Teachers union president: Reopening schools is ‘white supremacy’ and 'white privilege'

Screenshot of Jan. 12 virtual Pasco School Board meeting (YouTube).

Teachers union president: Reopening schools is ‘white supremacy’ and ‘white privilege’

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FRANKLIN COUNTY, WA — The president of a local teacher union in the Pasco School District said he is opposed to reopening schools because it is a form of “white supremacy and white privilege” and implored the school board to keep students in remote learning despite recommendations that children return to in-person learning.

Scott Wilson, president of the Pasco Association of Educators (PAE), argued in a bizarre rant during a Jan. 12 virtual school board meeting that it was racist to have students return to classrooms and that concerns about student suicides from pandemic-induced depression simply stem from “white privilege.”

He invoked nearly everything except data and scientists who confirm that students thrive with in-person learning and are in the low-risk group for contracting COVID-19.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released an updated report on Jan. 8 and recommended how officials should decide opening up for in-person learning:

“School officials should make decisions about school opening and about staying open for in-person learning based on CDC’s Indicators for Dynamic Decision-making.

“The many benefits of in-person schooling should be weighed against the risks of spreading COVID-19 in the school and community.

“Working with States, Tribes, Localities, and Territories (STLT), schools can weigh levels of community transmission and their capacity to implement appropriate mitigation measures in schools to protect students, teachers, administrators, and other staff.”

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The CDC also noted:

“While fewer children have been sick with COVID-19 compared to adults, children can be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, can get sick from COVID-19, and can spread the virus that causes COVID-19 to others. Children, like adults, who have COVID-19 but have no symptoms (‘asymptomatic’) can still spread the virus to others.

“Most children with COVID-19 have mild symptoms or have no symptoms at all. However, some children can get severely ill from COVID-19. They might require hospitalization, intensive care, or a ventilator to help them breathe. In rare cases, they might die.”

Last November, Anthony Fauci, an infectious diseases expert and top advisor to the White House on the COVID-19 pandemic, said that he was for closing bars and restaurants but reopening schools. He told ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz:

“The default position should be to try as best as possible, within reason, to keep the children in school, to get them back to school.”

 

The Biden administration also supports opening schools up. Brian Deese, the incoming director of Biden’s National Economic Council, said keeping schools closed hurts parents, especially women:

“We need to get the schools open so that parents, and particularly women, who are being disproportionately hurt in this economy, can get back to work.”

When it comes to COVID learning loss, a recent NWEA study found that in the fall, students in grades 3–8 performed similarly in reading to same-grade students in fall 2019, but about 5 percentile points to 10 percentile points lower in math.

After introducing himself, Wilson addresses the board at time marker 18:45 of the meeting. He politicizes the student-learning issue immediately by mentioning people breaking into the Capitol building earlier this month and others who have held rallies questioning pandemic lockdowns:

“There are decisions to be made. You stand on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol as people break down barriers and head to the doors. Do you follow? You stand at the governor’s mansion. The crowd breaks down barriers to enter the grounds. Do you follow or do you choose a different way?

“We must not ignore the culture of white supremacy and white privilege. We have seen it in the ‘free to breathe, reopen everything’ rodeos and rallies that received county commissioner support. The same commissioner directs our health district.”

Wilson then claims “no one wants remote learning,” but then insists that it is the only acceptable option for students, teachers and parents:

“No one wants remote learning. No one wants remote learning, but it is the right thing to do.”

Wilson then brings up “equity” issues and blames some for spreading the virus:

“We know the equity concerns. Virus transmission is high, headed higher with so many ignoring and avoiding measures to stop the spread.”

Wilson says the board should continue its “pause” of in-person learning and that it would benefit everyone:

“Remote learning is the right decision. You’ve moved forward as the health district removes the barricades for you. You could choose a different way.

“You could move to pause in-person learning . You could ask for a new path that benefits all, not some. You can have the discussion and vote. You could choose a different way.”

Since the start of the pandemic, multi-generational homes have increased by 61 percent. Pew Research Center found that around 6 in 10 adults who have moved since last March say they relocated to a family member’s home. Of those, 41 percent moved in with their parents or in-laws, 4 percent moved in with an adult child or in-law and 16 percent moved in with another family member.

Wilson raises a concern about the resurgence of multi-generational homes containing people of various ages, but ends up blaming white, privileged people who, according to him, want to reopen everything and put people of color at risk:

“Students are not coming to school. They live in multi-generational homes and have lost family members.

“We speak of equity. We speak of care of all students, and yet we listen and attend the voices saying, ‘Reopen everything’ and ‘free to breathe’ supporting white privilege.”

As the son of a preacher man, Wilson then recalls his father’s political activism and how it incensed “white supremacists” in his hometown:

“My family had to leave the Tri-Cities in ’66. As minister of the first Presbyterian Church of Kennewick, Dad had the audacity to say Jesus Christ would not support a sign telling blacks ‘Stay out of Kennewick after dark.’

“He traveled registering black voters in the south, and white supremacists here were outraged. He made the right decision.”

Wilson claimed that parents are emailing the board and calling the district’s teachers names:

“You receive the same emails as I calling teachers lazy or comparing teachers to store clerks.”

Disturbingly, Wilson downplayed parental reports of children feeling suicidal during the past few months of lockdown:

“They complain their children are suicidal without school or sports.”

Wilson then said he experienced the suicide of his own son, but was appalled at the concerns of other “white privilege” parents who fear their child may kill themself:

“As a father daily surviving the suicide of my son, I find these statements ignorant and another expression of white privilege.”

In conclusion, Wilson reiterated that students should continue remote learning despite data, science, vaccines and mental-health concerns showing that in-person learning is the ideal choice for children. To strengthen his argument, Wilson mentioned sendition for good measure:

“Huge daily death tolls from this pandemic, seditious attacks at our Capitol [building], plus a new, more transmittable strain of the virus while our case numbers are rising again — you have the authority to hit pause, allow time to find a way forward through the end of the year.

“You could choose a different way. Thank you members of the board and Superintendent Whitney.”

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