Misplaced Efforts?

We have officially moved to Code Orange in Manitoba, and while the province is taking steps to mitigate the spread, reducing group sizes in certain situations like private gatherings, it is more clear than ever that value of the economy is more important than the health and well-being of staff, students, and communities, as none of the changes apply to schools. 

While I do take consolation in the fact that masks are being proven effective in protecting the wearer from potential infection in addition to spreading the disease, like a condom, no barrier is 100% effective. Further, nothing has been done to address the concerns around lunch time, when all the students in the room remove their masks to eat, even though restaurants have been flagged as dangerous for that very reason. 

From what I have read in the comments of my teacher groups, many teachers are suffering, physically with all sorts of symptoms, mentally with worry, emotionally with heartbreak, and spiritually with despair, because they are afraid, for themselves, but more so for their students. 

Whatever their classroom looks like, at grade levels from kindergarten through high school, when teachers step into the four wall of their learning spaces, with or without windows, at look out at the 20-30 bodies sitting in their classrooms, mostly with masks on their faces, they are afraid. 

Whether the fear is in the forefront of their worries, or pushed to the back of their minds, there is a constant awareness that someone in the school, if not the class, is likely to get sick sooner or later, and that hopefully no one will die. No one knows if it will be a student, a staff member, or a family or community member, but dis-ease is lurking and teachers are feeling it, wondering, "What happens if/when one of "my kids" gets sick?"

Coupled with the fear and uneasiness is the equal dismay that while it is no surprise to teachers that leaders in government and education don't really care about kids or a safe and healthy learning environment, the general public doesn't seem to share our concerns either. 

Maybe it is because the fear is too great for parents to really consider. Maybe it is because the situation hasn't been adequately described by teachers like me. Or maybe it is because it is never reported in the media, because teachers don't really have a voice, despite having a union whose leaders are working hard for us, and despite the fact that we live in a democracy.

I don't have the answers. I know I can't quantify classroom life, and the constant array of individual needs that teachers have to meet, minute by minute, to educate the 25 bodies front of them every single day for the 5-6 hours we spend in the classroom, at least not today.

I can offer a glimpse into the problem.

Cleaning has always been an issue in classrooms. Custodians, like all other staff, have always been spread thin, and do amazing work at the basics, especially in my school. But as with all jobs in schools, one person can only do so much in a given period of time. 

In the past, despite their best efforts, I have always taken some steps to supplement cleaning in my classroom. Though it is not my strongest point, I also work to ensure students take responsibility for state of the room and take ownership for their classroom with regular routines to keep things relatively tidy. My students know the custodians job is to clean the room and not clean up after us. 

Like most best practices, I am not alone in the care I take for my classroom. And like many others I have a secret stash of wipes hidden away, as they are technically not allowed by Workplace Health and Safety. I used to take them out once a week and now I use them every day.

Every morning when I arrive, I wipe down all 12 of my big 1.38 metre tables, as well as my desk, the 4 single desks, the phone, and the 4 computer keyboards and mice in the classroom. It takes an extra 5 to 10 minutes each morning. 

If they are around, the kids would help, but technically they can't use the wipes, so I can't can't let them. The other officially provided cleanser is so strong I need gloves to use it, and since I don't have gloves, I don't use it on the tables. I use it to spray communal supplies, like sharpeners and scissors, that are collected on a towel at the end of the day because I don't have to touch it, but I don't want to spray that chemical where the kids work and eat.

At lunch students have a bucket with some water, some dish soap, and a cloth and are strongly encouraged to wipe down their desks, and then wash their hands well, before they eat. I remind them every day before I leave to eat my own lunch, except the day when I am on duty and they begin eating before I get back. 

I am grateful my collective agreement provides me time to go to a safe space to eat my lunch, which also comes with a sense of guilt, as there is no real assurance my students will  follow through to clean theirs. And so the risk grows. Though there is a supervisor who visits the room and ensures order and physical safety while students are having their lunches, it is impossible to ensure all the classrooms they cover get cleaned, or every student washes their hands. And even assuming they all do, there still remain multiple students removing their masks to eat at once, as well as other students who leave school grounds and walk to Shell, or meet their friends in the park, increasing their number of contacts. 

Despite the Code Orange, numbers in students cohorts seem to go unnoticed, as does news of any steps being taken to improve air quality in classrooms, even as winter approaches, and cases in schools continue to grow. Are air purifiers being purchased for interior classrooms with no windows, at the least? 

If not for reducing the number of students in schools at one time, where is the money provided being spent?

I haven't seen more custodial staff in my building, only the same custodians working harder as the demands of their jobs increase. There are more surfaces to clean more often and the worry of illness spreading on their shoulders if they do not. 

Traditionally in my classroom at the end of the day, along with clearing desks, picking up garbage off the floor, and tidying the room, we also stack the chairs, allowing for easier cleaning of the floors. In recent days we have been asked to leave the chairs on the ground so they can be cleaned as well.

With so many high touch surfaces areas, like tables, desks, computers, doorknobs, Plexiglas, phones, and the mounting evidence that surfaces remain much less important than the quality of air we breathe and the necessity to social distance and limit the number of people in the room breathing the same air for extended periods of time, cleaning every chair in a school just seems ridiculous.

We have continued to stack our chairs at the end of each day and arrive to a clean classroom each morning, which I wipe down again anyway. One day last week, I was noticing this with my students, as they were taking their chairs.

I mentioned that if they felt the need to have a clean chair they were welcome to grab the soap and water and wash their chair. No one did, which didn't surprise me, as they all seem to be taking things in stride. I commented that we are all better off just washing our hands regularly as the likelihood of contracting COVID from a chair is very slim.

As I spoke I went on to make a flippant remark that I then repeated to several colleagues, including my principal, stating it was my insight of the week, though it happened first thing last Monday morning. Since then, I have come to understand that the comment actually represents so many policies and procedures that I perceive as misplaced efforts at best, and issues that could have completely been avoided if different choices, like reducing class sizes, had been put in place.

As I remarked how ridiculous it is spending time and energy wiping down chairs, I stated, "If someone is putting their face where their butt is supposed to be then they have bigger problems than COVID."

Now I am just hoping our leaders in government and education don't have there faces where their butts are supposed to go.