DEAR BETSY...

[lamp_shade]

I just saw this posted on facebook...
-----------------------------
Please believe me when I say no one wants to go back to their 3 jobs more than me. It's how I stay mentally sane, balanced, driven, and let's be honest, in a positive state for my children. I'd even continue to hug my students without thinking twice (😱 Yes! I hug them.) BUT.. if there are not concrete answers & plans in place for the questions below.... then we will just continue to set ALL up for failure....

Betsy DeVos, we have a few questions for you:

• If a teacher tests positive for COVID-19 are they required to quarantine for 2-3 weeks? Is their sick leave covered, paid?

• If that teacher has 5 classes a day with 30 students each, do all 150 of those students need to then stay home and quarantine for 14 days?

• Do all 150 of those students now have to get tested? Who pays for those tests? Are they happening at school? How are the parents being notified? Does everyone in each of those kids' families need to get tested? Who pays for that?

• What if someone who lives in the same house as a teacher tests positive? Does that teacher now need to take 14 days off of work to quarantine? Is that time off covered? Paid?

• Where is the district going to find a substitute teacher who will work in a classroom full of exposed, possibly infected students for substitute pay?

• Substitutes teach in multiple schools. What if they are diagnosed with COVID-19? Do all the kids in each school now have to quarantine and get tested? Who is going to pay for that?

• What if a student in your kid's class tests positive? What if your kid tests positive? Does every other student and teacher they have been around quarantine? Do we all get notified who is infected and when? Or because of HIPAA regulations are parents and teachers just going to get mysterious “may have been in contact” emails all year long?

• What is this stress going to do to our teachers? How does it affect their health and well-being? How does it affect their ability to teach? How does it affect the quality of education they are able to provide? What is it going to do to our kids? What are the long-term effects of consistently being stressed out?

• How will it affect students and faculty when the first teacher in their school dies from this? The first parent of a student who brought it home? The first kid?

• How many more people are going to die, that otherwise would not have if we had stayed home longer?
30% of the teachers in the US are over 50. About 16% of the total deaths in the US are people between the ages of 45-65.
We are choosing to put our teachers in danger.
We're not paying them more.

We aren't spending anywhere near the right amount to protect them. And in turn, we are putting ourselves and our kids in danger.

[tableturner]

1. K and R......

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. Please keep speaking out, teachers!

These are all excellent questions.

This should run front page on every newspaper, website, and forum. Betsy can take several steps back, since she obviously can’t do her damn job.

[lamp_shade]

3. She wouldn't be able to answer any of the questions. She's ignorant. She doesn't care.

[KS Toronado]

13. We should also e-mail this to every School Board, city/country commissioners.

[lagomorph777]

4. Cruella DeVos doesn't care about your damned questions, or how many kids will die.

The only important thing is how much money she can make.

[gab13by13]

5. Missouri wants parents to sign waivers

not to sue if their kids get the virus. I imagine they will want the teachers to do the same?

[niyad]

16. What happens if they refuse to sign?

[yaesu]

6. the only goal fascist Betsy cares about is destroying public schools and replacing they with

private schools. Her demands are only for public schools.

[Evolve Dammit]

15. Yep.

[cayugafalls]

7. Rather than doing any substantial planning or spending she does a lot of talking.

Talk is cheap. Talk does nothing to help the problem get solved. Talk is just used to placate the ignorant.

DeVos can't talk her way out of this one. The press needs to hammer her and or Congress needs to pull her in front of them and ask her where is the plan? How does she propose to help the problem?

If they are mandating that schools reopen, then where is the plan, where is the help? If the answer is this is a State issue, then stop telling the country to reopen schools. Stop telling the country it will be alright, because it won't. Stop spreading lies and disinformation.

DeVos needs to be TALKED to every single day. By Congress, by media, by anyone with a mic and recorder. Get her on record make her sweat, make her life miserable, because she is about to make millions suffer, she should suffer as well.

[patphil]

8. Based on the situation in the nation right now, it's evident that, if the schools open nationwide,

it would take about 2-4 weeks before they are all closed again.
During that interval, tens of thousands of teachers would be infected, along with many tens of thousand of students.
They would in turn infect hundreds of thousands of family members, relatives, friends, neighbors, and local business people.

I can't see how this is good for anyone, including Trump's reelection effort.
It would devastate public school systems all over the nation; many would essentially be bankrupted by covid-19 related costs.

Only Betsy Devos's anti-public school agenda has any chance of benefiting from this.
Kill the public schools and bring in the for-profit private schools to replace them.

It's madness!

[bucolic_frolic]

9. New Zealand has no cases. None. They locked down hard, early, and fast, and traced everything.

Trump's incompetent boobs can't figure this out, or they are selling their souls to a demented man. It's one or the other.

[xxqqqzme]

10. She is THE best reason

to vote for Joe Biden.

[Blue Owl]

11. I'm sure Betsy will give this serious consideration while lounging on one of her yachts

[BadgerMom]

12. K and R

[panfluteman]

14. The COVID Pandemic Is to the Trump Administration What WWII Was to Hitler

Both involve massive death and destruction. And Hitler was in way over his head in WWII, making some disastrous mistakes, just as Trump has done with COVID. Will Betsy DeVos lead a new Bataan Death March in September?

[iluvtennis]

17. All revelant/pertinent questions that need to be answered in the "Back To School" plan. nt

[erronis]

18. Good questions! But these probably don't apply to charter schools where parents/students sign

various legal forms holding blameless the money-grubbing charlatans that are pretending to run an institution of learning but are really running a get-rich-easy scheme.

Same for church/parochial schools.

And of course, all teachers (really baby-sitters) will be considered "essential workers" so they can't really stay home without losing their job and any unemployment.

And devos/prince want to kill public schools...

[sarge43]

19. All those questions also apply to the schools' support staffs

Janitors, aides, nurses, lunch room staff, bus drivers. None of them are making big bucks.

A addition question: What if the majority of those people say "Hell no, we won't go"?

I drove a school bus for ten years. If I still were and my school opened next month, I'd quit. I don't owe anyone anymore my life or my husband's.

[Pacifist Patriot]

20. Excellent questions!

[Skittles]

21. HOW DO CHILDREN SOCIAL DISTANCE WHILE PRACTICING ACTIVE SHOOTER DRILLS

ASK HER THAT