Rio de Janeiro – In a traditional private school in the Tijuca neighborhood, in the north of Rio de Janeiro, teachers do not receive masks, classrooms do not have alcohol gels and even professionals from the risk group – including a pregnant teacher – are being forced to work under threat of dismissal. At a daycare center, located in the wealthy neighborhood of Jardim Botânico, in the southern part of the city, all employees, including at-risk groups, were forced to sign a document “volunteering” to work in the coming weekends and holidays, without extra remuneration, to compensate for the time the establishment remained closed. The two reports are part of a series of 96 complaints against schools in Rio, received by the Union of Teachers of Rio de Janeiro (Sinpro-Rio) since the category ended last week of almost four months of strike.

The growing number of denunciations against schools in Rio made the union, even with the end of the strike, decide at the assembly to remain in “state of health surveillance alert”. The goal is to require private schools to comply with basic safety rules to try to prevent the spread of covid-19 among professionals and students.

The reality shows that this care does not exist in numerous cases: “The state of health surveillance occurs because, as we predicted, schools are not complying with safety protocols. There are countless denunciations every day, ranging from the absence of testing, to the lack of alcohol, not wearing masks and disrespect to distance. There is also the moral harassment of schools forcing teachers from the risk group, or those who live with someone from that group, to go to work ”, says Professor Afonso Celso, vice president of Sinpro-Rio.

The surveillance of the category resulted in the explosion of complaints and caused Sinpro-Rio to file a formal complaint against an initial group of 35 private schools. Most responded to the union’s questions, but nine establishments failed to do so. Since then, the denunciations have not stopped coming and are already approaching the hundred, which should provoke a new action by the union: “We have been looking for the schools denounced and questioned the procedures. Most have responded, however, many teachers and guardians return to us questioning such responses, ”says Afonso.

Sinpro-Rio formally requested the school boards to submit a list with the names of teachers who were removed because they belong to risk groups or live with people in risk groups. He also asked to be informed when and at which location tests were carried out for the covid-19 in the professionals invited to return to work.

In addition, the Union forwarded complaints to the City Health Surveillance, the State Education and Health Secretariats, the Municipal and State Health and Education Councils and the Health and Education Commissions of the Legislative Assembly and the City Council: “We are preparing an extensive dossier on all the schools denounced and we hope that the authorities really do their part of enforcing the rules that they themselves have established ”, says Afonso Celso.

Letter to Society

Despite pressure from the media and even television advertisements paid for by school unions, most parents and guardians preferred not to send their children back to school before the pandemic ended. Aware of this reality, Sinpro-Rio sent an open letter to society to explain its position: “Unfortunately, part of the private schools decided to embark on the denialist wave of the federal, state and municipal governments, denying the lethality of the virus, placing teachers, teachers, students, students, guardians and entities of society in general at a continuous risk of contamination ”, says the document. The letter denounces “the criminal indolence of some schools that do not respect health protocols and do not respect science, and are therefore uneducated institutions”.

The union warns the category: “Knowing who we are fighting against and who is on our side is essential for our survival. Worse than the virus, invisible and deadly, is to deny it, despise it, underestimate it. We are in this struggle in which more than five million Brazilians have already been contaminated and, unfortunately, more than 150 thousand died, two crowded Maracanãs. But, we know that our biggest enemy is the denial of the lethal risk of the virus ”, says the letter.

In the opinion of Afonso Celso, pressure from school owners and collusion by the authorities combined to promote a hasty return to school: “We ended the strike because government and legal authorities washed their hands, putting the Brazilian population at risk, mainly workers and workers. We tried, until the last moment, statements by health agencies condemning this return. We only got vague answers that caused more doubts in the category ”, laments the vice president of Sinpro-Rio.