With parents’ deadline looming on in-person classes, protesters rally against fall CPS plan: ’My kids are not an experiment’

With Chicago Public Schools parents facing a deadline days away to opt in or out of in-person classes this fall, parents and teachers are rallying in Chicago and across the country Monday for schools to open safely or not at all.

In Logan Square Monday morning, a group of adults and children gathered in a parking lot to share their concerns about CPS’s fall tentative plan — a combination of in-person class and remote learning. They held multicolored streamers with butterflies, uniting in a circle.

Sandy Viveros, 28, said she is disappointed in the plans CPS has provided and doesn’t yet feel comfortable sending her children, ages 5 and 10, to school.

“They’re not really giving us enough information about what their safety (plan) is going to be. And also, I’m here because my kids are not an experiment, that’s basically what they’re trying to do,” Viveros said.

Another speaker said she has seven children and the past two months “have been very difficult for me and my family,” adding that she’s asking CPS for a realistic plan for school in the fall.

“This virus is not a game,” she said.

A 7-year-old boy addressed the group in Spanish, saying he doesn’t feel safe going back to school. The boy said he loves school but cherishes his life more, according to a woman who translated his remarks into English during the rally.

Organizers noted the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Black and Latino people. One speaker noted many of the families present live in the 60639 zip code where “we have a lot of families who tested positive.”

CPS asked families at the end of last week to let them know by Friday if they plan to enroll their children in the hybrid learning plan floated last month or continue learning from home. A district communication said they sent text and email messages to each child’s parent and guardian, asking them to complete a form by Friday “to ensure schools can plan effectively.”

CPS has not yet released its final plan, leaving parents to either choose based on the draft version or wait it out in hopes the final one comes out this week. The district has said the final reopening plan would come the first week of August, after a public engagement period, and that later in the month, closer to the first day of school, they’ll make a final determination about whether a hybrid model is safe.

Though students who opt for the hybrid model can switch to remote learning at any time, those that start the school year remote will have to wait until the second quarter to switch to hybrid. CPS officials have stressed that they will only reopen schools if it’s safe but also that schools will likely need to reopen at some point before any COVID-19 vaccine is fully rolled out. Many parents have also expressed support for reopening schools.

But the Chicago Teachers Union, which is also hosting a protest and caravan to City Hall Monday, has strongly advocated for a remote-only start to the school year, as several other suburb and big-city districts have decided to do.

The groups are part of a nationwide action for equitable schools, demanding no in-person school “until the scientific and public-health data supports it.” The campaign is also pushing for police-free schools, adequate staffing of counselors and nurses, safe conditions including lower class sizes, and more community support for families.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey on Monday said it’s not appropriate to have in-person learning “in an environment with raging contagion,” and that the union won’t stand for it.

“The mayor does not have the guts to close the schools,” Sharkey said outside CTU headquarters. “They’re putting it on us to close the schools. That’s what we feel like is happening.”

Andrea Parker, a teacher at Fulton Elementary, said during the union rally that having a plan for “if” something happens at a school is not enough.

“It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when, and I do not want to be the when. I do not want my students to be the when,” Parker said. “I do not want to be the sacrificial lamb because you’re forcing us to go into an environment that is dangerous.”

The groups were headed to City Hall is separate caravans to continue their protest there.

Rather than spend time and resources planning for both hybrid and remote options, CPS should focus on making remote learning as good as it can be, the teachers union has argued.

Melanie Hidalgo, 22, a university student, attended the Logan Square rally to urge for remote learning. She said she helped her 11-year-old brother during the spring months with his online schoolwork.

“It wasn’t impossible,” she said, “and it wasn’t all day either. ... Remote learning is something that should be done throughout all CPS, especially because we know they don’t have those resources to effectively clean schools” daily.

Check back for updates.

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