A Virginia teachers union is requesting that schools remain shuttered until certain conditions to ensure school employees' safety are met.
The Fairfax Education Association wrote to the Fairfax County school board and superintendent that, “Science and health safety data support and require that no one should return to in-person instruction until there is a widely available scientifically proven vaccine or highly effective treatment” for COVID-19.
The union also requires that priority should be given to vaccinating school employees, improving ventilation systems in schools, and providing medical-grade PPEs to staff before reopening is attempted.
The CDC has recommended that schools can reopen and has issued guidelines to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The guidelines include proper mask usage, maintaining a minimum of six feet distance from others, frequent hand-washing, keeping facilities clean and disinfected, contact-tracing, and quarantining people exposed to someone who has contracted the virus.
The Fairfax County Public Schools district spokeswoman said in a statement to the Free Beacon, “We firmly believe that while virtual environments are necessary at the current time, students learn best in-person.”
But this isn’t acceptable to the educators. “Over just the past few months, the unions have combined to send thousands of emails to Democratic House delegates about school-reopening plans," the National Review reported.
“We can recover from a loss of learning, but we can’t recover from a loss of life,” Virginia Education Association president James J. Fedderman told CBS 6 Richmond.
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