This petition was created in support of our teachers, the most vital part of the Parker family. A wrong must be righted. Mandating that certain telework teachers return to on-campus teaching while potentially endangering them and/or their family members is fundamentally against Parker’s values of inclusion, community, and belonging and contrary to this year’s theme of “Togetherness.”

We, the undersigned, request that Parker immediately reconsider their telework policy. It is wrong and incomprehensible that Parker would force teachers to return to work on campus with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, moving into the purple tier, and the lack of a viable and accessible vaccine for all.  Faculty should be allowed to make their own telework decisions until the end of the 2020-2021 school year.

Background:  On November 11th, Parker announced in an email, ironically titled “Working Together…”, that it would be revisiting employee telework exemptions prior to the start of trimester 2. However, the Parker Community was not informed on the details of these exemptions or how and why these determinations would be made. Nor were all the stakeholders given an opportunity to provide feedback on this policy before it was implemented. At this point in time it is unlikely that the quality teachers being forced to resign will be replaced with comparable faculty.

Because of this policy change, Mr. Chris Harrington (Upper School English Department) has resigned. He was put in the impossible position of having to choose between the health of his loved ones and the job that he loves. Mr. Harrington has been a beloved and well-respected teacher at Parker for over 30 years and has three children who all graduated as Parker Lifers. He is currently the Vassiliadis Family Chair in the High School English Department - the first faculty member to hold an endowed chair position in the history of the school. He is also the 2012 winner of the Ed Strange award for kindness and endearing character, the founder of Parker’s Poetry Week, and is considered a Parker icon and loved by all students who have had the privilege to be in his classroom.    

As of this writing, we do not know how many other teachers are facing this same impossible decision and how many of them will either have to choose to resign or be forced to risk their loved one’s health working on-campus.  

It is clear that having teachers teach from home is not ideal for all students and that there are some parents who are upset about the telework situation. However, the inconvenience and challenges for the students cannot possibly be reason enough to drive quality teachers out of Parker. If we are a family as we claim to be, then we need to support all our family members in this time of crisis - and our faculty are the most important part of that family. We believe that this decision goes against all of the values that Parker says it believes in and teaches to our children.