We Educate Miami

First Vice President Antonio White and Secretary-Treasurer Mindy Grimes-Festge are joined by Jeff Garcia in this episode.

Yesterday, as face-to-face instruction started in this district, the COVID-19 rate in Miami-Dade was over 6%. In many other states with much lower infection rates students are not returning to face-to-face instruction this calendar year.

We continue to stick to our position that the decision about when it could be safe to return to face-to-face instruction in schools needs to be made based on science, data and public health measures as reported and interpreted by responsible health professionals. As educators, district staff, parents and community members in the fourth largest school district in the nation, we will continue to call for safety first to protect the health of our education workforce, students and families. 

As we return to face-to-face instruction, UTD is asking for limits on  class sizes to enable six feet social distancing where possible (with a minimum of one meter), abundant access to soap and hand sanitizers throughout the schools, traffic mitigation in hallways, plexiglass outfits in areas receiving street pedestrian traffic, mask requirement at all times except for eating periods, sanitation between transitioning classes, and proper ventilation systems throughout schools and district offices.

UTD is encouraging everyone who has not registered to do so yet to Vote By Mail 

1.      If is safer than potentially going into an indoor setting. We want to keep people safe so even for people who enjoy the interaction of going to the polls on election day—and some of us do—this is not the time to pound the flesh outside the polling locations, nor to shoot the breeze inside. For a public health standpoint, Voting By Mail is the way to go.

2.      You can track the receipt of your ballot. Using the lookup tools at www.miamidade.gov you can confirm that your ballot was accepted long before Election Day on November. 3rd. In this way, there is some measure of security that your ballot has been received and should be counted. 

3.      You avoid the potential for an emergency on Election Day that could prevent your vote. Whether health problems, job emergencies or even bad weather, if you wait until November 3rd, a Tuesday, when you might have to work, any number of events could happen that would get in the way of you casting your ballot.

This Day in History. Oct. 6, 1917: Fannie Lou Hamer was Born: “All my life I’ve been sick and tired,” she said in 1964. “Now I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.” 

Professor Aileen Marty served as a Naval officer for 25 years and has more than 40 years of clinical and research work in the fields of infectious disease, public health, outbreak response, & mass gatherings. 

She also works with the World Health Organization and has responded to disease outbreaks around the world.

Dr. Marty is a public health expert who advises the district and county on the realities behind the COVID-19 numbers. Those who have heard her speak at committee meetings and in public appreciate her direct, frank approach. She has not hesitated to ask the difficult questions that speak to the underlying realities of the health crisis we are facing in the reopening of schools for face-to-face instruction. 

For example, Dr. Marty publicly questioned the practice of artificially lowering the reported infection rates by conflating molecular and antigen testing, terming the practice "political trickery" (August 27th). Further, she points out that is it one thing to open a restaurant, where you have some control over the environment, but much more challenging to open schools where you have young people who may not grasp the danger of the situation. 

Advising the district's health committee on September 18th, Dr. Marty "drove the conversation," according to the Herald, asking direct questions about the district’s preparedness, from air quality and ventilation to how high-risk activities like music programs will be handled.

In the United States of American we have:
Confirmed Cases 6,804,814 of COVID-19, Resulting in 199,509 Deaths
In Florida, we have 683,754 Confirmed Cases, Resulting in 13,296 Deaths
Miami Dade County has Total Cases: 167,153 and 3055 Deaths

So Florida has one-tenth of the cases in the nation and Miami-Dade has one quarter of those cases. We are truly in a hot-spot for the coronavirus.

We also average about one-quarter of the deaths in the state, giving our County the unfortunate distinction of contributing about 1.5% of the deaths for the entire nation. 

Considering Miami-Dade County has 2.7 million residents of the 328 million U.S. population, that means the county has approximately .08% of the U.S.’s population, but 1.5% of the deaths, nearly twice the average. 

This Day in History. Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation. On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million enslaved in the United States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery.

UTD continues to call for health and safety: "The decision about when it could be safe to return to face-to-face instruction in schools needs to be made based on science, data and public health measures as reported and interpreted by responsible health professionals. As educators, district staff, parents and community members in the fourth largest school district in the nation, we will continue to call for safety first to protect the health of our education workforce, students and families." Please sign on to support.

This Day In History marks the tragic killings of four little girls in Birmingham, Alabama. We will never forget Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins–all 14 years old, and 11-year-old Denise McNair. The four girls were murdered in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in an act of terrorism by a Klan related group on Sept. 15, 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama. It came soon after the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Aug. 28, 1963.) See “Terrorism is Part of Our History” for more. 

UTD celebrates the cross-racial unity of the Delano grape strike, which started on Sept. 8, 1965, 55 years before today's show. One of the little-known facts about United Teachers of Dade is that we were the first union in the South to desegregate.  Before 1974, there was a black teachers union and a white teachers union in Miami.  United Teachers of Dade arose from the merger of both into one union that advocates for quality public education and is deeply rooted in racial justice issues.  46 years later, in 2020 we are still fighting for the same. 

During this episode First Vice President White and Secretary/Treasurer Grimes-Festge are joined by UTD Organizer Shawnie Tumbling, who started teaching in 1998. She has been a media specialist and math coach. Tumbling describes the challenges teachers are facing with the K12 platform and why the district should have conferred with instructional staff prior to trying the system. 

It has been back to school, but there have been technical difficulties restricting access to the district's K12 platform. Karla was elected AFT national Vice President and immediately put to work so Tony and Mindy are joined by UTD Communications Director Nat Bender. Catch the Labor Day Live 2020 series of online Labor Day events to discuss the current state of labor amid pandemic and recession. This episode aired 63 days prior to Election Day so the show examines differences between Vice President Biden and President Trump. 

Teachers want to teach. Students and parents are anxious for normalcy and many need child care coverage. National, state and local politics are in play. Karla, Tony and Mindy welcome back listeners to another season in the midst of critical decisions about how to safely resume schools and the looming shadow of a national election. Subscribe to make sure to catch every episode. 

Karla Hernandez-Mats was interviewed by correspondent Ellen Jaffe on Community Focus', EASY 93.1's long-running signature community affairs program. The show airs each Sunday morning at 6:50 a.m. ET, hosted 

In the wake of the tragic killing of autistic nine-year-old Alejandro Ripley, Karla, Antonio and Mindy offer resources for parents whose children have special needs. Parents can call the University of Miami’s Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) at 800-9-AUTISM, Parent to Parent Miami at 305-271-9797, and for general family help FIU's Center for Children and Families at 305-348-0477. The episode features tips for summer activities for children at home. 

May 18 is Haitian Flag Day: Blackpast.org says the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) has often been described as the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere. Slaves initiated the rebellion in 1791 and by 1803 they had succeeded in ending not just slavery but French control over the colony. Karla, Antonio and Mindy interview Nancy St. Leger, an educator, and Haitian culture arts worker. Learn more about her at https://www.facebook.com/nstleger9/.

UTD is reaching out to the Miami community to gauge reaction to safely reopening schools. Give your input to the short survey to share your ideas and concerns.