No PPE in School? Here’s What We Do

The UFT has a good protocol in place for missing PPE – it came in an email over Mulgrew’s signature Friday evening:

Your school must have personal protective equipment  in place when staff return on Tuesday, Sept. 8. If PPE is not available, immediately discuss the situation with your principal, the custodian or the leader of your school’s COVID-19 building response team. If the issue cannot be resolved immediately, call the union’s hotline at 212-701-9677. The hotline operator will triage your call to a UFT staff member, who will promptly come to your building to confirm your report and take further action. UFT members should leave the building and wait outside.

Those directions are for your school’s UFT Chapter Leader. (unless they CL is recalcitrant, they are the one who should probably make the call)

Chapter Leaders – I hope you have been in contact with your principal, and know the status of the PPE. Even better if you inspect it yourself. If some or all PPE is missing, be ready to consult quickly with your principal Tuesday early early in the morning, with your committee if you have one, and then call the hotline if necessary. If you have not been in contact with the principal, please email today. Seriously today. Don’t wait. They get bothered by the DoE at all hours for nonsense – and this is actually important.

Chapter Leaders – if you did not update your members late last week, please do so before Tuesday. Let them know what to expect, especially if there are immediate problems.

Members – I hope your Chapter Leader has been updating you. If not, you should check with them what the status of the PPE is.

Members – Tuesday morning, if you have questions about PPE, find your Chapter Leader before you enter the building.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – the UFT has a list:

Schools need the following equipment and supplies on Sept. 8, 2020.

• • Surgical masks for adults
  • Surgical masks for children
  • N95 respirators
  • Face shields for adults
  • Electrostatic sprayer
  • Cleaning supplies for daily and nightly cleaning
  • Supplies of gloves, disinfecting spray (or wipes), towels, hand sanitizer in each room
  • No-contact thermometers for temperature screening

UFT Walkthrough Reports. I’m generally a fan of distributing information quickly, but our report was kind of hard to read, and might be confusing. The “investigator” visited the school quite briefly, and mostly asked the principal questions and wrote down his answers. I did send out a narrative description with highlights and issues of immediate and imminent concern yesterday. I think that will provide more context for the report, which I will send out today.

Me. We do not have PPE in our school. The principal has been actively pursuing the DoE, who now say it will be delivered over the weekend. Crossing my fingers for Tuesday!