Members of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) are being warned by the union to not post photos from any vacations on social media as the teachers are still on strike, refusing to go back to school despite overwhelming criticism from local government officials and parents, according to Fox News.
The warning was posted in the UTLA’s official “members only” Facebook group, which has about 5,700 members. In the post, a union member suggested that “if you are planning any trips for Spring Break, please keep that off of social media,” noting that “it is hard to argue that it is unsafe for in-person instruction if parents and the public see vacation photos and international travel.”
The UTLA had already rejected the most recent attempt to reopen schools for in-person learning, with 91 percent of members voting against the proposal. The union demands that L.A. County first ensure all teachers are vaccinated or have access to a vaccine, among many other demands for increasingly arbitrary “safety measures,” before they will consider returning to teach in-person.
A spokesperson for the gubernatorial campaign of former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer (R-Calif.) released a statement slamming the warning from within the union, saying that “the union’s decision to condone international vacations while keeping students and educators from returning to classrooms is so hypocritical you would think Gavin Newsom thought of it himself.”
Governor Newsom (D-Calif.), who is facing an increasingly likely recall election later this year, had signed a bill into law approving a $6.6 billion coronavirus relief package, which includes guidelines for reopening schools across the state. Among the measures included in the bill are the implementation of a financial penalty to schools that remain closed after April 1st, with schools that violate this deadline losing 1 percent of eligible funds for every day they remain closed.
In response to press inquiries about the incident, UTLA simply said that “UTLA does not monitor nor is responsible for the content” of the Facebook post, adding that “we have a diverse membership and they are able to post their views on personal Facebook pages and in this Facebook group.”