Charlotte, NC — I’m going to preface this article by saying that my family has 95+ years of K-12 and post-secondary teaching and administrative experience. As a former teacher, collegiate administrator and college teacher myself, one who is currently dealing with the public school roller coaster as a father of an elementary school student and husband to a high school teacher, I feel quite strongly about the mutiny these educators are now participating in with this “sick out.”
I saw all of this to bring attention to a school district in Idaho. The first day of in-person public school in the West Ada School District in Idaho was canceled yesterday after more than 600 teachers called off work in an apparent “sick-out.”
Meridian School District released a statement saying:
“We are sadly unable to safely hold school tomorrow due to supervision concerns. This includes students enrolled in Virtual Schoolhouse, and students who would have been learning remotely,” the district said in a statement. “We are continuing to work with the West Ada Education Association to find solutions to their concerns so we can hold school on Wednesday.”
The district canceled classes Monday after 652 teachers called in sick, leaving the school district with far too few substitute teachers to fill in the gaps left by their certified teachers.
The insubordinate teachers have abdicated their responsibilities as educators after the West Ada School Board voted to allow students to return to in-person classes. Multiple teachers at the school board meeting expressed concern that safety measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 were, according to them, inadequate or would not be followed in an in-person learning setting. Therefore, a “sick-out” was planned.
Fire them ALL! Fire every last one.
Fire them for being science-deniers. It shouldn’t be that hard to find the transmission numbers among students and see that COVID transmission is nearly non-existent and, in fact, there is ample evidence of COVID’s impact on children. RedState’s Kira Davis said, “They are less ‘sticky’, meaning the virus, for whatever reason, doesn’t really ‘stick’ to them and then ‘shed’ elsewhere. All of the school numbers from March of 2020 up until this very moment support that.”
Bottom line, we need teachers who believe in science, information, and data. We need teachers who go find information instead of waiting for it to be delivered to them. We need curious teachers. If you’re denying science you really have no place in the public school system anyway!
Fire them ALL! Fire every last one.
It is completely understandable that some teachers, particularly older teachers, just don’t feel comfortable returning to a classroom. COVID is scary, for some more than others. No one should be ashamed for feeling like they just don’t want to be out and about at work or socializing. That is a very personal choice.
If you feel you can’t do the job you’ve agreed to do — for whatever reasons — it is your responsibility to resign. School district administrators are, by in large, former teacher’s themselves. Therefore, the decisions made by these administrators are done with the best interest of the students, teachers, and parents combined. School districts have access to their county’s public health departments and can get the most up-to-date information to help make the best informed decisions possible.
Moreover, they do this with the understanding that in leadership, you’re never going to make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time!
If these educators can’t do this, then it’s imperative they go find other work that doesn’t require you to be in a classroom with children. The job is too important and the students in each classroom deserve the best teachers and from teachers who want to be there!
If you cannot perform the tasks you collect a salary for, then leave! Teaching, or any job for that matter, but especially teaching is not the job for you. In any other sector, we would fire someone and then probably tell jokes about them incessantly if they came to our business and said they don’t want to work but they do want to get paid to work. Teachers are no different than the rest of us. Moreover, they spent much of their spring and summer of 2020 discussing how they are “essential workers!” Now, when the rubber meats the road, they pull this stunt?!
Perform or move on. It’s been a crappy time for all of us in the United States. Deal with it, grow up, or move on.
Fire them ALL! Fire every last one.
Fire them because they’ve broken their trust with the Idaho taxpayers. People who have sacrificed so much, their jobs, their businesses, their homes. Teachers are still being paid while many of the parents of their own students have had to seek public aid after having to quit or have lost their jobs due to the pandemic in order to be able to stay home with their children while schools piddle around with the science of reopening.
Educators may view this drastic action as pushing back against the district administration, but those who are most impacted by this action are the students they claim to love and serve! Fire them and deal with the contractual fallout as it comes. 2020 has already been an epic crap storm, what’s one more storm to weather?
Fire them ALL! Fire every last one.
Since Janus v. AFSCME decision, no teacher or any American worker can be compelled to join a union in order to be employed. The West Ada School District is free to hire any teachers from anywhere regardless of their union affiliations (or lack thereof) and, in fact, it is exactly what they should do.
Teacher’s unions have absolutely destroyed the field of education have zero business coming near teachers. Many states are right-to-work states that don’t have union protections and that’s okay! If you’re doing a good job then you shouldn’t have to worry about losing said job.
Teacher’s unions make educators lazy and complacent due to the so-called protections that do nothing but insulate horrible teachers. The number of outstanding educators in our country is staggering. The majority of teachers are there for the right reasons. As I mentioned earlier, I am a former teacher and my passion for teaching was extinguished and, because I cared about the education of the students I served, I left K-12.
Students deserve teachers who are passionate about what they do and who want to be there! But those who aren’t? They should be fired!
Fire them ALL! Fire every last one.
Fire them because for too long we’ve let the institution become more important than the people it supposedly serves. If everyday Americans are asked to make big changes to how they live, the teachers must do the same.
Get in the classroom or quit. You’re not entitled to your job. No one is.
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