Lori Lightfoot Is Insisting on Forcing Chicago Teachers Into Unsafe Schools
Despite Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s own admission that reopening other parts of the city like restaurants would be unsafe given COVID-19 infection rates, she is insisting Chicago teachers and students return to in-person learning. The Chicago Teachers Union has voted to defy the mayor, refusing to return to schools under current conditions.
Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot in Logan Square, 2019. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)
In Logan Square, the Chicago northwest side neighborhood where I live, plain white fliers with black, all-caps text have been pasted up on light posts and newspaper boxes. They read, “LORI LIGHTFOOT IS KILLING TEACHERS.”
In normal times, this might sound like slightly overzealous leftist messaging. But in this case, it’s quite literally true. At least two teachers in the city have died of conditions related to COVID-19 after returning to work in their schools, including a thirty-year veteran first-grade teacher.
The city’s bars and restaurants are operating at significantly reduced capacity at the orders of the mayor, who said last week about eating and drinking establishments, “I am optimistic that we will be able to increase capacity soon, but it would be irresponsible and dangerous to rush to reopen further and undo the incredible progress we have made as a city.” Yet she has ordered teachers and staff back to school starting today and refused to agree to basic safety measures proposed by the Chicago Teachers Union.
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