It's all about the children

Or about union power — one of them, anyway

Teachers try to persuade students not to return after the school board votes to reopen classes

Parents of students enrolled at Pleasanton Unified School District, located roughly 40 miles east of San Francisco, told ABC 7 that some of the district’s teachers used time during Zoom classes Friday morning to convince students that returning to school wouldn’t be a pleasant experience.

“Essentially, I’ll have my desk sort of taped off and I can’t really leave that area,” one teacher said over Zoom, according to a recording ABC 7 obtained. 

“If you want to go to school for social reasons, recognize that you absolutely will not have that. There’s no question that you will not be allowed to interact in any fashion. You cannot work with a partner. You cannot speak with anyone in your class if they are closer than six feet away.”

(White Oakland teacher and union secretary makes it all about race, points finger at “rich, white parents” in school reopening debate.

“I’m sad it has come to this from the angle of race and social class,” said Nikki Cowger, who has a third grader in special education and a fourth grader in the district. “What we should be focusing on is getting our kids back in school.”

Cowger said that in her efforts to get more traction around opening schools in Oakland for those families who want to return, she and her husband have been called a racist and rich white supremacists by union leaders and their allies.

Autumn McDonald, a Black mother of a kindergartener and a third grader, wants her children back in school, she told Graff.

My husband and I are working parents. The level to which our kids not being in school has caused stress for us and stress for them is beyond the pale. The other thing is that I believe in the science. I know a lot of parents of color who believe in the science.”

Meyer has taken down the tweet.

Here’s Bethany’s union;