like her. The 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.120 people who should be her political allies hate her. Like 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.120 Chicago Chargo got like a police reform bill, and the 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:20.519 reason it was like a very mild one. But the 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.959 reason it happened was just that, like like the like 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.880 the Alderman passed it out of just pure spite because 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.440 of how much they don't like Lightfoot. So this is 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.200 this is the this has been My Christopher shouts that 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.920 Lord Lightfoot intruded this. But yeah, Needles is say, Lightfoot 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.760 not acting in good faith, just absolutely batman villain. Yeah, 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.360 it's incredible. No, actually that's not fair because a lot 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:53.360 of Batman villains are kind of right. Yeah, yeah, she she's, she's, she's. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.800 She's like the nightmare refusion of like Batman and a 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.200 Batman villain, Like what if what if you like the 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:03.640 worst aspects of both and made them The Mayor's Yeah, 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:10.040 I've been kind of Um so I moved here almost 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:15.680 a year ago from a smaller city, and I did 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.000 not like the mayor in my city, and he really 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:20.479 was a big fan of like the Lory light Foot playbook. 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.880 But um, I guess people weren't as politically involved there, 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:30.400 and my first week working in Chicago Public schools UM, 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:37.400 somebody mentioned the mayor mentioned Laurie, and everybody kind of groaned, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.280 and I was like, oh, you don't like her, you 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:42.799 don't like your mayor, And I mean I knew they didn't, 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.360 but I was just kind of testing the waters. And 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:47.680 this lady looks at me and goes, we hate her. 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:52.679 I swear, like, if you mentioned her name in this city, 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.040 people practically spit on the ground. It's like, it's amazing 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.120 because like you mentioned a demon. Yeah, it's like like 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.640 Chicago to cogunitoriously, we all hate our politicians. But like Lightfoot, 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.920 like like that there were you would find rama Manuel 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:11.440 supporters right, Like I don't know a single lord like 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.480 outside of the schools, within the schools, everyone I know. 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.720 It's like even even the even the cops don't like her, 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.800 Like she keeps she keeps funneling hundreds of billions of 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:22.920 dollars into them, and they still don't like her. It's like, 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.200 it's incredible. Do you unite the teachers union and the 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.400 police union one something that's the only thing that they've 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.920 ever agreed on is fuck Lory Lightfoot it's really incredible. 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:40.160 So life, whatoot's latest scheme? Um, yeah, do you want 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.760 to explain? I guess go back a little bit in 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:48.640 in into the history of sort of how how Chicago 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:53.120 and Chicago Public schools have kind of been responding to 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.880 COVID and then how they just did this stuff, and yeah, 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.080 I guess, like, yeah, give us a background, like what's 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:03.560 going on. Well, I'm going to preface with two things. One, 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.120 I am fairly new here, so I don't know all 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.080 of the details. And two, I really want to emphasize 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.760 that I'm just here talking for myself. I don't represent 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:17.080 CTU in any way. This is just I wanted to 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.680 talk about my feelings on things. So, UM, what I 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:27.160 do know is they were doing remote learning, and when 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:31.960 I arrived here in March, we were fully remote and UM. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:37.080 Then in the fourth marketing period, so like around like 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.000 after spring break, UM, we moved to a hybrid model. 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:45.720 So we had parents and kids could like choose if 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:47.600 they wanted to stay online or if they wanted to 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.760 be in person. UM. I think like sixty percent or 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.920 more depending on what school UM chose the online option. 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:58.159 Like a lot of parents just were not comfortable putting 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.080 their kids in UM. I know that there's been like 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:07.640 a ton of talk about UM, you know, like the 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.640 most economically disadvantaged families need the schools open, But it's 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:14.880 kind of been the reverse. It's been the people who 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.440 have UM more means are more interested in opening, and 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:24.600 people who UH are less well off are a little 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:26.120 more resistant to it. I mean, that's not the same 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.280 across the board. I don't want to generalize too much, 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.760 but that's been what I've seen UM. I think, if 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:33.880 I had to guess it, there's a lot of history 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:37.320 behind that, Like UM. I mean, first of all, just 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:42.559 can your family afford an illness like this? And people 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:47.200 living in multi general generational households. And I think something 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.320 that CPS and our government in general really fail to 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:55.760 acknowledge is just how how much mistrust there is between 0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:01.200 government institutions, public schools, and UM people of color and 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.200 for a good reason. You know, they have been repeatedly 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.520 just screwed over by these institutions. And I can absolutely 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.000 understand why they might not trust a school district that says, hey, 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.320 we'll keep your kids safe, because they weren't doing it 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:19.560 before the pandemic. UM. So we had I had like 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:21.920 seven kids in one of my classes and like ten 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.200 and another and then the rest of them were online. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.640 And I'm like sitting at a computer teaching to the 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:30.200 kids online and to the kids in their room. All 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:32.000 the kids in the room are on their computers too, 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.600 so that we can like still be like one cohesive class. UM. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:38.360 It was hard, and it was like kind of like 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.839 mentally fatiguing, like just going back and forth like that. 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.839 But you know, we made it work. I was kind 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:46.319 of I was really proud of us, Like we made 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.120 it work. We made it happen. We stayed in contact 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:53.280 with the families and the kids constantly UM and like 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.920 as things moved on and as numbers started going down, 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.280 more people started warning their kids back UM. And then 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:04.160 after spring they UM well, so like after springbreak they 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.000 let people come back. And then as we moved towards 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.280 on our more and more kids were coming back. Which 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.959 it was the school I was in was UM handling 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.439 it very well. Our principle was really committed to like 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:20.080 keeping us safe. So there was UM testing. Like once 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:21.720 a week somebody would come bay and be like, yo, 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.000 go get your COVID test. UM. I don't know if 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.840 kids were being tested, but I know teachers were. UM. 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.520 Then summer happens. I ended up in a different school 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.520 in the Austin neighborhood, which is um a lot less 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.079 advantage than the one that I had been working in, 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.480 and we open back up fully in person no remote 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.960 option like at all, like if UM. The only people 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:53.480 who could get remote were kids that were deemed medically fragile, 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:56.880 but they had to one submit like tons of paperwork 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:00.720 to prove that and to their siblings could not stay removed. 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.080 So at that point, it's like, why, what's the point? 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.000 And if you were a teacher who had a medically 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:09.400 fragile child in the schools, your kid could be remote, 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.360 but you couldn't, So then you know, how is that 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:17.360 going to work? UM? And I found in the school 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.559 where I was. You know, this is the issue with 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.439 Chicago and with you know, most of the country is 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.560 some schools have more resources than others. And the school 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:28.959 I didn't know where to get tested. Nobody like told me. 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.080 I think there was some kind of testing program, not sure, 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:37.240 definitely nothing for students. UM. I've since moved to a 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.760 high school that has more resources, but still I have 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:41.240 not been able to figure out where the heck to 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.079 get testing, which has been one of the biggest things 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.600 that uh CTU is asking for is we want um 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.800 opt out testing instead of opt in testing, so you 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:56.480 would automatically be registered to test, and if you didn't 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:58.719 want to test, then you would have to opt out, 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:02.160 which would end up with far more people getting tested 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.719 and make it a lot easier, because I mean a 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:06.400 big part of why people are in signing up is 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.040 it's really hard, like I don't know where to find 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.319 it that everyone's like it's in your emails somewhere. I've 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.160 searched my email. I don't know, Like we get like 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.040 emails a day, like yeah, and it's yeah, Like you know, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.000 I think anyone anyone who remembers what being in a 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.360 school is like those they have, I mean, just the 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:29.000 absolute worst bureaucratic stuff, Like it's it's it's it's like honestly, 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.559 like it's like my experiences with like academia and like 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:35.240 even back in the high school, like their tech stuff 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:37.480 was like worse than corporate sex stuff, which is like 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:53.599 astounding mm hmm, it's it's ridiculous. Do you want to 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.240 jump into here into Lightfoot's like okay, Lightfoot has like 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.319 invented a new kind of COVID denialism, which she's like 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.520 she she's now turned into like a COVID test nihilist, 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.800 like it's incredible, like she she she has. She went 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.719 on this rant about how like COVID testing is a 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:15.559 quote quasi medical procedure and how you're gonna get lost, 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.960 like it's it's bizarre. So this this journalist asked her 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.360 about the testing because and I don't know which journalist 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:25.120 that was, but I want to thank them so much 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.040 because they have seen a lot of the reporters are 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.880 actually out there trying to keep c t US demands 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:34.720 in the conversation as opposed to this like whole oh 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.679 lazy teachers don't want to work like off, we do 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:43.080 want to be working. Um. But so I almost thought 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.760 that she had like mixed up with this person said, 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.880 and thought that they were talking about vaccines. But even so, 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.880 like stop it, stop, just stop doing that. But who 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.400 is having a reaction to a COVID test. It's like 0:12:55.520 --> 0:13:01.440 literally a cute tip, like like you just sticking. They 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:03.360 don't even stick it that far up your nose anymore. 