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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTHIS IS NOT ON TEACHERS.
I didnt want to do this but some of yall need to hear it.
Stop invalidating teachers feelings about their safety. Stop using child abuse, food insecurity, and mental health to do it. That is some serious misdirection.
I work for the largest district in Iowa. A majority-minority district. I have a degree in social work, a Masters in counseling, and work in an elementary school. Let me tell you about what I do when Im at work:
I sit and listen to kids tell me about this abuse youre talking about. Physical abuse. Sexual abuse. Mental abuse. I have heard it all, and way more times than you want to know. Some kids are telling me for the first time. The first time theyve told anyone. Other times are Mrs. Hogan its happening again. I make multiple mandatory reports a month to a DHS that is underfunded and whose social workers have overwhelming caseloads. Before we left in March I was doing suicide assessments nearly weekly. I have taken food and clothes from my house to bring it to students. I have to be the one that calls a Mom to tell her that her child has slits all over her wrists.
And I still wont let you use this as a reason to force teachers and students back when its unsafe. THIS IS NOT ON TEACHERS.
The same politicians (hey, Reynolds) that want to hurriedly reopen schools under dangerous conditions are the same ones who always want to cut down and mismanage social services, mental health services, and their funding. Theyre the same politicians who have FAILED the kids in my office. Do you want us to be a community school? Cause we are already trying and it sure would be a lot easier if we had the funding to do it.
Wheres all this talk when its not a pandemic? You guys know what often happens to these kids and families then? I sit with a mom after school and call every single homeless shelter in the area to find something for her and there is nothing. I listen to a mom cry after the mental health unit tells her theres no bed for her child in crisis. And when she asks them and me what to do now, theres no answer for her. Iowa is one of the worst states for mental health services in the country.
Do not come at teachers and schools. Their job is to educate. Mine is to help these kids and families and Ill do home visits if I can, I will do my best to connect them with the resources they need and I know my colleagues will too.
The real problem is there are not adequate resources, even if we are in school. Not even close. COME AT YOUR GOVERNMENT FOR THAT. And do it when the pandemic is over too.
From: Barbara Hogan
ttps://www.facebook.com/barbara.baudino/posts/10221732561921368
Teachers are always the last supported, and the first blamed.
AllaN01Bear
(18,308 posts)Arkansas Granny
(31,523 posts)dchill
(38,512 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Absolutely correct!
And I have 10+ yrs professional experience working with kids & families in mental health.
Every single thing you have posted is 100% correct.
Senseless to blame dystunctional families or teachers as reasons to subject everyone to covid!
gademocrat7
(10,665 posts)As a retired teacher, I totally agree.
Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)Im really upset about their attacking the post office. The. Post. Office!
They come at teachers, there needs to be a wall of moms stretching across this nation!!!
Hekate
(90,755 posts)Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)Its not about the teachers, but they will likely be scapegoated somehow, as usual.
It would take some research to really find out.
I was talking to my husband about the push to re-open schools with in-person school. We went on and on for a bit. Finally, I say to hubs why does he want those kids in buses so bad?
And then it hit me. School districts dont manage the school buses anymore. Theyre contracted out.
Who owns the school bus logistics businesses? Are they major Trump donors, or something even worse? How much is the school children logistics business worth in this country?
niyad
(113,492 posts)I don't know about all the districts here, but with our largest one, many of the students ride our underfunded and pathetic public transit system.
KPN
(15,647 posts)families can go to their 3 jobs, so the economy looks healthy, so he can get elected. He wants to trade lives (the lives of people in families, and people who are friends or relatives of families with kids in school) for a vibrant economy. He is fixated on dollars, always has been, and so much so deeply fixated on money // that he thinks everyone else is as well. Buses are small potatoes. He wants to be king of the world. Hes a bonafide nut job.
IllinoisBirdWatcher
(2,315 posts)This is ALL on Trump and the GOP!!!
mcar
(42,357 posts)Peregrine Took
(7,416 posts)Will prevent virus entering through their eyes. I assume a face shield would be good but he recommended the goggles.
KS Toronado
(17,284 posts)OhNo-Really
(3,985 posts)Face shields are better than nothing
MyMission
(1,850 posts)But more so because so many have been ordered to the front lines of a pandemic.
They need to stand up, for their lives and the lives of their own families, and the lives of their students, co-workers and their families.
I feel for them. And I think it is on them, although it shouldn't be. They are not in the military, expected to follow orders and directives, putting themselves in danger or harms way. It should not have to be on teachers to safeguard themselves from a pandemic.
It is on them, unfortunately, to stand up and say no, we can't open safely and therefore won't open. I think the teachers union voted to allow teachers to strike.
