Several Florida teachers who received special permission to work from home due to coronavirus-related health concerns were found traveling and attending mass gatherings.
At an arbitration hearing this weekend, Broward County Public Schools brought forward evidence—including pictures posted to public social media accounts—that teachers who were granted permission to work from home because of the coronavirus pandemic had attended parties and other crowded events last fall. One teacher flew to a wedding in Jamaica, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and another took a selfie at an October rally for then-candidate Joe Biden.
The hearing resolved a Broward Teachers Union lawsuit that claimed the district improperly canceled work-from-home exemptions for 1,100 teachers. As a result of the hearing, the district can now force teachers to educate students in-person.
One teacher, Tracy Merlin, attended a rally for Biden, according to her publicly available profile picture. Months prior, the second-grade teacher appeared on Chris Cuomo’s Prime Time and said she feared that in-person learning could put her daughter’s health at risk.
“I’m also a mom. I don’t want my daughter to come home with any of that,” Merlin said in June. “I’ve been home since March because that’s what we were told to, to go home, to stay safe.”
Merlin opposes reopening schools for face-to-face instruction and was one of about 1,700 teachers who received permission to work from home last fall as the district reopened its schools in October. – READ MORE
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