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.599 They just do a little in your nostril or like 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.600 a mouth swat. Yeah. Like actually like as someone who 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.719 had like like I genuinely did have a kind of 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.199 bad reaction because I jabbed it up really far and 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:19.920 like I was like sneezing a lot afterwards. But it's like, oh, no, 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:22.719 you sneezed a little bit, Like what what does it 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:26.720 even mean? Like not like I feel like people are 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.040 acting like this test is like this weird new technology 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.360 it is. It isn't Like right before the pandemic, like 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.160 a couple of months before I had the flu and 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:38.240 I had exactly the same kind of test. They stunned 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.840 a thing up my nose. It was hella uncomfortable. Um 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.319 it took like two seconds. They stuck it on a 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.840 little plastic thing. I'm a bob and said, oh, looks 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:53.319 like you have the flu. Yeah, it's I don't know 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.559 where this is coming from. I think it's just she 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:02.680 is not a very charismatic person, and she's not someone 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.280 who does well under pressure. And right now she's back 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:10.040 into a corner and she's acting out and it's been 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.320 kind of wild, like I've seen she's she's also throwing 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.480 other people around her under the pots. Yeah, like she 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:20.080 says something about Pedro Martinez, like she says, the teachers 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.560 aren't in charge of this. Padre Martinez is in charge. 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:24.640 She's the CEO. And I'm like, okay, so you're being 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.480 this is setting him up to take the blame on this. 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.320 Everything that you tweeted about like it was she was like, no, no, 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.000 it's actually the Mayor's and nothing. Sorry, it's it's actually 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:42.600 the Uh, it's the principles. The principles were like no, yeah, 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:47.320 So CPS is kind of interesting. Um, this can be 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.760 really good or really bad, depending on what's school you're in, 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:55.560 but the principles really have a lot of autonomy over 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.400 their school. Um. I've now been in two schools where 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.880 that's worked out great. My principal rocks. Um, if she 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:05.200 ever hears this, I hope she knows that I said that. 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.160 I think she's great. Um. Also, the principle I worked 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.760 at the beginning of school year was awful. Um. So, 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:17.240 but when it comes to like district wide protocols, like 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:22.000 that's district wide and so CPS apparently had a meeting 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.000 with principles where um, I heard some rumors about this too, 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.240 but I also saw that letter that they had posted. Um, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:34.080 the principles are one really frustrated because CPS isn't communicating 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.640 stuff with them very effectively, and so parents will be 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:40.000 calling like do we have school tomorrow? And they don't know, 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.600 but CTU knows, and it's telling their members. So the 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.400 teachers all know the like more answers than the principles do, 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.880 which is obviously really embarrassing if you're supposed to be 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:54.880 in charge. Um. And then there they were told in 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:59.040 this meeting with CPS, school's gonna be closed on Friday. Okay, 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.400 school's closed on ready, Great, sounds good. And then Lightfoot 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.720 gets on the dang news and tells everybody that it 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.400 will be done on a school by school pap basis 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:12.760 at principles discretion, depending on if they have staff. So 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.600 now all of these principles who had already told their 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:21.800 students and families that, um, we're closing, look like they're 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.120 the ones who closed it as opposed. Like and that's 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:27.800 it is rare for me to feel bad for a 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.440 school principle, because that's that's my boss. You know, I 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:34.200 don't us, but I feel bad for them right now. 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.920 Oh my god, Like you're just trying to like make 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.440 sure that people have the information they need in a 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.000 timely manner, and this lady is up here making you 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:57.080 look like a monster. It's so unfair. Yeah, should we 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:01.280 talk about what's been happening up to the pastor of 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.760 winter break and then the stuff that's happening now, because 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.440 it's very grim and bad. Yeah. So a lot of 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.680 schools have been having COVID cases. Um, there's I'm not 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:15.720 really sure what's going on with cps IS data. It 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.280 kind of seems like they're not reporting it very faithfully 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.800 or accurately. Like if you look at their tracker, they'll 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.720 be cases and then suddenly they'll be gone. Um. We 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.720 never really get a hard number ever. Like will be 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:32.600 like if you have a student in your class who 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.639 has been quarantined and we all know what it is, 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:39.080 but they don't say it. They'll be like, um, you know, uh, 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.639 Johnny will be out for the next x amount of 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.119 time due to health reasons. Please let him join via 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:49.399 Google Meet And they never do. That's the other annoying 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:52.320 thing is like the students, I think because they are 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.679 either close contact or they're sick, um, you know, to them, 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.480 it's like a a break almost like they're not going 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.840 to log in randomly, Like it's it's just with I 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.320 think with kids, like once it stops being consistent and 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.160 it's like back and forth all the time, it becomes 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:14.640 very difficult for them to stay motivated because they're out 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.600 of their routine. Like I I sometimes hate it when 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:19.240 people say this, but it is kind of true. Kids 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:24.120 kind of thrive on routine. Um. So at this point 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.720 now I have like a third of my class at 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.920 any given moment will just not be there and it 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.399 will