This letter was written by Rev./Dr. Anika Whitfield of Grassroots Arkansas:
The LRSD should not and must not force employees to report to work against the wisdom of the CDC, national standards and criteria during this pandemic. LRSD paraprofessionals should not have to ignore their own health concerns for themselves, their families, and their communities to prevent job or compensation loss. The work the LRSD is requiring employees to report to is not urgently life saving, nor urgently life preserving. In fact, it could be a death sentence not just for the employees who report to work, but for their families and community.
The LRSD and the state of Arkansas should and must provide safer, more responsible supportive measures of assistance for front line workers and their families to provide working hours care for their under aged, unattended children.
Sincerely,
Rev./Dr. Anika T. Whitfield
Grassroots Arkansas, co-chair
Arkansas Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call to Moral Revival, co-chair
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Dr. Whitfield has been a constant voice for teachers, parents, and students. She has worked tirelessly for us, and we all should heed her call. Thanks, Anika! You’re truly the best!
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Anika Whitfield is a wonder woman. She never gives up fighting against injustice.
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LRSD Superintendent Mike Poore is trying to make LRSD paraprofessionals “volunteer” to provide childcare for the children of first responders while LRSD schools are closed. There’s a partnership between the district and the city to open certain school facilities as child care for medical personnel, etc.
I guess not enough LRSD teachers & staff were “volunteering” to do the actual work their district committed to. So now Poore is telling paraprofessionals they have to report to their (closed) regular worksites for “manual labor” starting Monday unless they volunteer to do childcare in the community partnership programs. NEITHER ONE OF THESE JOBS is listed in the job description for LRSD paraprofessionals, and schools are CLOSED by order of the governor, at the recommendation of the CDC.
Read Poore’s letter here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dfn2bi3habz98q1/Principals-Supervisors%20and%20%20Paraprofessionals%20Notice%20Immediate%20Action.pdf?dl=0
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That inhuman. It’s treating these people as some kind of disposable widgets. WHY should these paraprofessionals, who are paid so poorly to begin with, be forced to do this? If the superintendent wants this “program” so badly, he and his highly-paid lackeys should do it.
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imagine
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We have a whole lot of people who have no choice but to work even if they would rather stay at home. It’s bad enough that people have to “choose” to work right now without being forced to do so. It’s past time for serious discussions about how we treat those who are considered little more than disposable widgets during the best of times. It has become quite clear that the size of your bank account, if you even have one, has nothing to do with your worth.
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Volunteer- should be optional, not forced.
They’re are not bound/contracted to work when Schools are closed.
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If LRSD were concerned with fulfilling the terms of their contract with paraprofessionals right now, the LRSD paraprofessionals would be working the contracted numbers of days — regardless of the location where they work. Instead, this state-controlled district is “incentivizing” the hospital childcare worksites by giving paraprofessionals who “choose” those sites an early release from their contract. Parapros at hospital sites will stop working on June 1. Parapros working anywhere else will be required to continue working until June 18.
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June 19! I meant June 19. An 18-day difference.
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It’s discriminatory.
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They are now asking paras to clean all other schools (high schools & middle schools), completely unfair. There’s several possible ways of getting infected. What kind of treatment is this?
They didn’t signup for this hard & life threatening labor, please someone stop LRSD from doing this.
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