MIAMI – Last week, days before Donald Trump revealed he fell to COVID-19, Karla Hernandez-Mats undertook a project to investigate protection against the coronavirus in South Florida before they reopened on Monday.
The president of United Teachers of Dade, the local teachers’ union, Hernandez-Mats, said she and her colleagues had made wonderful inspection visits to 17 schools in the Miami area, suggesting that principals are still struggling to implement protective measures.
At Miami Springs Senior High, one of 17 schools inspected, principals first refused to allow their colleague, United Teachers of Dade, Senior Vice President Antonio White, to participate in construction and called in a resource officer. police officers about him, union officials told the Daily Beast.
“When principals do this, their schools are regularly prepared,” White said in an interview. “That was the case in Miami Springs. “
For example, the school seems to provide teachers with a non-alcoholic hand sanitizer, which would possibly be useless in killing the coronavirus, union officials said, who offered the Daily Beast a picture of that (Disease Center COVID-19 rules). Control showed that other people use a hand sanitist at least 60% based on ethanol or 70% isopropanol). Union officials also provided images with decals marking the needs of 6 feet away that were already taking off from sidewalks near the front of the school. and offices arranged so that they do not allow a social distance of 6 feet.
Contacted by phone, Miami Springs Principal Torossian said he was unaware that police had been detained through the union representative and referred other questions to the school district’s media relations department. Spokeswoman Jacquelyn Calzadilla did not talk in particular about what happened in Miami Springs. however, he said that “the principals on our school’s site paint all day to make sure our students and employees return to school. “
The component illustrates the arduous task of the Miami-Dade County public school system, which is the epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic in Florida for the peak of the pandemic. More than 10,000 teachers and 133,000 academics are starting to appear in 340 schools this week. This comes after the Miami-Dade School Board voted to resume face-to-face learning under pressure from Florida Education Commissioner Richard Cocoran, appointed through Gov. Ron DeSantis, who threatened to cut investment for the school district if the categories were not resumed in early October.
Miami-Dade’s daily positivity average for the four days ended October 4 was 4. 78%, just under the 5% positivity rate that the World Health Organization recommends maintaining for two weeks before lifting the home’s social distance and shelter protocols. Over the same four-day period, Miami-Dade reported 5,456 new cases, bringing its total to 172,205.
The reopening of schools has been a waste of infection, quarantine, and closure across the United States in recent weeks, but conversations with South Florida teachers, union leaders, and experts painted an image of Miami as a new guinea pig for the epidemiological chaos imposed from Tallahassee.
Last Friday, Thais Alvarez returned to Norman S. Edelcup Sunny Isles Beach K-8 in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, for the first time since the pandemic forced the closure of buildings across the country.
Alvarez, 48, believes that in some cases it will almost separate 6-foot students, despite the recommendation she and other staff members are making. “Although my categories are particularly smaller than in other years, I have some at 16, Academics 19, 21 and 22 years old,” he told the Daily Beast. “There is no way to make a classic social estre given the length of my classroom. “
For his non-public protection, Alvarez said, he won 3 packs of six masks and a face shield from the director’s office, as a giant bottle of hand sanitist placed on his desk. To reinforce official offerings, some of his academics have given him packages of Clorox wipes in recent days to disinfect surfaces, said Alvarez, who teaches sixth and eighth graders.
The teacher’s considerations of clean and sanitized study rooms and bathrooms date back to this spring at Norman S. Edelcup. Alvarez provided email exchanges to the Daily Beast with Deputy Director Neal Stayton and Principal Melissa Mesa as soon as May, describing the dirty situations in In an email on May 7, Alvarez complained that items such as the workplace’s cupboards and screens were covered in dust and that the grounds were not swept away throughout the school year. that the bathroom was running out of soap and toilet paper before the end of the school day and that the toilets were not cleaned for days.
In email responses to Alvarez, Mesa stated that on-call staff intended to leave the toilets blank, adding toilets, every single day, but the principal explained that the school district assigned only one guard according to the ground and that, depending on the workload, the guard assigned to Norman S’s fourth floor. Edelcup can only provide a full blinding service once a week. Mesa also noted that if the caregiver failed in his task or went on vacation, full blinding would take longer.
“Please share your custody disorders with Mr. Stayton and me during the school year and we will do our best to help you,” Mesa wrote on May 7. “Know that the fitness and protection of all our teachers, workers, and academics is also a number one fear for us.
