No-school ‘strike’ takes place the day Boris Johnson’s schools-open ‘lockdown’ begins
BRTUS: Parents United, the group campaigning for the safety of children during the pandemic, has called a ‘parent strike’ for this Thursday, with parents keeping their children home from school and posting a picture of their empty school shoes on social media. Thursday is the day Boris Johnson’s sham ‘lockdown‘ begins.
An announcement on the group’s website explains:
Remember, remember the 5th of November: the law may prevent teachers from striking, but it cannot stop the BRTUS #ParentStrike.
BRTUS: Parents United is the largest parent-led, safer schools campaign in the UK. We are pushing for a sensible, safe and sustainable approach to education during the pandemic.
The PM has announced a lockdown as of Thursday 5th November. He has not committed to closing schools. If the government won’t close the schools, we will. On the 5th November, en masse, parents will vote with their feet and withdraw their children from school as part of our national #ParentStrike.
As part of this day of action parents will take photographs of their children’s school shoes by their front door, accompanied by signs stating “No school today #ParentStrike”, and share these on social media.
We have waited until the time is right to strike. That time is now.
Many of us have already been keeping our children home because of safety concerns; we are facing fines, criminal prosecution and the risk of losing our child(ren)’s place at school.
Despite a growing body of scientific evidence that suggests that schools are vectors of transmission, we have been ignored by this government.
We need to see the government take action to reduce the R; protect our children, families and school staff and reduce cases of Covid-19 in our communities. This action must include:
- Comprehensively funded and resources remote learning
- Schools open only to vulnerable children and those of keyworkers
- Local Authorities to be honest and publish a list of schools that have had confirmed cases of Covid-19 each week
- Risk assessments to be extended to entire households of children attending education setting.
If these actions are not undertaken, this lockdown will be a long and damaging exercise in futility. The government must act now.
On Thursday November 5th we stand together and we stand united – Parents United – against the government’s callous and reckless decision to play Russian Roulette with the physical, emotional and mental well-being of our children, our nation’s school staff and our communities.
If the government will not protect our families, we will – as BRTUS: Parents United.
#ParentStrike
Further details of the event are available on the BRTUS: Parents United Facebook page here.
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“Don’t punish parents! Let us decide when it’s safe to take our kids back to school”
You can read more and sign the petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/don-t-punish-parents-let-us-decide-when-it-s-safe-to-take-our-kids-back-to-school
Excellent idea – unfortunately that leaves many parents in a Catch-22 situation as they no longer have appropriate support when they have no choice but work and are now unable to rely on friends and family as previously for fear of spreading the virus, many of them being grandparents like ourselves but come into the clinically vulnerable category. We saw them throughout the summer as all our family engaged in stringent safety guidelines but not all families do. We have two granddaughters, one in primary and one in secondary school. There have been cases in every class but school remains open. Parents are sent a general email if a case arises and told to continue to send their children to school but are not allowed any information as to which children are affected in their child’s class. Only those who actually sit next to an infected child are sent separate information. There needs to be complete transparency.
Schools (state) are paid for by the gov, therefore they will not shut down the places that they are funding. Private schools, of course, are a business, and so they will never be shut down. Furthermore, there is a literacy problem in the UK, and should that increase, the gov will be further embarrassed, among their foreign counterparts, whose countries are more ‘literate. Currently, the UK stands in 8th place in the world. Not good enough, when Russia is the world leader in tertiary education.