CT educators PROTEST covid safety protocols

By Neeha Zaman, 2022

Published 01/13/22

On Wednesday, January 12th, many public school employees across Connecticut wore black to protest unsafe school conditions, upset with the way schools are being run amid the current COVID-19 surge. Many teachers have said they do not feel safe with current protocols, and have not been provided with adequate supplies to protect themselves or their students. The CEA (Connecticut Education Association) cited staffing shortages, a failure to distribute N95 and home test kits, and the need for flexibility in their call for educators to protest.

At CHS, there were a few teachers who joined this protest, all with slightly varying reasons. One teacher mentioned that while masks were not their main cause of protest at the moment, they felt burdened by the lack of recognition given that teachers are being made to teach on “the front lines of COVID,” and felt exhausted from having to fill various roles such as mental health support for kids especially burdened by the nature of learning in the middle of the pandemic.

How has the state government responded? On Tuesday, Gov Lamont issued an executive order to allow districts to rehire retired teachers, in an effort to address the staffing shortages across the state. In response to the blackout itself, the Connecticut Department of Education put out a statement that they are in dialogue with various unions, and are continuing to try to navigate how best to work through the pandemic and its challenges. Their full statement, released the morning of January 12th, can be read below.

“The Connecticut State Department of Education is in continuous dialogue with all of our union partners, and we continue to be solution focused in working through the complex challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. The Department of Education with support and guidance from the entire Lamont Administration is continuing the implementation of innovative processes to address staffing shortages, deploy millions of masks and test-kits for staff and students, and expand testing capacity within our schools and our communities. We want to thank our educators, administrators, and school staff for their efforts to navigate the pandemic and ensure our schools remain safely open, so that our students have access to in-person education, nutritious meals, and the social-emotional supports and other critical services schools provide. It is because of the dedication of our educators that the Connecticut education system remains nation-leading and our students remain in the classroom, where we know they learn best.”