Arizona public schools bracing for ‘sickouts’ from teachers weary of in-person classes

(The Center Square) – Two of the state’s larger public school districts are preparing for a potential showdown between administrations that say students should be back in the classroom and their teachers who say Arizona’s COVID-19 pandemic makes it too dangerous to be teaching.

Staff at both Chandler Unified School District and Gilbert Public Schools are planning to call off sick en masse in the coming days, something that could hobble both district’s plans to get their students back into school.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Chandler Education Association acknowledged a planned sickout coming Tuesday, saying the state’s surging COVID-19 numbers make it impossible to justify returning to the classroom.

“Given this data, it’s no wonder so many educators are frustrated, anxious, angry, and scared about returning to work. As concerning as these current numbers are, experts overwhelmingly expect things to get worse after the holidays as those who chose to ignore mitigation recommendations by traveling and gathering in large groups return to home and school, where community spread of COVID will surely accelerate.”

Chandler teachers held a sickout on Dec. 11, seeing nearly 150 teachers absent from work.

The union wants the district to remain in virtual learning until they can implement recommendations from a task force focusing on the matter.

“We are painfully aware that virtual instruction is not ideal for many students, and many of our educators agree that virtual instruction is one of the most significant challenges they have faced in their careers,” they said. “But many of our educators agree with state and county health officials that it’s worth the temporary challenges to follow other East Valley districts and temporarily shift to full-time virtual instruction to allow for COVID to come back under control and for vaccination measures to take hold to help prevent what University of Arizona researchers say could potentially be “‘a catastrophe on a scale of the worst natural disaster the state has ever experienced.’”

Chandler’s school board plans to meet Monday afternoon to discuss the next steps.

Multiple outlets have confirmed Gilbert Public Schools is also facing a similar action by teachers for returning to classrooms in a hybrid model starting on Jan. 5 and returning to full in-person instruction on Jan. 11. The Gilbert Education Association released a statement last week saying they’re not involved in the planned sickout and wouldn’t endorse it.

Remote learning, the preferred method of many teachers’ unions nationwide as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, has proven costly and difficult for students. A study released in August from BankRate found three out of five parents nationwide said remote learning will negatively impact their finances, with more than a third saying they would have to either reduce their hours at work or quit altogether.

Just as the RedforEd work stoppages in 2018 weren’t formal strikes, any mass undertaking of sick days would not constitute a strike since teacher strikes are illegal in Arizona.

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