By RICHARD ESSEX
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
An Indiana teachers union is demanding all public schools have basic safeguards in place before bringing teachers and students back into the buildings or they will call for a strike.
As teachers and students attempt to get back into school, the virus has found a way to follow in their footsteps.
High school football players at New Palestine and Warren Central high schools have tested positive. A student at Avon and another Greenfield-Central, along with staff members in Elwood have also tested positive for the virus.
GlenEva Dunham, president of the American Federation of Teachers in Indiana, said she is willing to call a solidarity strike if schools reopen without adequate safety measures. In Indiana, it’s against the law for teachers to go on strike.
“We want the schools to open safely,” Dunham said. “We see that that is not happening. We want the schools to open where our teachers wouldn’t get infected, where children wouldn’t get infected. We know we don’t have the money to provide what we need.”
The union points to the students who have returned to school this week while infected with the virus. Dunham says that many schools have not prepared classrooms to meet Centers for Disease Control guidelines for social distancing or provided personal protective equipment for all students and staff.
“Some schools have promised desks for each individual child and we know that there are still tables, and we know that when children work together collectively at tables, that is hard to social distance,” Dunham said.
The union also is not in favor of hybrid schedules that have students and teachers in class a few days a week and in virtual classrooms the remainder of the time.
“That means two separate lesson plans, that means cameras in the classrooms, things that have not been negotiated, not been approved,” Dunham said.
They are asking school corporations across the state to meet CDC sanitation guidelines that do not require teachers to do the cleaning and to provide PPEs for the entire school calendar.
“If you can continue to provide that and I don’t have to go into my pocket and buy it for myself, and if you can’t provide that, we are asking for virtual,” said Dunham.
The union says it represents 4,500 teachers in 27 districts, but they do not represent Indianapolis Public Schools or any teachers in Marion County. They do not at this time have any strikes planned, but if the infection rates continue to climb and school districts do not provide adequate safety measures, that could change.