American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten on Monday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC called governors who were banning mask mandates in schools “morally reprehensible.”
Weingarten said, “In a state like California, a state like New York, where you both have mask mandates, and you have throughout the state a vaccine or test policy. If we can’t keep kids safe when we have those things in place, we can’t keep educators safe when we have those things in place. Then we’re going to have to look at other choices, including remote. But the first thing is the safety protocols are the way to get kids and keep kids in school.”
She continued, “We’ve got to get these governors to stop their madness, stop their irresponsibility. They are morally reprehensible for not allowing and for making us have these fights about mask mandates.”
Weingarten added, “You’ve got lots of Catholic schools, for example, that put mask mandates in Florida, and so why is the governor not allowing us to do that in public schools? So I do actually think at the end of the day that our parents want our kids in school. They know school is important. It’s important to deal with the isolation of COVID, the inequities, on and on and on. We need governors to work with us to actually help do the number one requirement they have in their gubernatorialship, which is keep people safe. Stop with the politics and start with the safety.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN