Posted on 02/04/2021 10:12:15 PM PST by L.A.Justice
HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA) — It was back to the classroom this week for the 120 teachers in the Huntington Beach Union High School District who have been teaching from home since the school year began.
The option of remote teaching is no longer being offered by the district, which has prompted a group of students to organize a virtual strike in support of their teachers who have been forced to use their sick time or take a leave of absence if they do not feel safe returning to campus.
“The teachers who felt OK to be there, a majority of them do not have severe health issues, and I think it almost proves that these teachers aren’t staying home to be lazy,” Samantha Shaw, an organizer of the student strike, said. “They genuinely have health issues or their family members have health issues so we’re advocating for this minority of teachers to be able to teach at home until it is safe.”
According to the teachers union, there were 80 teachers from a variety of high schools who said they were not comfortable returning for health reasons and would not return until after they have been vaccinated — using up precious sick days or going out on leave.
“We would like them to be able to return to their remote assignments so that they can continue to teach from home,” Shawne Hume, HBUHS District Educators Association president, said. “The students can learn from campus with an adult in the classroom supervising them while their teacher teaches them.”
The student organizers started an online petition stating that the district’s decision “jeopardizes the education of many HBUHSD students,” especially those enrolled in advanced courses, but the students said nothing has convinced the district to change course.
“We’ve had numerous students voice their strong opinions in support of the teachers, and the district still has not listened,” Shaw said.
The students said they planned to try again at next week’s school board meeting.
The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Games and Animation faculty really don’t need classroom time (students usually have better laptops than classroom lab computers anyways, and our render farm is remote-access anyways).
Audio Production is done mostly with DAWs (I teach ProTools) on student laptops now. Video Production mostly uses Media Composer or one of the Adobe Products like Premiere Pro.
Only audio studio classes need the actual recording studios. And those studios are available for student booking.
Same with video camera gear and green-screen rooms. The students can book out cameras and other recording gear for their student film productions. Video productions outside still take place.
This “not comfortable” crap started about thirty years ago. I had an employee tell me they weren’t comfortable doing something that was part of their job. I told them to “punch out.” Nothing would get me riled up more than those three words “I’m not comfortable.” My favorite response to this juvenile excuse was “I wasn’t comfortable getting out of bed at 0500 this morning, but I did.” I’m not comfortable writing this comment.
Bingo. Children of divorced parents who are seeking the house with the least amount of rules often say they are “not comfortable” spending time with the parent who has more rules (often the dad). This usually pleases mom to no end spiraling into snowflakedom.
When all is said and done, in some minority/urban school districts, there will be quite a few kids who will not have attended any school or had any learning for 2 years, or more.
What will their prospects be, and what will their neighborhoods be like?
"The world needs ditchdiggers, too."
What if somebody held a virtual strike and nobody showed up?
Would it still be a strike?
Guess that “I’m not comfortable” comment is directed at me.
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I absolutely have no problem returning to the classroom after the mask, face shield and gloves mandate expires.
Before that, no way in effing hell. Getting drenched in sweat, can’t see out of a fogged up face shield, With the only ones I can wear interfering with comfortable glasses wearing, constantly having to either repeating myself or asking others to repeat them selves (words out of a mask sounds like mumbling to me), the feeling of hyperventilating and severe mask acne is not worth it.
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