Safe Schools Protect Us All

The People's CDC is excited to announce our Webinar -- A People's Response to the Covid Pandemic -- happening on Thursday, June 23rd from 5-6:30 pm EST. The webinar will be the first chance for you to hear directly from some of the folks behind the People's CDC, get a better understanding of who we are and the work we are doing, and find new ways to potentially get involved with the People's CDC! The registration link can be found below and is available to all so please register and send the link out to anyone who might be interested in attending!

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Jx6nsBW2Rri0BRKhpZataw

We look forward to seeing you there!

These results are not surprising: 4 in 5 teachers frequently stressed, 1 in 4 likely to leave their job. We must show, with policy and practice, that we care about the social-emotional health of staff, students, and families. Safety and connection FIRST. Students and staff alike are hurt when 1/3 of students drop off, yet the expectation was and is, keep teaching the rest. So much for not leaving children behind. Much of pandemic instruction was defined by steam-rolling through curriculum and/or bringing children back to *indoor* school by any means necessary. Outdoor time was undervalued, even though it has tremendous social-emotional-physical benefits, and would have been the safest option vis a vis covid for having students under a school district's direct in-person care. When we direct staff to make academics the priority over social-emotional-physical health, well, of course staff will be stressed. They are being directed to do too much, and ignore the most fundamental of their commitments: the safety and health--in the broadest terms--of their students.

"In January 2021, 78% of teachers said they experienced frequent job-related stress, compared to 40% of employed adults, according to a survey of public school teachers from the Rand Corp. funded by the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers

The pressures of teaching during the pandemic weighed so heavily on educators that one in four teachers said they were likely to leave their jobs by the end of the 2020-21 school year, according to the same study."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/teachers-had-most-stressful-job-during-pandemic/?ftag=CNM-00-10aac3a&fbclid=IwAR1qRsq_kJrC-LbclB4bqtbCy_rT89EYV-L33DG1ld9TuZUgfB4nh_KfMuo

The Omission of Black History Is Not Accidental. It's Time to Rewrite the History Books. Educator and activist Ilyasah Shabazz breaks down the necessary reforms.

"The strain of the virus, known as the B.1.1.7 variant, seems to be between 40 and 70 percent more contagious than other variants, based on various scientific estimates. It has been confirmed in 34 U.S. states."

https://bangordailynews.com/2021/02/10/news/more-contagious-uk-coronavirus-variant-confirmed-in-maine/?fbclid=IwAR3acC_o2g3TVWZIoZqGrm99qytp1ghEnNKRv_GU8oNtXiJpw4oLPH2DYZM

More contagious UK coronavirus variant confirmed in Maine A more contagious strain of the coronavirus that originated in the United Kingdom was detected in Maine, the state’s health department announced Wednesday.

Lots of implications for in-person school from this research based on 27,000+ covid positive households and their 50,000+ contacts: "Given the same exposure time, children and adolescents younger than 20 years of age were more likely to infect others than were adults aged 60 years or older (1·58, 1·28–1·95)... Symptomatic cases were more likely to infect others before symptom onset than after (1·42, 1·30–1·55)."

Household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and risk factors for susceptibility and infectivity in Wuhan: a retrospective observational study Within households, children and adolescents were less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection but were more infectious than older individuals. Presymptomatic cases were more infectious and individuals with asymptomatic infection less infectious than symptomatic cases. These findings have implications fo...