‘The View’ Stands by Teachers Walking Out Over COVID Concerns: “They Have a Right to Be Safe”

The View tore into Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot during today’s hot topics, slamming her for not coming to the defense of teachers’ safety in a recent press conference. As they discussed the concerns about in-person learning amid the surge of Omicron COVID cases, the panelists made it clear that they’d go to bat for teachers every time. Sunny Hostin and guest co-host Yvette Nicole Brown said they’d even bear the brunt of hate tweets on the matter — anything for our nation’s educators.

In the clip shown today, Lightfoot addressed Chicago public school teachers, saying that those who come to work will get paid, whereas those who don’t will not. Hostin took issue with this, laying into Lightfoot for her lack of understanding towards the educators who feared for their health and safety as the city faces record high infection rates

“My mom’s a teacher, my aunt’s a teacher, I’ve taught, so I take this personally. Our teachers are underpaid, they’re overworked. They have a right to be safe in the work environment. We’re working from home right now, right? It’s not necessarily safe,” she said. “Our teachers have to be safe. What if our teachers get sick and bring it home to someone they’re living with?”

Hostin said that even though kids may struggle with online learning, safety is the most important aspect of education. Ultimately, the panelist sided with the teachers striking.

“I think they’re doing the right thing, I’m sorry,” she said. “I know I’m going to get a lot of hate tweets — keep ’em coming, because they’ve got to be safe as well.”

Joy Behar agreed with her co-host: “You know, Sunny, what I don’t understand is why they can’t do both with the advanced technology we are living with in this country, in this world,” she said. “With Jeff Bezos going into space, you mean to tell me they can’t do Zoom and have the option to go in?”

Brown, subbing in for both Whoopi Goldberg and Sara Haines, saw completely eye to eye with Hostin’s defense of teachers.

“Let the hate tweets come to me too, because I’m 100 percent pro-teacher. I feel like if there’s anyone that knows best what’s needed in a classroom, it’s a teacher. They are understaffed, it’s unsafe, they are under-tested — there’s no tests at home. This is a petri dish that they’re being told to walk into every day,” Brown added. “To say that you’re going to dock the pay of people that are already coming out of their own pocket to bring things into classroom? It makes me livid.”

To conclude, Brown added: “I think that the mayor’s wrong. Send me the tweets.”

Guest co-host Ana Navarro concurred with the above statements, adding that only those within the school districts should be making calls on the matter.

“I don’t even understand why the mayor is saying this,” Navarro said. “If you want to make this less political, frankly, I think it should be the experts on education. It should be the school superintendent taking the lead on this, not the politically elected mayor of Chicago. I do think that it should be less of a blanket policy and more case-by-case and school district-by-school district and school-by-school.”

Ultimately, Navarro brought the conversation back around to the teacher’s personal lives at home, calling for folks to have a little more empathy for America’s educators.

“Not every teacher is the same,” Navarro concluded. “Some teachers have older parents with them at home. Some teachers might be pregnant. Some teachers might have babies at home who are too young to be vaccinated. There needs to be some wiggle room, some compassion, some grace both towards students and parents, who are experiencing great difficulty, but also to teachers. They’re not expendable.”

The View airs weekdays on ABC at 11/10c.

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