Thread by @Mssarahmssarah

Reading about how the #AmericanRescuePlan is being used in schools this coming school year to facilitate things like more counselors & staff. Great news.

But I’m also hearing from school staff all over the country who are worried about covid safety in schools. A 🧵

During the last school year, I “met” teachers, paras, aides, custodians, kitchen staff, & others from more than 20 states. Mostly through @saribethrose and @NewsHourExtra’s incredible school staff forums, and via @VinGuptaMD and @jfeldman_epi.

Many were in frightening situations working for districts and schools without safety measures or measures that were only enforced sometimes.

We all longed for the year to end and hoped for things to be much better next school year.

But it’s clear that covid is not over in this country, as much as we’d all like it to be.

With many around the country still not vaccinated, a more contagious variant ⬆️ around the country & more politicians pushing to end safety restrictions, unsafe schools are still unsafe.

My educator friends in Iowa & Texas are scared that their governors ended all school mask mandates. Including in elementary schools full of unvaccinated children. “She threw us to the wolves” one of the Iowa teachers told me (referring to @KimReynoldsIA). “All we can do is pray.”

My teacher friends in Georgia & Alabama (some of whom start the school year in 2 weeks ) are worried they still have poor ventilation after a year of school covid spread & outbreaks. They’re scared that w/ so many unvaccinated in their states, variants are a threat to schools.

My school staff friends in Florida are grieving colleagues who died of covid this year, panicking over all the cases among kids in the state right now, and worrying because they know DeSantis will put schools at huge risk again this coming school year.

School staff I know in many states are wondering why they can’t have school covid testing, like NYC and some districts in MA. Most states and districts didn’t support school testing last year and have no intention of starting this year, even with increased funding.

School staff across this entire country are incredibly dedicated to supporting and teaching their students this year. @POTUS @FLOTUS @PressSec @SecCardona, @AFTunion @rweingarten: those school staff, and their students, deserve to be in schools safely next year.

And yet, many will not be. The incredible division in this country over covid, both as a disease and politically, leave many schools with limited or no protections at all, and no way to do anything about it.

The @CDCgov, @CDCDirector and @POTUS can only make recommendations. Many states ignored them last year and many will this year (likely more now as covid fatigue has set in and the pressure to keep schools open is far greater than pressure to keep them open and safe).

It’s infuriating & heartbreaking that no one will step in to protect these vulnerable school staff, & the students they care about so much. In many cases the decisions have already been made to limit or ignore mitigation measures. They had no say in this.

I wish there was more I could do for these school staff besides telling them how important they are to their students & that I’m sorry they’re scared.

I wish their safety in schools was a priority.

I wish they were valued and protected the way they deserve to be.