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Original poster

Wish I wasn't a teacher because of Covid

952 replies

NebularNerd · 27/08/2020 20:08

In my family/friends circle, I am the only one who will be face to face with 150+ people per day with no PPE, no social distancing, nothing.

I have one relative who is not expecting to return to the office this year.
Another who now only works in the office two days per week, in a building where numbers are severely restricted, one way systems, spaced out desks etc.
Another friend who is also able to wfh for the foreseeable future.

I can't help but think that had I made a different career choice I would not now be faced with contracting a potentially life threatening virus and passing it on to my clinically extremely vulnerable husband or elderly parents.

I will go to work and try to ignore what's going on in the world and do my best. But I wish I could be made to feel safer - screens, masks, fewer pupils, something.

I hope I'm worrying for nothing, but it is getting difficult to sleep at night.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
ssd · 27/08/2020 23:12

@WouldBeGood

The risks are tiny even if you get the virus. Think of the children who need to be there.
Seriously, are you for real???

Your post is actually comical.

WouldBeGood · 27/08/2020 23:12

The risk to everyone is tiny. Even if you’re very very elderly you’re much more likely to survive than not.

ineedaholidaynow · 27/08/2020 23:12

Were all the posters saying think of the children, saying think of the children pre COVID, will they say it post COVID? There are many children who have shit lives and teachers do their utmost to help them and will continue to do so. Maybe many of the posters who have only suddenly realised you need to think of these children should actually do something about it rather than just typing 'think of the children'.

pinkprosseco · 27/08/2020 23:13

I'm a nurse and worked through the pandemic, initially without any PPE, protection and even now it is not always possible when assessing patients. What if we refuse to go to work

Exactly this and as many posters are saying: nurses, medical staff, care staff, police, supermarket staff...they all worked throughout the worst of it. They went to work and got on with it and still are. I just can't believe the attitude of some teachers (not all and thank you to the sensible ones).

Piggywaspushed · 27/08/2020 23:14

Oh, thank you for posting that Swedish graph which shows my DH indeed has the lowest chance of survival.

WouldBeGood · 27/08/2020 23:14

@pinkprosseco

I'm a nurse and worked through the pandemic, initially without any PPE, protection and even now it is not always possible when assessing patients. What if we refuse to go to work

Exactly this and as many posters are saying: nurses, medical staff, care staff, police, supermarket staff...they all worked throughout the worst of it. They went to work and got on with it and still are. I just can't believe the attitude of some teachers (not all and thank you to the sensible ones).

This.

And yes, I’ve worked in child protection.

Mistressiggi · 27/08/2020 23:15

But I don't just want to survive, and still be off work like one of my colleagues, or experiencing continuing health problems like another.

Piggywaspushed · 27/08/2020 23:15

What is this, Top Trumps?

FrippEnos · 27/08/2020 23:16

ineedaholidaynow
Were all the posters saying think of the children, saying think of the children pre COVID, will they say it post COVID?

I know that its a rhetorical question but.

No of course they won't, they didn't give a fuck before, they won't give a fuck afterwards.

Its just another stick to beat teachers with.

WouldBeGood · 27/08/2020 23:17

@FrippEnos

ineedaholidaynow Were all the posters saying think of the children, saying think of the children pre COVID, will they say it post COVID?

I know that its a rhetorical question but.

No of course they won't, they didn't give a fuck before, they won't give a fuck afterwards.

Its just another stick to beat teachers with.

That’s bollocks.
Butmiss · 27/08/2020 23:18

@Piggywaspushed

What is this, Top Trumps?
Piggy 🤣
FrippEnos · 27/08/2020 23:19

WouldBeGood

Well that is one opinion.

Mine can be backed up by the total lack of threads about children's mental health on here by the majority of those that clam to give a shit now.

IfNotNow123 · 27/08/2020 23:20

I think that you protest too much.
PMSL. I've been on MN a million years. I don't normally comment on teacher woe is me threads, but I know too many people actually out there dealing with people, and have been for months when teachers are still on their break!
My DP just came home from another long shift working with the general public. Believe it or not I'm too tired for this paranoid nonsense, but I see the same names week in week out getting more and more paranoid and bonkers, so I thought I'd make a few points. But some of the usual suspects are beyond reason now. It's like the end of Apolocypse Now in here..I'll leave you to your mad fantasies.

