No Longer A Hero?
In 2019, approximately 50.8 million students were in public schools in the United States being taught by 3.1 million teachers. (6.1M in California alone being taught by over 300,000 teachers).
PLEASE TAKE NOTE
Roughly, 10% of the US student population is educated in the State of California by California Teachers every year.
The Watchdog Site was created to shine a light on the increasing failure to put students front and center in the public school. We have always taken the stand that serving the student is the primary purpose of the public school and that the route to great service of those students is through the teachers.
This is why for many years teachers have been put into the HERO bucket.*
Watchdog has never questioned this designation. The future of our State, our Nation, is directly impacted by those who have chosen to serve our most important asset, our Youth.
Post-2020 we have have to begin to question the hero status of teachers in California public schools?
Recent lawsuits tell a different story. A lawsuit filed by parents in five North San Diego County School districts, compel Defendants SDUHSD, CUSD, SMUSD, OUSD, and PUSD to open all their schools, primary and secondary, for full-time, in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible within seven days;.
We won't discuss in detail the fact that it is our very tax dollars that pays the teachers, funds the building of schools, pays politicians, pays school administrators, pays teachers who represent the teachers union on public school district property, it is our tax dollars being used to pay lawyers to work against this very lawsuit.
What is more disturbing is that parents had to get to this point in the first place.
I encourage you, read every story by each of the plaintiffs. Below is just a portion of the plaintiffs' stories but captures the very essence of the question here today -
Can a teacher post 2020 still be considered a HERO?
Plaintiff C.B.’s child is a student in the San Dieguito Union High School District.
C.B.’s child’s anxiety recently increased after one of her teachers told the students that she will die from COVID-19 if she is forced to teach in-person. C.B.’s child was very worried about the teacher and got involved in asking the school’s administration not to require the teacher to return to campus. C.B.’s child’s strong views about the teacher, prompted by the teacher’s incessant discussion about her own fears, led to conflicts within C.B.’s family.
Plaintiff A.I.’s son and daughter attend school in the San Dieguito Union High School District.
A.I.’s daughter chose to return to school. Later, one of her teachers thanked those students who had chosen the online option and chastised those who had chosen to return to in-person school, explaining “I will have to either come into school and get COVID or take off without pay.” The comment was transparently intended to pressure students not to choose the option for partial in person learning. Unfortunately for the students, the San Dieguito Faculty Association sued SDUHSD, and, in a memorandum of understanding quickly executed between the district and the teachers’ union without input from students or their parents, the district agreed to eliminate the in person learning option.
References:
Taketa, Kristen "North County parents sue state to overturn school reopening rules" , San Diego Union Tribune Feb. 25, 2021.
Taketa, Kristen "San Dieguito teachers go to court to prevent district from reopening during worst of pandemic", San Diego Union Tribune Dec. 21, 2020
Every Day Hero posts (research on definition of hero)
* Vantis Life Blog the is no affiliation with Vantis Life and Watchdog.
https://www.cbsnews.com/everyday-heroes/
https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/01/us/top-10-cnn-heroes/index.html
https://www.foxnews.com/faith-values/19-inspirational-stories-from-2019
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/everyday-heroes