Susie O’Brien: Health of our teachers is not to be trifled with
Premier Daniel Andrews has said everyone who can work from home should do so but many dedicated state and private school teachers are still being told to front up or risk losing their jobs. We wouldn’t expect anyone else to be placed at such risk, so why teachers, asks Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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Teachers’ lives matter.
Premier Daniel Andrews said all workers who can work at home should do so. So why doesn’t this include teachers?
Many dedicated state and private school teachers are still being denied this right, and are being told to front up to work or risk losing their jobs.
Some of these aren’t even teaching year 11 or 12 students, but are forced to leave the safety of their homes and come onto campus and teach remotely.
This is why teachers, and many of their students in Melbourne’s north and western suburbs, are petrified and anxious.
They’re scared they’re putting their lives at risk — and the lives of their students — just by turning up for work.
On Monday a dozen more schools around Melbourne were forced to close due to cases of COVID-19.
I am not calling for all schools to be closed and a return to remote learning for all, because there are some campuses in low-risk areas that are still relatively safe.
But principals need to make decisions in the best interests of the health and safety of their staff and students, not just the grades of their years 11 and 12s.
We need to listen to teachers who say they don’t want to be squashed into overheated classrooms with 28 other adults in rooms with windows that don’t open.
A squirt of sanitiser and a three-day-old mask isn’t going to stop the spread of the virus in a setting like that. We wouldn’t expect anyone else to be placed at such risk at work, so why should teachers?
It’s too dangerous for parliament to be sitting and yet all schools are deemed to be safe. It doesn’t make sense.
Policymakers are forgetting a third of year 12s are over 18.
While it’s true younger children don’t catch and transmit the virus, new studies show older children can do so just like adults.
A South Korean study investigated 5706 people with COVID-19 symptoms. It found children younger than 10 transmit to others much less than adults, and those aged 10 to 19 can spread the virus as effectively as adults.
Other research shows kids from at least the age of 16 have transmission rates and symptoms very like adults.
Parents like me breathed a sigh of relief that senior students would return to class in Lockdown 2.0. But it’s been a very different story for teachers. They’re on the front line like healthcare workers yet there’s very little PPE in sight.
It’s not just an issue for teachers in hot-spot schools, but teachers from hot-spot suburbs teaching at schools with low virus numbers.
Of course, this is not just about the safety of teachers, but their students as well. If teachers are at risk, so are their students.
There’s evidence specialist school teachers educating and caring for some of our must vulnerable kids with disabilities have even more serious concerns.
Many are teaching kids who spend 90 minutes each way on a heated bus with no social distancing, thermometers that don’t work properly outside, and a lack of substitute staff.
Once they’re at school, many students often don’t know how to keep away from each other, and many have personal hygiene issues.
Teachers and support staff wipe noses, wash hands and help with the toileting of their pupils, who often have other health issues as well as intellectual or physical disabilities.
These vital workers were dismissed by the Premier as “respite” workers who needed to work to give parents a break. They’re not carers, they’re trained professionals who should be listened to. As a teacher told me, she and her colleagues “are expected to carry on as though there isn’t a pandemic … we are the sacrificial lambs”.
The fact many staff at Ashwood School in Melbourne’s outer east have stopped coming to work says it all. These are the most dedicated bunch of teachers you could ever meet, and yet they can’t do it anymore. They are exhausted, scared and overwhelmed at what they’re expected to do day after day.
Workers in specialist schools need to be given more support, more protective equipment and a choice about whether they come or not. We need to think about their needs, not just the needs of parents.
Teachers at mainstream schools should be given a choice as to where — and if — they work. They should work at home where they can.
Schools must also do a better job of making senior students socially-distance on campus.
Our kids’ grades are important, but nothing is more vital than the health and safety of teachers during a global pandemic
Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist