The Detroit Federation of Teachers says Detroit Public Schools is showing continued incompetence and insensitivity in its request for court action against teachers.
The union says some of the defendants didn't even take part in the sickout protests the district is asking a judge to ban. One of the defendants was out during a "sick-out" because she was fighting cancer.
"One of those ladies, she is dealing with cancer. But you know what she is doing? She is getting her treatments and coming to work when she can. So how dare you!" said Ivy Bailey, DFT President. " How dare you? How dare you file an injunction on someone like that? Somebody in the district doesn’t know what they are doing. Somebody didn’t do a proper investigation just like you didn’t investigate the schools. Because if you had done that you would have known the deplorable conditions inside our schools."
Detroit Public Schools named 22 defendants when it filed an injunction request in an attempt to get teachers back into classrooms following days of sick-outs that shut down dozens of schools.
"No one from the Detroit Federation of Teachers has indicated anything to Detroit Public Schools of this nature, but clearly, if an individual District employee is ill or caring for a loved one who is ill, the District has always been sensitive to such issues," said Michelle Zdrodowski, Executive Director of Communications at Detroit Public Schools.
Teachers say they have called in to raise awareness of dangerous schools putting kids in danger. They say there are classrooms still not staffed with teachers.
They have heard the district is set to run out of money in April and want answers as to how it will impact their livelihood and their students' education.
The district says teachers need to be in class so school isn't canceled.
