CT Teachers Say They Are Unsafe In Schools: Survey

CONNECTICUT —Gov. Ned Lamont has long contended that, as a result of their regular deep cleaning regimens and ability to easily enforce virus mitigation protocols such as mask-wearing and social distancing, schools were the "safest places to be." A new survey of Connecticut teachers shows they clearly disagree.

In fact, 68.8 percent of the educators polled disagreed with the governor's assessment of the workplace's safety during the Age of Coronavirus, and another 17.44 percent were "unsure."

The survey of over 4,000 educators was conducted by the American Federation of Teachers and the Connecticut Education Association, a teacher advocacy and lobbying group. The questionnaire was administered Dec.14-17.

"Educators want the same thing everyone else does—for the pandemic to be over," said CEA President Jeff Leake. "They want to be back with their students, safely teaching in the classroom, but we are not there yet. Experts predict it's going to be a difficult winter. Cases are expected to increase before we see a decline and before a vaccine becomes widely available."

Regardless of whether they thought classrooms were safe, teachers were in overwhelming agreement that teaching there in person while simultaneously instructing students remotely was not working. Over 74 percent of those surveyed responded negatively to the question, "Do you think delivering instruction both in-class and remotely at the same time negatively impacts student learning?" Over 16 percent were "unsure," and less than 10 percent were on board with the practice.

Nearly 60 percent of the educators polled said that teaching both in-person and remote learners at the same time was the top challenge they faced in the current school environment. Second and third among their new trials were "lack of planning time" and "contact tracing - lack of transparency and consistency," according to the survey results.

Over 92 percent of the teachers surveyed fretted that their workload had gotten bigger during the pandemic.

“The whole process has been extremely difficult on educators, who are concerned about getting sick and spreading the virus to their families,” said American Federation of Teachers Connecticut President Jan Hochadel. "Many are also concerned about not being able to do their best because they are stressed, pushed beyond their limits, left with little or no planning time. That’s especially true for those forced to teach both in-person and remotely at the same time. This survey highlights the need to move to remote learning through mid-January if the virus continues to spread and further jeopardize the safety of our communities."

Over 98 percent of the teachers said there had been at least one positive coronavirus case confirmed in their school. The most common administrative response to the COVID-19 confirmation by far (84.78 percent) was to quarantine those affected, teachers said. But those surveyed were nearly split over whether they thought their district was being transparent regarding contact tracing and reporting COVID-19 outbreaks. Just over 50 percent indicated they thought their districts were being forthright about all the positive cases, and 47.51 percent said they were not. Less than 3 percent were "unaware of any outbreaks." When teachers are aware of a positive case of the virus in their school, nearly 47 percent of them felt that "not enough is being done." Another 33.8 percent were "unsure."

Teachers are also vaccine-anxious, according to the survey results. Over 87 percent of those polled believe members of their profession should be next in line after health care workers and nursing home residents to receive the coronavirus vaccine. An even higher percentage (90.93) believe that special education teachers and paraprofessionals who work directly with special education students, and educators who are at high risk, should be among the first group of educators to receive the vaccine. Over 42 percent of the teachers surveyed believe that the vaccine should be mandatory for all school employees.

Lamont said Monday that the Department of Public Health would be releasing more information on the next phase of vaccine rollout in early January.