Letter to ATF Leadership/delay reopening

This is a letter to our ATF leaders letting them know how we feel about the issue of reopening schools. The reason for this campaign is to inform our union about where we stand on this issue. As decided at the July 10th meeting, we are stating that schools should not open until we reach phase three of NM's plan to reopen and we should delay in person learning until the end of the Fall semester to avoid the inconsistent planning and chaos. Please feel free to copy, paste, or edit and share widely. This document can also be found on New Mexico for a Safe Return to School
Dear ATF Leadership,
My name is (insert) and I am a dues paying member of ATF. I am writing to express my support for not returning to school until we are in phase three of the NM reopening plan. Our union must formally declare that we will not return to campus until this is accomplished. While there’s nothing I want more than to see our students in-person again, it is far too dangerous for your child, your family, and my colleagues to resume in-person instruction this fall. Until it is safe, we must develop and implement a more robust distance learning program for our students. To allow our students to equitably access this distance learning program, we must also demand that our students be provided with all necessary technology, such as personal computers and high-speed internet access.
States and school districts are unveiling reckless, half-baked school reopening plans that put my colleagues and their families, my students and their families, and myself in extreme danger. Even in countries that have far better controlled the pandemic, they have had to close schools soon after reopening them. Schools in China and South Korea have closed after infections flared up. Students and staff have contracted COVID-19 in schools after they reopened in Canada, France, the Netherlands, and Israel, forcing them to close again. Eight out of 20 children in a childcare center in Oregon contracted COVID-19, and the number of COVID-19 patients under 10 years old in Oregon has increased fivefold, matching the number of cases in patients over 80 years old. Now new research suggests that children transmit COVID-19 just as easily as adults do.
These trends and research clearly demonstrate that it is irresponsibly dangerous to reopen school campuses this fall. If elected officials and district officials want campuses to reopen, then they need to implement the public health measures that they should have implemented months ago, including, but not limited to: mass testing, contact tracing, and strict suspension of nonessential business and travel activity. Our governments also must provide the economic relief we and our students need to endure these public health measures, including, but not limited to: basic income, rent and mortgage cancellation, protection from eviction, and single-payer healthcare throughout the pandemic.
As teachers, we know how impossible it will be to implement strict physical distancing, mask enforcement, constant sanitation, and hybrid learning on every campus in our district. Even if these measures were magically funded and implemented by August, we are not confident that these measures will keep us safe when Dr. Anthony Fauci warns that the U.S. may soon see 100,000 new cases per day. I refuse to return to campus until our state reports are in phase three of the reopening plan. I hope my union refuses as well.
The inconsistencies in failing to implement a cohesive plan to educate our students have caused undo stress for educators, students, and their families. We ask that the school year begin with distance learning and that we revisit the return to schools after the first semester is over. Having a consistent plan will provide a foundation to build a robust learning platform for our staff and students.
Lastly, we ask for an ATF Union Meeting as soon as possible, to allow members to be part of the process of formulating ideas and policies as we move forward during this pandemic.