be different third of the class every you know, 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.040 it kind of like rolls through. So all of my 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.800 students are like different points in the curriculum. It's hard 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:44.080 to like know what to teach each day because I 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.639 don't know who needs what. It's hard to reach out 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:48.160 to the kids that are at home and make sure 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:49.920 that they get what they need because I'm so busy 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.760 trying to catch these kids up and move these kids 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.440 on and all that stuff, um, which I have seen 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:58.680 some research. I'll see if I can find it, um 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.119 after we're done. The like pointing out that like remote 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.080 learning isn't the worst thing that can happen. The worst 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.080 thing that can happen is just flipping back and forth 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.000 all the time and having huge numbers of kids absent 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:16.280 from in person learning. UM So we go on break 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.879 and obviously we have o macron like sweeping through the country, 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.720 and we all knew that they were going to be spikes, 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.040 Like we knew that in Chicago had what was if 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.399 Illinois had some like astronomically high number of new COVID 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:37.200 cases like breaking records all over the place. UM CPS 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:43.120 has had huge increases. Yesterday we had forty three four 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:51.560 cases in Illinois. It's that's a lot, like yeah, but yeah, 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:55.080 so overbreak like the last like, the Union had been 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:59.560 trying has been trying forever to get CPS to come 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:04.720 in and agree to UM a few things. So one 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.200 in February we had a um an agreement that schools 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.160 would flip to remote if they reached a certain threshold. 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:17.320 That agreement has expired and CPS has refused to come 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:19.280 to the bargaining table and negotiate a new one. They're 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:21.520 just like, no, we don't need it. We also have 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:23.920 been trying to get them to do the opt out 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:28.600 testing and a like surveillance testing programing in school so 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.760 we can kind of just have little bits of data 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.080 to understand like where are these cases. CPS doesn't want 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.520 to do this. They don't want a threshold for flipping 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.119 to remote because then they would have to flip to remote, 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.520 and they don't want the surveillance testing because then they 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:44.240 would have to flip to remote, and they just don't 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:48.960 want to flip to remote. Um. So finally over break, 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:50.280 you know, it kind of came to a head, like 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.200 they were still refusing to negotiate, like, um, one of 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:58.479 the union delegates in my building said something about, um, 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.320 they've been meeting by to these meetings, like you know, 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:03.520 like twice a week. They try to get these meetings 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.080 to happen, and the mayor never comes and the CEO 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:09.119 never comes, like they will either send lawyers or they 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:12.280 don't show up. And it's like, dude sounded so tired 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.080 into moralize when he said that, I felt bad for him. Um, 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.320 but yeah, So we voted that we were going to 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:25.480 go in on Monday and Tuesday meet with our safety committees, 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:28.600 get a feel for what's going on in school, and 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:33.919 then we are going to have a vote on Tuesday 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:35.240 night as to whether or not we will do a 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.520 remote work action on Wednesday. And I know a lot 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:40.800 of people have been like trying to make it sound 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:43.440 like this was very sudden, but it absolutely wasn't. Like 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:46.560 we had a vote about whether or not we were 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:49.200 interested in doing this, and then we had a vote 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:52.119 on whether we're still interested on having a vote, and 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:55.639 then we had the vote, and the delicates voted on 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:59.399 if they wanted to hold an official like should we 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.920 do an act and vote? We did. Um, it was 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:07.680 like seventy voted yes. Um. There were some complaints that 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:09.720 some people didn't get their ballots, but they did wait 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:12.879 till they had enough yes votes to preach that to 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:17.280 third majority that we needed. So, you know, c TU 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.680 has every step of the way really been making sure, um, 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:23.280 this is actually what we want. This isn't just like 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:28.080 unilateral things like Lorie keeps throwing that work unilateral around. 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:31.720 It wasn't unilateral. It was like, at least two there's 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:34.520 the teachers in this district said I don't feel safe 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:38.399 at school. There's not enough staff in the building right 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.560 now to even teach half my kids. A third of 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:46.480 my kids are out. This isn't working. So yeah, so 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:48.280 we voted that we're going to stay home and work 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:52.800 remotely and then we got locked out. Yeah, which again 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:54.960 like and I want to almost refocus on this for 0:22:54.960 --> 0:22:57.639 a second because even a lot of people who are 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:00.840 sympathetic to to to the re unions on Twitter, you 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:02.960 see this a lot, they'll they'll be like the CTU 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:05.600 went on strike. It's like, no, they didn't like teachers 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:07.640 and teachers are not on strike. The teachers are attempting 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:11.880 to work from home and school district will not let them. Yeah, 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:15.760 it's it's every morning I get up at six thirty, 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:18.280 I make my coffee, and I sit down and I 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:20.600