U.S. teachers protest school reopenings

[NFA] Teachers from dozens of school districts nationwide protested plans by some governors to resume in-class instruction, saying it threatens the safety of students, their families and educators.

Lisa Bernhard produced this report.

Teachers from dozens of schools districts this week are protesting plans by some U.S. governors to resume in-class education when the school year begins.

From New York to Los Angeles, Denver to Chicago, their message was clear: keep lessons online until testing shows that classrooms are safe.

“You cannot go to the beach in the city of Chicago!

You cannot drink indoors in the city of Chicago!

But they’re gonna send hundreds of thousands of students into school buildings?!” Advocates for keeping kids at home point to Gwinnett County, Georgia, the state’s largest district, as a cautionary tale.

Students there returned to the classroom last week, but by the next day, 260 of the district’s employees reportedly had been barred from returning because they either tested positive for the coronavirus or had been exposed to someone who had.

In nearby Paulding County, Georgia, Rachel Adamus sent her kids to school on the bus for the first time.

“We have kept them protected for so long, and now they’re going to be in a classroom with however many kids.

Masks are allowed but they’re not mandatory.” Even in New York, once the U.S. epicenter of the virus but now one of the few states that has controlled its spread, protestors came out in droves.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would announce later this week whether to reopen schools in his state.

Cases nationally fell for a second week in a row but rose week-over-week in 20 states, including Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma.

The U.S. has the highest number of cases, at 4.7 million, and highest number of deaths at nearly 156,000, in the world.