We are the educators of the Little Rock School District. Many of you know us as the members of the Little Rock Education Association. We are members of the largest public sector union in the United States. Some of us are veteran educators with advanced degrees, numerous hours of training in our practice, and national certifications. Some of us are brand new early career educators who just want to make a difference. There are students and colleagues that love and respect us as valued educators throughout the LRSD. Some of us are mothers. Some of us are fathers. We are sons and daughters. Some of us are sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles. We are all human. Weare all loved by someone. We matter. We care about the students that we serve. We have a conscience. We have morals. We have a strong sense of responsibility. And in the era of Covid-19, we are extremely conflicted. We cannot sleep at night. We worry throughout the day as we bear witness to unsafe practices in our schools and as we find ourselves being put into the position of choosing between making do with what we have been given to work with and being 100% safe. We are the same beloved educators that support the ‘education of your children. It is our collective voice that we raise here for the sake of our precious students. We, as educators, are conflicted morally and ethically with what is happening in our schools. Every single day that we walk into our schools and our classrooms, we struggle with whether or not our being there is contributing to the idea that our schools are safe when we know that they are not. We struggle continuously with the question of the safety of our students in these environments. As our cases continue to escalate in the district, we know that the worst is yet ‘to come. So far, the cases are most likely from activities prior to school starting. By the end of this week, we will likely begin to see cases resulting from being in person at schools. We know that we cannot continue to open the doors and act as if everything is ok. We cannot welcome students into our classrooms and put forth the idea that our schools are safe and that learning is happening as if this were normal times. This situation simply cannot be allowed to continue as it puts every one of our students and educators in danger of deadly consequences. We must puta stop to this insanity now. Every educator in our district knows that our schools are not safe right now, including the administrators. Unfortunately, we have become so accustomed to ‘our professional voices being silenced and set aside, that we have allowed ourselves to be guilted into being a part of this risky endeavor. We are losing some of our best educators because they refuse to be placed in this position and they have the option to leave, either by retirement or by resignation. We call out Governor Asa Hutchinson and Secretary Johnny Key. Shame on you both for putting our wonderful students at risk knowingly and purposefully. You know it is not safe. You are well aware of the risks. You have chosen to manipulate the data to fit your narrative and you have used our love for and loyalty to our students to guilt us into putting them in danger. Every child or educator who falls ill or dies will become your legacy. Shame on you for the social-emotional damage you have caused already to our educators and our students and the 708 West Second Street + Suite 110 = Little Rock, AR 72201 + 501-372-3519 AEA/NEA Affiliate <>trauma that will be inflicted when someone they love dies because of your mandate to open schools for in-person learning while knowing that there is no way to make it completely safe. Educators and parents have been gaslit by the Governor and the Secretary into believing that we can make this work and have some semblance of normalcy in our schools for those children that need to be here in person receiving an education. We are superheroes, but itis not possible. It is not normal. It is mentally, emotionally, and physically traumatic to our students and to our educators and we will suffer the effects of this forever, especially when the inevitable happens and one of our students or colleagues contracts Covid-19 and dies from it or suffers lifelong effects from the complications of this virus. LRSD’s employees are doing their absolute best under extremely difficult circumstances. We are trying to solve problems and work collaboratively together to make the best of a horribly unjust situation. However, there continue to be unsafe situations occurring daily. It seems there is more of a tendency to cover up a problem rather than be judged for having a problem in the first place, which creates extremely unsafe settings in our schools. This is simply an impossible task. Some examples include the following: Lack of safe drinking water available for students and staff Improper or insufficient mask wearing Lack of regular and proper disinfection and/or sanitation practices Lack of social distancing Mask breaks within classroom settings Lack of complete contact tracing and incomplete and proper quarantining of exposed persons 7. Lack of Personal Protection Equipment 8. Parental override of quarantine mandate 9. Unsafe ventilation in buildings 10. Failure to report positive test results 11. Unsafe premature ending of mandatory quarantine 12. Failure to self-quarantine after positive test result or known exposure 13, No staff temperature checks 14. No staff questionnaires completed upon entry to building 15. No visitor questionnaires completed upon entry to building 16. Facilities not receiving routine cleaning-trash emptied, floors cleaned, etc 17. Water fountains in use 18, Students eating outside at picnic tables are not social distancing at all with masks off 19. Doubling up classrooms in-school and assigning one of the teachers to teach virtually which results in no social distancing in that classroom 20. Teaching classes in “pods” instead of following social distancing protocols 21. No disinfecting between class changes 22. No social distancing in halls during class changes 23. Gloves not provided for staff members that need them oyeene24, No safe biohazard disposal containers for contaminated items from cleaning and disinfecting 25. Ilfitting masks on children and adults 26. Dirty masks on children 27. No accommodations for safe virtual teaching for immune-compromised educators-they are being forced to come into a building where students are in attendance, where cases are being reported, and that put them into danger with their only other option to retire, resign, or go without pay on a leave of absence The final injustice may be that the state intends for testing to take place next week, at every level. The Governor had no problem waiving every best practice for educators like class size restrictions and planning time, but he did not see the need to waive the requirement for interim standardized testing. Parents are going to be required to watch a video and sign a confidentiality agreement in order to administer the NWEA test at home. Again, this will add to the trauma that our students are already facing and our parents are going to be overwhelmed and frustrated. At this point, one must really ask of the Hutchinson and Key Team-What exactly is your goal? As positive cases escalate and the virus spirals out of control due to a lack of strong, coordinated leadership, we believe that we have no other choice but to take action. We have 22,000+ students under our collective care. We refuse to risk even one of their lives for political gain. Our schools are not safe for our children. For us to say this publicly is huge. We are the ones who always try to make it work. We are the masters of “monitor and adjust.” We have to face facts. We are in the middle of a global pandemic and people are dying. People are dealing with complications that will be with them the rest of their lives from COVID-19. Arkansas is a red zone state. Pulaski County has the highest number of cases in the state. ‘Arkansas is at risk for a virus surge and we have one of the highest rates of positivity and infection in the entire country. We are breaking records now with our new case rate. Our positivity rates are not going to decline until we take serious action to stop the behaviors that are leading to the increase in cases. We cannot continue to act as if we are invincible. The educators must say, “Not our children, not on our watch.” It is time to move to 100% virtual and keep our children safe. Governor Hutchinson, we expect for you to be a leader and do what needs to be done to keep all of us safe. Forget about politics and focus on what is ‘We appreciate your support. Teresa Knapp Gordon, President