I’m becoming increasingly concerned about return-to-school decisions being impacted by a small but overwhelmingly vocal group. I understand that school right now is not ideal for anyone, and unfortunately, it won’t be, no matter what we do. 1/12

Virtual school is not ideal. In-person, masked, concurrent, socially-distanced school in rows (although maybe not so distanced based on the videos being released by my district) will not be ideal either. Working from home with children is not ideal (I know this personally). 2/12

But this idea that educators, school boards, unions, are somehow out to ruin lives by not wanting to return to unsafe conditions... it just doesn’t make any sense. The mental gymnastics it takes to think that someone goes into the field of education to purposely harm kids... 3/12

These anonymous accounts on Twitter, the rallies and yard signs... for what?? We were dealt an awful hand with this pandemic, but wishing it away won’t make it disappear. 4/12

And here’s the problem- because our district is allowing parents to choose to keep their kids virtual all year, this is becoming a battle between educators and this small minority of parents that want to force schools to open at 100% capacity in the middle of a pandemic. 5/12

We aren’t hearing from the parents who are surprisingly pleased by virtual school. The parents who don’t think it’s safe to go back. Because they can CHOOSE not to. It’s just educators who will be forced back in person. 6/12

So this makes it look like parents and educators are against each other when it isn’t true! This very vocal minority also keeps claiming to speak for “disadvantaged” kids or say that they are concerned about equity, which is also not true! 7/12

There is nothing equitable about forcing schools to open in unsafe conditions, in the middle of a pandemic that is statistically more likely to harm Black and Hispanic students and their families. 8/12

This also echos the white savior mentality of needing to speak for communities that are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves. This article, though a few months old, sums it up pretty well. 9/12 https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/if-opening-schools-is-about-equity-why-arent-we-listening-to-those-most-impacted-a1ca6fab8506

Even looking at the data in our own district, the schools that contain more white students and families with a higher socio-economic status were far more likely to elect the in-person option than schools with more BISOC and in areas with lower incomes. 10/12

This is not about equity. It’s not even about what the vast majority of parents want. It’s about an incredibly small, well-funded group of people with too much time on their hands that will stop at nothing to get their way. 11/12

We don’t have to cave to them. They can try all they want to recall school board members, attack teachers on social media, take over a platform I used to love. But they are bullies and letting them get their way only shows our community and our students that bullying works. 12/12