And of course the lack of leadership in the white house, having made a mess of too much already, has turned the school ground to a battle ground.
onecaliberal
(32,878 posts)iluvtennis
(19,864 posts)during this pandemic COMES FIRST. All these issues are just a deflection from trump admin for political purposes.
If the authorities want to deal with mental health, abuse, etc during the pandemic, then setup something outside of the schools to handle things.
Just my opinion.
obamanut2012
(26,087 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,676 posts)this is just a culmination of decades, really, of Repubs undermining education in this country, and includes decades of driving a religious agenda into the classrooms.
This is on politicians, and particularly Repub politicians.
AllaN01Bear
(18,308 posts)Hekate
(90,755 posts)Evolve Dammit
(16,750 posts)crickets
(25,981 posts)Evolve Dammit
(16,750 posts)evemac
(132 posts)NoMoreRepugs
(9,449 posts)ProfessorGAC
(65,112 posts)Let me amplify her point with a minor personal anecdote.
Many here know I substitute science & math classes since I retired.
Of the 10 districts I'm in, I work the most in a district that, last term, pays $90 a day. Under $13 per hour.
I work in another district that pays the same. There are 800 people in the whole town, & 90% of the houses are 50s & 60s slab ranch homes. Median home value is $140,000.
The first district?
One of the junior highs is 4 blocks west of a development where the median home value is $504,000.
The other building is 3 blocks west of a development where the median is $390,000.
For the whole town, the median is $320,000
The smaller district, I get. The tax base is small.
The bigger one? Town is 13 times bigger with houses 2.2 more valuable.
They can't find the resources to pay more than $12.85 an hour for subs?
No wonder someone like me, who has been doing this for 10 minutes & who isn't doing this for $ gets called nearly every day.
People who need the money are running to districts that pay better. Where the resources are prioritized.
AllyCat
(16,202 posts)why cant teachers?
Gee, I dunno. Because Walmart workers dont sit in a room with shoppers for 7 hours at a time??
bluestarone
(17,002 posts)K&R
SharonClark
(10,014 posts)Thank you for what you do taking care of the kids in our community. It is a matter of lack of funding of educational, social needs, and mental health that destroy so many communities in this country.
The repug legislators are so concerned with scoring points with rural Iowa, evangelicals, big ag, and city haters, that they lack the foresight and wisdom it takes to make government and society work.
You OP should be published as an editorial but also as a political ad on tv and social media. Please submit it to the DM Register and every member of the Iowa Legislature and Iowa Congressional delegation.
OhNo-Really
(3,985 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,154 posts)controlled legislature, and the teachers got politically involved and changed things. People are getting fed up w/ the constant excuses from republicans, the side stepping of dealing w/ issues as usual, the placing of blame on everyone but republican government.
I think everyone is getting to the point of being sick and tired of 'republican' leadership and the missing adults in the room.
It's time for sanity to be restored everywhere and get things done, instead of the blame game that republicans seem to excel at.
This teacher nailed it and her issues down to a 'T' and gets an A+ in my book.
Music Man
(1,184 posts)Teacher here too. Our society has thrived on guilt-tripping teachers. "Want your pension funded? If you really loved kids, you wouldn't be thinking about retirement. Want a higher salary? I guess you're just in it for the money."
And we're seeing it with the Covid discussion. "Think a full re-opening is unsafe? I guess you're OK with child abuse."
I think the only thing more than coffee that teachers consume is guilt.
lark
(23,138 posts)This is very important.
niyad
(113,492 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,615 posts)underpaid, disrespected and ridiculed for over a hundred years. As women teachers have been used by our culture as well as scrape goated for their "caring nature". The old maids who couldn't get married and were stuck being teachers since they didn't have kids of their own, etc. We have seen and heard the stereotype all our lives. Teachers are often seen as glorified babysitters for many people who just don't want or can't get day care. This is amplified now during the Covid pandemic and returning to school (or not). Are teachers disposable? Our society needs to answer this question once and for all or it will remain the "same old, same old". I speak from experience.
Response to kpete (Original post)
geralmar This message was self-deleted by its author.
KPN
(15,647 posts)Theres no triangulating Covid. We either beat it, or it beats far too many of us, those who arent in the 1%.
I will be attending my first school board meeting in about 25 years ( when I resigned from the school board after 11 years and my youngest graduated From HS) to make this same argument next week. Thank you for posting this. Youve made my prep work that much easier.
LisaM
(27,817 posts)I am tired of so many societal ills being blamed on teachers.
Delphinus
(11,840 posts)copied that - thank you for a great reminder.