10:06am: Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

W.Va. teachers union says it’s ready to sue over changes to virus map that determines school status

The West Virginia Education Association says it will seek an injunction over changes to the state’s map that determines school status based on the spread of coronavirus.

“Listening to the comments from the governor and his health advisors, the focus has clearly been on getting teams back on the playing field and getting students in school,” WVEA President Dale Lee stated today.

“They forget that in many classrooms and buses across our state it is impossible to practice appropriate social distancing and enforce mask wearing.”

The teachers union is questioning whether continued changes to the map have compromised the safety of students and employees in public schools.

Dale Lee

“Our members have watched the constant manipulation of the map. As each rendition failed to provide the desired results sought by our state leaders, additional changes were made,” Lee stated.

“The map manipulation has gone on long enough. Citizens and educators have lost confidence and trust that the changes made to the map are in the interest of safety and public health.”

Changes over the past few weeks have included placing smaller counties on a 14-day rolling average; having nursing home residents, corrections inmates and now some isolating college students count as one unit; altering the cutoff points for colors meant to indicate county status; and adding an additional color, gold.

The most recent change had a dramatic effect last week.

Initially the map counted just daily positive cases on a rolling average and adjusted for 100,000 population. State officials concluded people were holding back on getting tested because positives would count against their local numbers.

So state officials now allow use of a percent positive figure. Counties are assessed by whichever is better, the average daily positives or the percent positive.

A daily state map appeared with that change for the first time Friday, and then a dominant Saturday map that dictates school status also reflected the switch.

Significantly more counties were depicted as green, the lowest levels, on the map. Monongalia County, which has been red for weeks, very quickly went to green.

Governor Justice

Gov. Jim Justice defended the changes during a Monday briefing, specifying that the most recent ones were meant to encourage more coronavirus testing and identify more people who might be spreading the virus.

“I am very pleased with what we’re doing. I know it’s difficult. I know it’s confusing. I know it’s all those things.”

Justice also indicated, though, that he wants more counties to have opportunities to get their numbers down. Kanawha County is still orange, which means there has been no in-class instruction all year so far.

“The kids in Kanawha County have not been in school. We want ’em in school so bad,” Justice said.

So, he said, “What we need to do is blanket the orange counties and, God forbid, a red county. And we need to test and test and test.”

Justice, during his closing remarks on Monday, specifically addressed school employees.

“Have I not since the get-go done every single thing I can do to keep you safe, to keep our kids safe?” the governor asked.

“Have I ever told you something that’s not the truth?”

The WVEA says the latest changes to the map simply go too far and the illusion of a ‘green map’ does not mean it is safe to return
to in-person learning in many of our counties.

“We know how important it is for students to be back in classrooms working with their teachers. No one wants in-person education more than our members, but they no longer feel safety is the top priority of our state government’s leadership.

“We have educators all over the state who have lost confidence in the governor and his statements regarding his desire to keep them safe.”

The union says the only way to restore confidence in the process and ensure safety in public schools is to adopt a new system from independent experts recognized in the field of infectious diseases and public health, such as the original color-coded map from Harvard.

The state originally modeled its map on one developed by Harvard but altered it over time.

A map from Harvard Global Health shows far fewer counties with the lowest green level, more in yellow or orange and two counties — Kanawha and Gilmer — as red.

Justice was asked on Monday how parents can be confident if they look at the differences between the state map and the Harvard map.

Justice responded, “I don’t know why in the world all of a sudden the Harvard map is a better map than the experts right here in West Virginia are doing.”

The governor continued, “The Harvard people naturally want their map to be one-size-fits-all.”

WVEA says its injunction “seeks to return the state’s color-coded map to reflect the intent of those national experts regarding the health and safety of our students and employees.”





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