The current Chicago Public Schools mess is a perfect microcosm of this country’s increasingly boneheaded handling of the coronavirus pandemic, writes columnist RexHuppke.
Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez discusses the possibility of a Chicago Teachers Union vote for teachers to work remotely during the current COVID-19 surge with Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Jan. 4, 2022.
Even before the omicron variant started spreading, anyone paying attention to the nature of the pandemic knew the weeks following the end-of-year holidays were going to be problematic. Then once omicron hit America, doing to us exactly what it was already doing to other countries, Chicago Public Schools officials and Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her administration had to know the month of January would be even worse than expected.
But that desire for normalcy doesn’t jibe with the unpredictability of a virus. The problem we’ve had, almost from the start, is a lack of patience and an unwillingness to accept that sometimes our understanding of new things evolves, and circumstances change. The pandemic seemed to be receding, but now, with omicron and the colder winter months, it has surged again. Some can’t handle that concept and say we just need to open up everything and live our lives.
Again, YOUR kids may be just fine. But it will quickly become impossible to keep the school open because you’re going to have too many adults out sick. Kids will get sick as well, and they’ll go home and spread it to other adults who may then have to miss work, and on and on it goes.But we knew this was coming. The fact that school officials and the Lightfoot administration seemed focused solely on keeping kids in class explains why parents and students are currently having to wrestle this bear.
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