James Simmerman, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 709 says, “Our members, their families, they are worried about bringing it into their houses, into the communities, into the schools.”
Behind the walls at the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood there are dangerous criminals and a dangerous virus. Those who work there say they are at risk of entering each day without any COVID-19 screening.
His union represents the corrections officers. He says COVID-19 impacted 99% of the inmates the first time around and now it’s back.
Most of the staff and prisoners are vaccinated and under orders to wear masks.
Chris Janssen, the union vice president, says those rules aren’t always obeyed.
“When you have people in our community in there for not following the rules, many of them don’t wear it, and that creates a burden in itself. You may catch inmates not wearing their masks all the time,” said Janssen.
In part because of the virus, guard staffing is at 65% of strength with non-guards filling in according to the union. A form of lockdown called “modified operations” has been in place, but is due to be lifted next week without testing.
“It feels like we’re in a tinder box waiting to explode again,” said Simmerman.
He says lack of testing and limited isolation of inmates with symptoms have made this place even more dangerous than normal. CBS4 asked the Warden’s office about the complaints, they said they will respond, but not on this day.
Denver Teachers’ Union Wants Brief Return To Remote Learning To Catch Up
The union representing the Denver Public School teachers wants a return to remote learning, but only a brief one. They say a large number of teachers are out due to COVID-19 symptoms, but still haven’t received test results.
It’s not the best time to be one of their students. Often their regular teachers are out with COVID-related matters and a substitute has taken their place.
One female student at Denver’s West High School told CBS4, “We had two today and the we didn’t do anything because the teachers didn’t have time to plan.”
The Denver Classroom Teachers Association is urging its members to write DPS asking for a temporary break to remote learning to catch up.
Rob Gould, the president of the association said, “It would allow for safety, for educators who are out, they can get those test results back before going back in.”
Estimates are that around 10% of the teachers are now out district wide. So administrators are now helping fill in. That includes the Superintendent Alex Marrero who taught last week.
Some classes have had to drop in-person sessions.
Denver Public Schools spokesman Scott Pribble explained, “We’ve had some schools that had to switch to remote learning. Sometimes one grade, sometimes several grades, sometime for a temporary period less than a week.”
The district’s emphasis is to keep kids in the classroom simply because it’s easier to learn there and better for the students’ environment.
A male student at West said for him it’s not all bad, “I feel like school’s going good now. Actually I don’t have any subs so it’s going good.”
The pandemic is providing unplanned lessons in “coronavirus variants” and “Contemporary American History.”
