Us For Them - how can so many people can be so blinkered and selfish

[sweetpaws]

I joined the Us For Them facebook group months ago last year when they first set it up, just to see what it was about. I hid the group pretty soon after joining it and have ignored it ever since until now as we're stuck in the house as my eldest has caught covid at school (we've not been anywhere else) she's pretty poorly, we can't see our family who live a very long drive away at the opposite end of the country, are elderly with health conditions and vulnerable, our Christmas plans are cancelled, I'm gutted, we're all gutted.

Anyway, I've just been back to have a look at the Us For Them facebook group and I can totally see how the country is in the situation it's in and exactly who is responsible for the massive increase in cases in school age groups.

I cannot believe so many people can be so selfish - the news feed is full of people railing against masks, vaccines, testing - they're getting all high and mighty about how dare the school ask that a child do an LFT before going to school if a family member has covid, even events, scout groups etc, totally up in arms about it, refusing to test, lying about having tested, even members advocating running tests under the tap to fake negative tests. I am so angry, I feel like I could cry.

Do they not realise the whole point of testing and masks was to prevent the very situation we're now in - yet they're complaining about schools potentially closing/not opening in Jan, events being cancelled, yet they're refusing to do the very small personal sacrifices that would help keep all of these things open - I just feel so angry with them, the group membership is huge. They are causing the very thing they want to prevent, how can they not see that?

I could never understand why a group who campaigned for children were so obviously hateful towards teachers - the professionals who are TRAINED to educate, nurture, care for, inspire the very children they campaign for.

And what’s more galling is they use recent child abuse cases to fuel their argument when we, teachers who see those children, use it against us. They actively avoid promoting the schools who deliver food parcels, the teachers who reach out personally 24/7 to be a friendly ear.

Fuck them and their supporters.

Part of my reason for leaving teaching is the ridiculous attitude towards teachers on mumsnet and us4them. Then main part is workload but I’ll be damned if I work my butt off in a job to just be hated.

@mrshoho

Was hoping *@InTheMiddle23* had come back to expand on why they think they are a great group.

Yes, me too. Whatever they say, I'm willing to bet it includes the words 'wake up' and 'sheeple'.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones

Dreadful people who have made a huge contribution to the problems experienced in schools this term. Their actions really have led to school closures and supervision rather than education.. Thank goodness you reevaluated your support, OP.

@InTheMiddle23
Can you explain why you think they are ‘great’?

All the vitriol certainly had a very negative impact on me as a teacher working through the pandemic.

A lot of it is bravado, and the majority posting / involved are the parents who kick up a fuss about anything and everything. Difficulty is /was that no poster could express any concerns* about schooling without being accused of being a member of U4T and/or generally hating teachers.

*Though I said something positive and still caused someone to get offended my

They are appalling astroturfing organisation who aren't really about kids. If schools shut again they bear a massive responsibility for this.
While it's not their fault that schools are overcrowded etc, they have campaigned for no mitigation measures that would have minimised spread and isolations. Their awful campaigning have given the government the green light not to fund mitigation measures in schools, actively lie "schools are safe" and vilify school staff who don't only educate kids but are now social workers too. How are anti vaxx protests outside schools not treated seriously ? Have the members who bragged about spamming head teachers with fake information been dealt with by the police? Shady as fuck

I think most people are of the view that schools should ideally be first to open, last to close but that also comes at a price and there could have been more mitigation. I’d have been up for prioritising teachers for vaccination for example.

I’ve just been watching videos of the students at the school of American ballet dancing in masks. If they can do advanced ballet in masks, I’m fairly sure more could have been done in secondary/older primary around masks. I would have liked to have seen masks in infants or nursery children.

You mean not seen them in infantas and nursery children right?

I think that the rule for overs 2s/5s to wear masks is far too low a rule. I think the UK have got it right by having over 10s/12s wearing them.

Yes that's the other noticeable thing on there - the hatred of teachers and the sheer vitriol and outrage towards the heads, wanting to take legal action, writing letters of outrage, ranting about complaining to governors and trusts and Ofsted, my god who'd be a teacher right now.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones just for the record I didn't support usforthem, I just joined the group to see what they were saying.

I can't understand how they're getting away with it, they're dangerous.

I worry about how much time is wasted by schools calling and emailing u4T parents to say that they know that children don't have to wear a mask/do a lateral flow test and won't be forced to do anything like that. It is astonishing how they can not read communication from school and see how much thought has gone into things so that they follow guidance but also work well for the individual school. My son has had quite a bit of (non-Covid) illness this year and I'm very relieved that I've not been hassled about it. I'd like to think that it's because they understand because so many are in the same situation and fuck OFSTED attendance targets this year