Are teacher’s aides ‘essential?’
In the midst of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, there are three types of mistakes an employer can make:
1.) A bad faith decision enacted on good data.
2.) A bad faith decision enacted on bad data.
3.) A good faith decision enacted on bad data.
I am going to make an earnest effort to argue that Albert Gallatin School District (AGSD) is guilty of mistake number three: In other words, the decision to require teacher aides to report to work on Monday, March 30, as COVID-19 spreads exponentially throughout the community is due to ineptitude and myopia — not bad faith.
AGSD has decided to deem its teacher aides “essential” — which makes even the most credulous wonder why. Students have already transitioned to online learning and learning from home. Teachers have already transitioned to teaching from home. A teacher aide’s essential role is to support teachers as it relates to instruction. Then, one may ask — can’t teacher aides support teachers in instruction from home?
Is it the job of the employer, in this case the school district, to arbitrarily decide (and on a whim) who is and who is not deemed “essential”? Is this at the direction of the Department of Education? The Center for Disease Control? Under whose direction has the district been advised that teacher aides are “essential”? Are they being paid like “essential” employees?
Although not all of the data is clear at this point, what we do know about COVID-19 is that it disproportionately affects people in at-risk groups – namely those over the age of 65 and those with pre-existing health conditions. Should teacher aides in these at-risk groups risk their lives or the lives of loved ones because, after a capricious inclination, the district designated them “essential’?
What we also know is that social distancing and staying at home to limit the spread of the virus is what works best. The data, on this point, is unambiguous. A school district’s primary goal must be to protect the health of its students, teachers, and community at-large. The “Continuity of Education” can’t come at the expense of the continuity of life. Requiring teacher aides to report to work will, tragically, risk lives.
I understand that AGSD is under a lot of pressure. I also understand that there isn’t exactly a blueprint for how to transition to online learning amidst a global pandemic. However, I also wish the health of its employees and the community it purports to serve were prioritized more. I am of the belief that AGSD is acting on bad data and a myopic preoccupation of quasi-learning amid a global health crisis. Why not do the right thing? Student learning will get a do-over; a life won’t.
While teacher aides are being deemed “essential,” one may at the very least reasonably ask if their health is also essential. Again, the most charitable interpretation of the decision to require its teacher aides to begin reporting to work is that it’s an honest mistake devoid of scientific understanding. A bad faith interpretation of AGSD would be that it views its teacher aides as disposable – hopefully only as it pertains to the prospects of their jobs, and not their lives. Let’s hope.
Tanner Jesso
Masontown