Earlier this month, Jeff Blehar, aka @EsotericCD, shared the encouraging news about Chicago Public Schools finally going mask-free.
On Monday, Chicago Public Schools finally went "mask-optional" for kids. This was over the violent objection of the Chicago Teacher's Union, which claimed removing masks had to be "bargained for" (read: paid off) due to terms they extracted during their January wildcat strike.
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) March 15, 2022
Refresher course: during the new year during the Omicron wave, the Chicago Teacher's Union staged an illegal strike–illegal by their own bylaws, no less!–and walked off the job for five school days in order to extract concessions from Mayor Lightfoot and the City Council.
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) March 15, 2022
What they wanted was full-time remote learning (and a pay raise down the road). What they got was a mask mandate and hyper-strict quarantine requirements (and a pay raise down the road). And now to get rid of it, well son that's gonna cost ya.
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) March 15, 2022
A relative return to normalcy would be a huge deal to any parent of a CPS student, but it would be even more significant to a parent like Blehar, whose young son is special-needs and has been very noticeably negatively affected by draconian masking policies.
But Blehar’s cautious optimism was doomed to be short-lived. Today, he tweeted out an update on how his son is doing under the ostensibly more relaxed guidelines:
UPDATE: today my son, who faces severe speech delays and needs to see faces and be able to see his own, toddled off happily to pre-K at school (he goes b/c CPS has therapy options).
He was returned to me two hours later with a mask forcibly tied to his face by a teacher. Crying. https://t.co/TnaTZUGAGj
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) March 23, 2022
What child wouldn’t be crying over something like that? What parent wouldn’t be crying over it? What was done to his son is nothing less than child abuse.
I am writing this as neutrally as I possibly can because I don't think merely posting an unbroken string of expletives will explain much to anybody, but…I am not in a congenial mood.
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) March 23, 2022
For what it’s worth, Jeff, we wouldn’t fault you in the slightest for posting an unbroken string of expletives. Because that would be the bare minimum reaction that something like this would merit.
"Now could I drink hot blood"
– Hamlet, Act III sc. ii— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) March 23, 2022
I rarely have thoughts that I know I shouldn't voice on Twitter, which I guess is one reason I haven't deleted my back catalogue, even thought it's a chronicle of idiocy.
Today is the first time I can remember in a decade where I simply cannot express my sense of anger properly.
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) March 23, 2022
There is no excuse, no justification whatsoever for the horror that Blehar’s son and countless other children are being put through by power-hungry teachers’ unions and the schools effectively under their control.
Yeah. That's outrageous.
— Rafique Tucker 🇺🇦 (@RiffRaf979) March 23, 2022
Horrifying https://t.co/q7vAhHWuw7
— Mike Laurent (@Laurent_MJ) March 23, 2022
Seems, among other things, like an IEP violation.
— Deena Heg (@bikesalsa) March 23, 2022
It’s a violation of basic human decency. Forced masking has had demonstrable disastrous effects on children, socially, emotionally, mentally, physically. Those effects are only magnified in children with special needs.
If you’re furious, you should be.
That is messed up. I am also on a warpath re: issues children's education, so I def know how the rage comes
— RocketNats 🇺🇦 (@RocketNats) March 23, 2022
Very sorry, Jeff. Give them hell.
— AG🌻 (@AGHamilton29) March 23, 2022
We don’t normally advocate for rage, but if that rage can be channeled into helping our children triumph over the evil being forced upon them by authoritarian teachers’ unions, it’s worth it. Teachers’ unions don’t care about children. They won’t fight for children. So we have to.
Abolish the teachers’ unions now.
There will not be justice in this world until teachers' unions are razed to the ground, and on their ashes, a free range kid playground is erected. https://t.co/RPpwfCn6Xa
— Andrew Davis 🌻 (@OrangePundit) March 23, 2022
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