You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Some Chicago Teachers Refuse to Return to Classrooms over Coronavirus Safety Fears

HeadlineJan 05, 2021

In Chicago, scores of teachers refused to return to classrooms Monday as the Chicago public school district reopened in-person classes for the first time since March. Members of the Chicago Teachers Union say they’re preparing a strike authorization vote unless school officials can guarantee stronger protections against the coronavirus. This is special education teacher Annie Kellogg.

Annie Kellogg: “All of this absolutely breaks my heart. It breaks all of our hearts. But we cannot be the great teachers that we are under these unsafe conditions. And what kind of teachers would we be if we showed our students that our overwhelming anxiety and fear are the most common feelings that are associated with their classroom, their school building and their first school experiences?”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top