"We miss our students terribly, and we all wish we could be back in the classroom with them. But it's become clear in the last few weeks that an in-person return to schools would unacceptably put the health and safety of our students, their families, and educators at risk. Parents, grandparents, and educators – maybe even students – would die," said AFT Massachusetts President Beth Kontos. "Community transmission of COVID-19 is on the rise again in Massachusetts, and lengthy delays in testing mean we won't know whether a sick student has the common cold or the deadly virus.
In the schools AFT Massachusetts represents, especially in Boston and our Gateway Cities, years of chronic underfunding have left us with unsafe schools facilities: windows that don’t open, bathrooms that lack hot water and soap, ventilation systems that need upgrading, and nurses that treat sick students in converted closets with no room for social distancing. We've outlined a series of criteria that districts and the state must meet before it is safe for students and educators to return to the classroom, and it's clear that a period of remote learning will be necessary before those criteria are met. Now, we must focus on working with our local school teams to redesign remote learning so that it works for all students."
