CTU Demanding Better COVID Safety Protocols From CPS

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Teachers Union has firm words for CPS: We know what we're talking about. Listen to us.

The union is demanding better safety protocols during this latest COVID surge adding: "if you're not in the schools, you just don't get it."

CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates had a message for CPS:

"Even if you disagree with us, we have been right. So at some point, the people who do the work, who keep people safe, who need to be safe themselves, who care for our children in these environments, you have to listen to them," she said.

On its Twitter page the union posted a photo of a packed hallway at a CPS high school. Overcrowding in hallways is just one of the union's complaints.

The teachers said students, even the youngest, are in dangerously overcrowded classrooms. They want more and better COVID-19 testing. And they said not enough consideration is given to medically vulnerable staff. A teacher at one school said construction delays have made bathrooms there unusable.

CBS 2 reached out to CPS for comment but the district has yet to respond.

In:
• Chicago Public Schools