More than 600 San Francisco public school teachers have called in sick on Thursday following the circulation of a petition aiming to close classrooms and force the district to increase COVID-19 pandemic protections.
The San Francisco Unified School District told KCBS Radio on Thursday that 616 teachers called on sick, and officials told the San Francisco Chronicle that number rose to nearly 900 when including teachers aides. As of press time, 739 people had signed a petition calling for a sickout in San Francisco public schools to "shut the whole system down" if the district doesn't improve its safety protocols amid a spike in cases due to the omicron variant.
The sickout didn't close schools, and district officials told KCBS Radio they relied upon substitute teachers and district workers to cover the classes.
Petition organizers called for mandatory testing for all students and school employees, as well as to "pause the restart of in-person schooling" until cases have decreased and the district can work with city and state officials "to implement more robust safety and testing measures across all sites."
United Educators of San Francisco, the union representing more than 6,500 school district employees, proposed weekly testing – among other measures – in a meeting with district officials on Thursday. The union said in a release on Thursday night they failed to reach an agreement with the district following "several hours of bargaining," and the district will meet with United Educators and other unions at some point next week.
"Hundreds of educators and staff are out sick due to this highly contagious variant, and this health and safety agreement is crucial in combating the spread, keeping everyone safe and our schools operating," union president Cassondra Curiel said in a statement. "Taking days to run numbers on a sick leave you have been offering to staff for the last year is unacceptable. We expect the District and City to treat this like the crisis that it is and provide the most basic mitigation strategies."
Teachers across the Bay Bridge could follow their counterparts' suit on Friday.
The Oakland Unified School District emailed families on Thursday claiming that an unknown number of teachers could call in sick on Friday. An organizer told the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday they wanted to provide N95 massks to all students and staff, as well as more accurate and more frequent tests. The district said in an email to parents that "schools are one of the safest places for students to be during this omicron surge."
The organizer, district and Oakland Education Association didn't respond to KCBS Radio's emailed request for comment prior to publication.
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