Mistressiggi · 27/08/2020 23:20

If the parent power applied to pressuring the Scottish government to give up on social distancing in schools had been applied before we would have noticed - education would be the top political issue and schools would be adequately funded and teacher recruitment and retention addressed. Support for child with additional needs would have been increased.
But the rest of the time - silence.

ineedaholidaynow · 27/08/2020 23:21

Many lessons have been learnt over the last few months. It was thought that people working in care homes didn't need PPE, we saw how well that worked out.

Everyone in NHS hospitals now have to wear masks.

Supermarkets now have screens, social distancing etc, and the local ones have had them months.

The rules for my DH's office return are very long and thorough, so much so that the majority of the staff are going to continue to WFH.

It just seems with schools that the rules and the lessons learnt don't apply and we have to start from the beginning and see how it goes, and then maybe bring in measures that seem to work elsewhere when it all goes pear shaped.

TaxTheRatFarms · 27/08/2020 23:21

I’m so happy every time I hear that children are at no or little risk. My poor 11 year old who is still unwell 5 months after catching Covid must be the only child in the country, if not the world, to be so affected.

And yes. Other illness can have complications. That’s obvious. Also obvious is that large scale outbreaks of ANY illnesses are not desirable, and should be prevented as much as is possible.

And if, as per the BMJ’s latest peer reviewed research puts forward, Covid is airborne even in asymptomatic cases then it would be a great idea to have measures in place that protect against airborne viruses. Kids sitting shoulder to shoulder is not one.

FrippEnos · 27/08/2020 23:21

IfNotNow123

Believe it or not I'm too tired for this paranoid nonsense

But not to tired to post and piss off.

WouldBeGood · 27/08/2020 23:22

@IfNotNow123 I’m bowing out now too. It’s too apocalyptic.

Mistressiggi · 27/08/2020 23:22

BBC reported that none of the top 50 U.K. companies they interviewed had any plans to send staff back into work this year.
Why is that? And why is no one bothered that the bankers, solicitors, office workers and GPs are not just "getting on with it"?

Anniemabel · 27/08/2020 23:24

I have no idea why the guidance for schools has been so poor. That said, it’s not just teachers at risk as a result. Teachers are in the same position as the pupils and their parents. I know there is some evidence that primary pupils don’t catch it but who knows really - I have three kids (three different schools) and so each of them is exposed to about 150 others and will then expose me and DH. We’re both wfh but still just as exposed as any teacher if not more so because it’s three schools not one.

At least as the teacher you can try to take a bit of control and make sure that the kids keep distance from you as much as possible. I have no control over what happens to my kids when I hand them over in the morning. And for one of the schools I don’t trust that they will be doing anything other than the bare minimum. The other two schools seem to be pretty good.

Back50 · 27/08/2020 23:24

@WouldBeGood

@IfNotNow123 I’m bowing out now too. It’s too apocalyptic.

I'm with you.

ineedaholidaynow · 27/08/2020 23:25

Is it @WouldBeGood? How many hundreds of threads were there before March where poster after poster said 'we need to think of the children'. Indeed in the early days of schools being 'closed' many posters were on here complaining that teachers were having the temerity to phone them, and even when it was explained that they were doing welfare checks, they still complained and said they weren't going to pick up the phone. Were they 'thinking of the children' then?

WouldBeGood · 27/08/2020 23:25

But... that’s rubbish. Some solicitors dealing with mental health and criminal and civil court work are in as that can’t be done remotely. Teachers are not special. And the police and prison service have been working throughout in close proximity without PPE.

CallmeAngelina · 27/08/2020 23:25

@pinkprosseco

I'm a nurse and worked through the pandemic, initially without any PPE, protection and even now it is not always possible when assessing patients. What if we refuse to go to work

Exactly this and as many posters are saying: nurses, medical staff, care staff, police, supermarket staff...they all worked throughout the worst of it. They went to work and got on with it and still are. I just can't believe the attitude of some teachers (not all and thank you to the sensible ones).

Once again, find me one teacher posting on here who is saying they're refusing to go to work? Or who have not also been working throughout the worst of it, getting on with it?
Mistressiggi · 27/08/2020 23:25

Teachers are parents too, with all the extra schools that puts in the mix.
Also there are positive cases amongst both primary pupils and nursery pupils.

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