The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) on Sunday announced that it is allowing educators to take note of "issues in your classroom" concerning New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's new quarantine guidelines for students. The group took to social media to share the announcement, along with an online form that "documents" such violations through information and up to five photos.
"If you encounter issues in your classroom related to the mayor's new quarantine guidelines for students, including cases where students are not able to maintain 3 feet of distance, please use this form to document them," the announcement posted to Twitter read.
The link led to an online form where educators can report quarantine rule violations by providing information and photos. The form also captures the teacher's name and personal phone number, and school's name and location.
According to Fox News, the form said that new COVID rules established by Mayor De Blasio were announced on September 20. The new COVID rules said that students need not quarantine after a positive COVID case arises in their classroom, as long as they were properly wearing masks and were three feet apart.
"Please use this form to document any issues in your classroom related to these new quarantine guidelines, including situations where students are seated with less than three feet of distance," the form read. "You may submit photos and/or describe interactions with the DOE's test and trace investigators."
According to the New York Post, a federal appeals court has hit pause on the city's vaccine mandate that orders all teachers and faculty to be vaccinated by Monday, September 27. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted a temporary injunction against the mandate on Friday minute and sent the case to a three-judge panel for an "expedited review." The hearing isn't until Wednesday.
The Department of Education said that more than 82% of educators and school employees in New York City have been vaccinated. However, 28,000 more workers have not been inoculated with the COVID vaccine.
United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew said that the court's decision on Friday "gives the mayor and city Department of Education more time to put together a real plan for dealing with the expected staff vacancies the mandate would create." and hopes that they "take advantage of this opportunity."
Teachers and other school workers who decline the COVID vaccine will be forced to take a year of unpaid leave with health benefits or resign from their positions with severance pay from the DOE, which offers medical and religious exemptions that they said they would only grant sparingly.
Christina Coscia, a 40 year old site coordinator at the District 20 prekindergarten program in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and a member of the coalition Teachers for Choice, said that she does not believe the COVID vaccine saves lives because even those who have gotten jabbed still get COVID and are able to spread it. She now worries about paying a mortgage on a Prospect Heights apartment she purchased in the spring in the midst of losing her job over the vaccine mandate.
