Should teachers be extra vigilant to infection in their every day lives to reduce school transmission?

[WhyNotMe40]

As the latest PHE report states that in June there were more staff than students affected by the covid19 coronavirus, there are suggestions that teachers should take measures to reduce bringing the virus into schools.

Voting: do you think teachers should change how they behave out of schools to protect the school?
YABU yes
YANBU no

Also - what activities or behaviours do you think teachers should avoid or do to further this aim?

I'm a TA. I work 1 to 1 with children.
I am following all guidelines - I only shop once a week at the least busy time I can find, I wash my hands and sanitise all the time, wear a mask in indoor spaces......

I have just seen my mum for the first time since Christmas and she has said she doesn't want to meet up once I am back in work because of the risks.

My children are at secondary school.

I don't leave the school site during the day anyway.
I will change my clothes as soon as I get home and shower just like I was doing before the summer.

I can't move into a cupboard at school - there aren't enough for all of us!

I didn't quite like the voting options.

Because I do think teachers should live their lives in ways that reduce the chances of bringing the disease to work, or spreading it from work to elsewhere.

But not because I'm picking on teachers. I think everyone should be doing this.

If we can get through this first winter well, then the country will be a whole lot more normal in spring.

What are you proposing they do?

Avoid supermarkets?
Avoid shops?
Refuse to take their own kids out at weekends?
Never go out?

Learn to be able to spot who is carrying the virus as otherwise how are you vigilant to it?

Do you really think it'll do your kids teachers MH any good to be stuck indoors and purely teaching and planning for what .... a month, a term, a year, 2 years?

Or to be blamed for outbreaks in schools because they must have taken it in?

Teachers are human. They deserve a life.

Unless all shop staff, care staff, nhs staff, public transport staff etc are also going to be required to be 'vigilant' then they have a right to life as much as anyone else.

I voted YANBU because I don't think it's that simple. The virus spreads easily. Even if a teacher was to have stricter measures imposed on them, that doesn't guarantee that every student, their family, friends is and whoever they come in contact with are virus-free! Everybody should follow government guidelines and be sensible, it's a group effort, you can't just impose different/tougher rules on teachers only. That wouldn't make a difference at all. I suppose it would make for an easy scapegoat situation though...

@AuntieStella

I didn't quite like the voting options.

Because I do think teachers should live their lives in ways that reduce the chances of bringing the disease to work, or spreading it from work to elsewhere.

But not because I'm picking on teachers. I think everyone should be doing this.

If we can get through this first winter well, then the country will be a whole lot more normal in spring.

This is what I think. We all need to follow the rules.

www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/08/24/teachers-more-likely-to-get-covid-on-a-coffee-break-harries/

Luckily my school doesn’t have a Staffroom!

@motherrunner

www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/08/24/teachers-more-likely-to-get-covid-on-a-coffee-break-harries/

Luckily my school doesn’t have a Staffroom!

Nor mine. And we don't have break time any more either!

We are being set up to take the blame if there's a spike in infections.

Teachers more likely to get Covid on a coffee break

It's a good job I prefer to drink wine tea.

@motherrunner

www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/08/24/teachers-more-likely-to-get-covid-on-a-coffee-break-harries/

Luckily my school doesn’t have a Staffroom!

The fact that Harries thinks teachers have time for a coffee break shows how out of touch they are with reality!

They'll be lucky to get a wee in. In fact the 20 seconds hand wash will be longer than they have to wee for

Absolutely not, unless all key workers are vilified and have their leisure time curtailed in the same way.

They should only be taking the same reasonable precautions that others are taking.

If shops, pubs and restaurants are open then they should be allowed the same freedoms to use them as anyone else.

@itsgettingweird Harries makes reference to the daily ‘well earned break’. I think I got one of those in 2001 😂

Could you give me a list of occupations that have strict rules on how to live your personal life?
I can't think of any, but there might be a few. Genuinely curious if anyone can think of some. (secret agent/spy doesn't count :))

What's the point in restricting teachers who then go into a class of 30 kids who have traveled on public transport?

Ha ha ha ha ha

No

I do not for a second believe they can't catch it off the 1700 children in my Dh's - only a yoghurt would believe that

So teachers are to be blamed for going to “dangerous” coffee shops at lunchtime, in the unlikely event they have time to leave the school grounds.

At the same time they’re complaining about office workers being at home and wanting to get them back to the office to prop up city centre coffee shops.

affected is not the same as infected
a lot of cases of cv19 are asymptomatic especially among young people.
the primary vector of infection for teachers will be the dozens (or for senior school staff hundreds) of kids they see every day. the kids will regularly carry infection into schools without being affected themselves. there is absolutely no point in teachers taking extra precautions outside school, it won't do anything to stop spread. they should of course follow all sensible precautions that the rest of us are also advised to when out of school: keeping to 2m distance from others where possible, wearing a face mask in contexts where that might not be possible. As should we all.

Actually @TheSunIsStillShining in my working terms and conditions there is a stipulation that teachers should not do anything that would bring the school into disrepute’. I wonder whether the government could link ‘moral duty of extra protective measures’ to this?

Do I fuck intend to live like a hermit outside school hours!
I'm not intending to lick the bar in the pub, go to raves or head-bang in mosh-pits, but I WILL continue to do all the things I've been doing as restrictions have eased, taking reasonable precautions as ever.

We can’t mix in schools now anyway - no break or lunchtime to do so, as we’re all now supervising our class 8.30-3.30 (primary).

Outside of school....should we not send our under fives to nursery/grandparents? Or our school aged children to their own schools? Should our partners not work?

Genuinely interested to see how this could be manageable.

I'm following the guidelines, and will continue to do so - but I definitely don't think teachers should have a special set of restrictions compared with other people. That would be completely unreasonable!

I'm resigned to not seeing DS once he goes back to teaching mainly 16 to 18 year olds next week. I am extremely vulnerable and don't want him to feel responsible if I get it.

What would make things easier?
Testing teachers weekly.
Masks for staff and older children.

Also, who are these teachers that have time to go to coffee shops etc at lunchtime? Even when I did have a lunch break that was half an hour of frantically running around trying to get the afternoon’s lessons ready and queuing for the loo!

I voted YABU because we should all be doing as much as we can to reduce the spread. We shouldn't be wondering about how much we can push the boundaries and what we can get away with, we should be asking what more can I do to stop the spread.
Teachers shouldn't be singled out and then blamed when the numbers go up. It's everybody's responsibility.

@uglyface

Also, who are these teachers that have time to go to coffee shops etc at lunchtime? Even when I did have a lunch break that was half an hour of frantically running around trying to get the afternoon’s lessons ready and queuing for the loo!

There is that!

Back in my first teaching post we had a full hour for lunch to facilitate clubs etc.

Come September it has been reduced to 30 minutes for students and 20 minutes for staff (we have to be there early so there's no queueing in the corridors).

[quote motherrunner]@itsgettingweird Harries makes reference to the daily ‘well earned break’. I think I got one of those in 2001 😂[/quote]
That recently you should be ashamed