Rantz: Tacoma teachers’ COVID stunt shamefully selfish and objectively racist

Teachers in Tacoma who refused to teach in-person classes on Wednesday engaged in a shameful display of abject selfishness. Their attempt to use minority children as human props was disturbingly racist.

Citing concerns over the COVID policies, a group of activist teachers from Safe Return Tacoma staged a “sick out” to call attention to their demands. But their complaints are contrived.

These teachers made it very clear: Not only do they not care about your children, they have no interest in returning to work. Their concerns have no basis in the science or the data. And they deserve harsh scorn, not understanding.

These Tacoma teachers are selfish

Safe Return Tacoma has a list of four demands, none of which are reasonable.

They claim mitigation policies aren’t being followed on campus, when they are.

“That’s why we’ve addressed all the issues with our labor partners in weekly and ongoing discussions,” Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Dan Voelpel told KIRO 7 TV. “Because we care so much about student and staff member health and safety, we’ve followed all the requirements, recommendations and guidance of our state and local health departments and the state Department of Labor & Industries for the safe return to schools of our staff and students.”

These teachers want retroactive hazard pay for teachers who have been working inside the classroom. But their presence in the classroom, with a lack of COVID spread, shows the mitigation policies in place actually work.

But the most absurd position is that they refuse to go back to the classroom until everyone in the community has access to the vaccine, including kids.

And kids won’t receive the vaccines for quite some time. The tests have only been done on adults and kids have shown to not be adversely impacted by COVID, nor are schools super-spreaders.

Teachers know this. They do not care.

Using people of color as props

Teachers like Andrea Knuckles will say just about anything to avoid going back to the classroom.

In an interview with KIRO 7 TV, she implied parents and students didn’t even want to go back into the classroom. That would make Tacoma parents and students a country-wide anomaly.

Of course, Knuckles also presented herself as a hero! But she’s willing to use students of color as props for her agenda.

“What about our community? Because sure, we can have a big push and say, ‘Yeah, lets all of us jump the line and we all get vaccinated. Great, we’re all safe,'” Knuckles told KIRO 7 TV. “But our families members of our community and our students are not. And many of our students are in Black and brown communities. They are in multi-generational houses and they are particularly vulnerable to this disease.”

Isn’t she a hero, folks? She especially cares about her students of color. Except she’s just using them to justify staying home.

What she leaves out, of course, is the financial hardships that minority families face while trying to figure out how to manage going to their job (they don’t have the privilege of union protection when acting out in their own self-interest above others) while finding someone to watch their children.

Students of color are also disproportionately impacted by the mental health consequences of COVID isolation. When using kids as props, it’s easy to leave out important details.

Teachers pretend to be heroes

These teachers claim calling in “sick” to protest COVID policies is about protecting your kids. It is not.

It is about maintaining a work environment where they can lounge in sweatpants in their living rooms, with Judge Judy on mute in the background, as they feign interest in the remote classroom, all so they can avoid having to brush their teeth in the morning or returning to a commute.

Teachers are often referred to as heroes for the work they do taking care of society’s children. They’ve earned societal goodwill for decades of tireless work. Most teachers are hard working, honest people who care deeply about most of your kids (let’s be honest, some of your kids are brats and teachers want them out of the classroom).

Not all teachers, however, are dedicated or hardworking. Some argue in bad faith. And yes, some actually are lazy, playing into the stereotypes too many people use to label all teachers.

These teachers in Tacoma aren’t heroes … far from it. Heroes would return to the classroom, not force kids to suffer in a remote learning environment where they’re falling behind academically and struggling emotionally.

Parents should speak up

Parents need to step up and call these selfish teachers out. I discussed this very issue in my Newsweek column a few weeks ago. It is worth repeating this week:

Pressure on the unions is growing. But it needs to be amplified with the help of parents who feel uncomfortable calling out teachers. They must join the movement. They should ignore that inner voice convincing them that criticism of a union position is somehow an attack on the profession of teaching itself. It is not. Indeed, many teachers want to return to the classroom.

Pushing teachers to return to the classroom isn’t an attack on teachers, but a defense of your child. Defending your son or daughter should be more important than defending a teachers’ union.

Reasonable demands with an eye toward getting back into the classroom are fair and should be heard. But unreasonable demands that ensure you stay out for the next year? They deserve to be admonished.

Advocate for your kids. Call these teachers out.

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