The Chicago Teacher Union accused Mayor Lori Lightfoot of locking teachers out of their virtual classrooms after the union voted to return to remote learning. The union claims it was an act of retaliation after the union broke with city officials pushing for in-person learning.
According to The Washington Examiner:
In a pair of tweets sent Wednesday morning, the Chicago Teachers Union said that Lightfoot had “started locking Chicago public school teachers and staff out of their Google Classrooms” and added the hashtag “#LoriLockout.”
In a follow-up tweet Wednesday morning, the union said, “We are being inundated with calls and emails this morning from educators who attempted to log into their platforms to connect with their students and teach remotely, and safely, but are being locked out by Mayor Lightfoot.”
The union voted late Tuesday night to move all classes to remote instruction, a move city officials considered an illegal strike. The city responded by canceling classes for Wednesday.
The union claims that the city’s COVID-19 protocols are insufficient due to the infection surge tied to the omicron variant and are demanding widespread testing, among other measures, before they will set foot in school buildings.
City officials say that in-person learning is safe despite the recent case surge and better for students. Recently, more officials have been pushing for a return to in-person instruction after seeing the detrimental effects remote learning has had on children and the low risk for hospitalization associated with the omicron variant.