When she returned to campus on Friday, Alvarez said the bathrooms were looking at her and that her classroom did not look cleaner than in recent school years, when the floors were stripped and locked up.
“I can’t communicate about the future,” he added. But if my beyond pleasure is an indication, it will be an exhibition of dogs and ponies in front of the cameras. Behind the scenes, it will be quite the opposite. “
The chiefs of Alvarez de Norman S. Edelcup sent their questions to the school district’s leading spokeswoman, Daisy González-Diego, who responded in particular to questions about court cases of the university’s teachers.
“Miami-Dade County public school administrators and school staff follow all recommended protective and fitness protocols to ensure our schools are safe and welcoming environments where youth can thrive under the direction of our inspiring educators,” Gonzalez-Diego said in an email. statement. Array “We also perceive that beyond educational benefits, face-to-face schooling provides young people with the social, emotional and motivational they need. “
But on a Facebook page through school district employees, dozens of instructors share similar stories about their schools. One instructor posted photos of the minged ceiling tiles and air conditioning vents of her class. The Daily Beast received a screenshot of a text message from the instructor complaining that no one had provided him with masks, hand sanitist and wet wipes. The instructor said he works at the iPrep Academy, which is adjacent to the school district’s headquarters and whose principal is no other than Miami-Dade school superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
“The workplace made me uncomfortable as if I was asking for something hard to come by when I think there are many in the store,” you read in the text message.
In an emailed statement, Miami-Dade Public Schools said that all iPrep Academy teachers had won bags containing non-public protective devices. González-Diego also explained that the school district has prioritized resources to accumulate stocks of cleaning products and acquire giant quantities of non-public protective appliances, among other precautions. “Thanks to these investments, our schools now have enough PPE and disinfection devices to safely accommodate our students and school workers for the 2020-2021 school year,” Gonzalez-Diego said.
Similarly, on September 30, Superintendent Carvalho sent a letter to all painters in the school district saying, “Be confident that comprehensive actions have been taken and will continue to be implemented to ensure a healthy painting environment for all. It is a greater global awareness and compliance with the cleaning practices prescribed to reduce the threat of exposure of our painters. “
Regardless of its preparation, the school district was forced to rush things because Carvalho and the school board gave in to threats from Education Commissioner Corocan, said Hernandez-Mats, owner of the Cocoran union, former Republican president of the Florida House of Representatives. an unconditional best friend of Governor DeSantis and President Trump, who have advocated for the reopening of schools as part of their effort to resume a life in general, even as fitness experts across the country warn Florida to revel in some other outbreak once flu season reaches the next level.
“Obviously, it’s very worrying to see how under pressure from Governor DeSantis, who is aligning with Trump to reopen schools,” Hernandez-Mats said. “They succumb to political tension rather than doing the right thing. the fitness and well-being of academics and others who paint in those schools with those children. “
González-Diego did not comment on Hernandez-Mats’ criticism of local cooperation under state pressure. But Florida Department of Education spokeswoman Taryn Fenske applauded and said school unions like United Teachers of Dade should dictate the kind of learning environment students have, rather than their own. Give the choice between online and face-to-face learning.
“Union bosses are nothing yet school bullies who need to force everyone to make the same decision,” Fenske said. “They’re crazy that we don’t have any challenges or doubts about protecting students and families, the union’s demands. “
A spokesman for deSantis responded to a request for comment on the story.
Mary Jo Trepka, an infectious disease expert at Florida International University, told the Daily Beast that the mere extension of the Miami-Dade public schools formula makes it incredibly vital that each and every school has every precaution imaginable.
“It is not only imperative that the transmission is controlled in schools to students, teachers and staff, but also because transmission within schools will fuel general transmission in the community,” Trepka said. “It may take place on a giant scale. Even if only part of them interacts in person, there are many opportunities for transmission. “
Trepka said the danger of reopening Miami-Dade schools was aggravated through DeSantis’ resolution earlier this month to allow bars and nightclubs to reopen across the state. during the summer, when local and state officials first relax with COVID-19 restrictions.
“I’m afraid we’re repeating the same scenario now with the added challenge of resuming categories and reopening schools through universities,” Trepka said, noting that Florida’s summer increase was primarily due to other young people contracting a coronavirus.
“They ended up infecting the elderly,” Trepka said. “Then, of course, we had a lot of deaths. “
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