Pennsylvania Ping!
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Posted on 08/18/2021 1:08:19 PM PDT by lightman
The union representing Pennsylvania’s teachers is urging the state’s K-12 schools to require students and staff to wear masks.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association said masking is a key step to ensuring students can go to school in person all year long. The question of mask requirements in schools has emerged as a volatile topic nationwide, even as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have spiked dramatically in recent weeks.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends students wear masks in school, regardless of their vaccination status, but it is not a requirement. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has said repeatedly in recent weeks he will not impose a statewide mask requirement, but he has said his administration recommends local school districts to require masks.
“Masking up is essential to keeping in-person learning going all year,” PSEA President Rich Askey said in a statement Wednesday. The PSEA represents about 178,000 active and retired teachers and school employees.
Some Pennsylvania schools have already resumed classes. Most school districts will be welcoming back students over the next two weeks.
“We know that safe in-person instruction is the best setting for students to learn,” Askey said in his statement. “For that reason, PSEA wants to see every school in the state start the school year in person, continue in person, and finish in person. That will be impossible if schools have to close their doors because of a rapid spread of this virus.
“That is why PSEA strongly encourages every school district in Pennsylvania to require students and staff to wear masks in school buildings as part of a multi-layered approach to keeping our schools safe and open for in-person instruction, along with other measures like social distancing and promoting vaccination where possible,” he said.
Health officials have seen an uptick of COVID-19 cases among children in Pennsylvania and nationwide. While serious illness among kids remains rare, health officials have said they have seen more children in hospitals with COVID-19 in recent weeks.
Most school districts throughout central Pennsylvania aren’t requiring students to wear masks, although some have said masks will be required. The Philadelphia School District, the state’s largest, is requiring students and staff to wear masks.
The CDC has said masks must be worn among those using public transportation, including schools buses. Most schools (but not all) said they are complying with the mask rule on buses.
Some health officials have worried about more kids getting exposed to COVID-19 when school resumes. The COVID-19 vaccines haven’t been approved for children under the age of 12.
The delta variant of the coronavirus has spread rapidly nationwide, particularly in areas with lower vaccination rates. Pennsylvania’s vaccination rate is higher than most other states, and some doctors are cautiously optimistic that infections and hospitalizations in Pennsylvania won’t reach the levels of some other states in the south.
Statewide, 1,275 people are being treated in hospitals due to COVID-19, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The number of hospitalizations has more than quadrupled since mid-July. It remains well below the peak of about 6,300 in December.
All public schools are planning for in-person classes this year, Wolf administration officials have said. Over the last school year, most school districts utilized a mix of in-person and remote instruction, while some schools relied on virtual learning for most of the year.
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
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Teachers worrying about Themselves not the children
Screw the unions!
Teachers, the most frightened people on earth.
“Hey, teacher....leave those kids alone!”
The parents should Demand the Teachers submit to Weekly Aids, Hepatitis and Drug tests then
There is Brown U. study that indicates IQ's of infants are lowered because of mask use of those around them. Masks may not lower IQ's of school age children, but they certainly impede communication. That in turns affects learning. Of course, teachers ignore science and go for propaganda. There is no evidence that children will become seriously ill from COVID. Teachers want the dumbing down of America. It absolute BS.
It’s time for parents to pull their children out of public school and start homeschooling them or sending them to a good private school.
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We needed a vaccine because masks didn't work.
Now we need masks because the vaccine doesn't work.
Using a disposable facemask to prevent the transmission of an airborne respiratory virus is like using chicken wire to keep out mosquitos.
This is really about control and submission.
These people are evil.
Maybe the kids can start saying “WHAT”,en masse, when teachers start talking through a mask. You can’t understand what anybody is saying through a mask. Everything comes out like a train conductor announcing trains and stations.
Charlie Brown teacher wah-wah.
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