#bced unmasked A raw

Let me be clear, I am not giving up on #bced. It is my life’s work & I love my students, the science of learning, the craft of the profession, the crazy of the job. But it is time to take a step back and be much more targeted in where I expend my energy. https://twitter.com/TalkerTeacher/status/1345284581918818304

In my years of teaching teenagers, let me tell you, I’ve seen it all, heard it all, been in on the joke, and more times than I care to admit, been the reason for the laughter. That’s okay, I like to make my teens laugh. #bced

But I’m out of laughter right now. A deep sadness has settled in my heart and I just can’t shake it. I would hazard a guess that this resonates with many #bced staff right now, and many parents, too, who have been paying attention to what’s been going on.

So, excuse my bluntness, but the time for my diplomacy is long past. A plague o’ both your houses PHO and @bcndp. Because, in effect, that is what you have allowed to descend on mine. #bced #bcpoli

I really actually thought this was all misunderstanding. That PHO, @CDCofBC, DBH, in their ivory tower naiveté (or arrogance), using their faint childhood memories as reference, did not understand how schools actually functioned & made a safety plan with false assumptions. #bced

So what #bced needed to do was explain that what PHO put in place to protect us was inadequate & explain why. I thought that the @BCSTA_News trustees & supers were too politically cowardly to say anything, so they weren’t giving good ‘this is how it is on the ground’ advice.

Thought @BCSTA_President wanted to run for @bcndp so she was never going to be voice of dissent. Indeed, she was the parrot, the rubber stamp. That @BCPVPA was too muzzled & entrenched in power systems, too afraid of political retribution to say anything as wanted to climb. #bced

And when @bctf back in May was so slow to react, I was confused. There were sharp voices within @bctf trying to tamp as we voiced our concerns. Told to go through locals who in large part downplayed concerns, unable or unwilling, waiting for direction from the mother ship. #bced

The PHO says we are safe, so we must be safe, was the mantra. There are clearly people @bctf with a focus on moving up in @bcndp and/or @bcfed. Neither of whom have been friends of #bced staff during this pandemic. At all. Shame on you all. We are abandoned. #bced

And nothing has changed, even as a mountain of evidence was produced worldwide about schools as vectors for transmission, the dangers of close unmasked contact, the threat due to variants. Full classes for hours with unmasked people in crowded rooms with poor ventilation. #bced

Truthfully, you know what my best defense is right now? Being a shitty teacher. Stand and deliver, no collab work, rows, seatwork. That’s my best fucking defense right now. And hand sanitizer for my classroom I bloody well buy myself. #bced

Where is #bced almost year into pandemic? Last week’s political announcement was worse than no announcement at all. Why? Because it was made to *look* like @JM_Whiteside, DBH & @BCSTA_President were doing something, without actually doing anything. Nothing for elementary schools.

And at high school, they actually made it worse. Now, instead of keeping masks on all class, students can contaminate them by taking them on and off multiple times a class. WTAF. All that was missing from the three stooges was the “woo woo woo” sound. #bced

So many months of trying to get people to understand that there are no *actual* layers of protection, that teachers, EAs, other staff deserve the same protection as every other worker in BC, trying to involve @worksafebc and any other organization that might help. Anyone. #bced

Many #bced staff & students are getting sick but data is hidden, infections are downplayed, child testing is low, it’s blamed on adults & deemed community transmission, long haulers are never mentioned. For what? Why? So DBH can sell the book in March with a consistent narrative?

So after many months of this crazytown by DBH & @bcndp, I can come to but ONE conclusion & I cannot believe it even as I write it:

they want our children to get sick. But hopefully, fingers crossed, not *too* sick. #bced

The lack of safety and the downplaying of school infections means they are trying to get our children sick. They certainly aren’t trying hard to prevent it. And #bced staff is collateral damage and everyone has just tacitly agreed with their silence.

So to all you so-called #bced leaders & labour champions who have just left us to fend for ourselves, a plague on all your houses. Come into my crowded class with unmasked students in close proximity, with poor ventilation, run gauntlet at lunch as 100s eat unmasked in the halls.

Will you? Of course not. You sit in your zoom meetings, masked meetings, ventilated offices, safely. Some of you vaccinated already. Be calm. Be kind. Be safe. That turned out to be branding for a book.

So I say it again, a plague ‘o your houses for bringing it into mine. #bced