Teachers union files suit against reopening campuses

The Orange County teachers union filed a lawsuit today against the county school district, calling its plans to open campuses Aug. 21 unsafe and charging it had refused to make public information on summer outbreaks of COVID-19 among staff.

The Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, the union for the district’s 14,000 educators, said it filed the lawsuit because the district had refused to negotiate “in good faith” details of its reopening plans.

“We should be working together on planning for the safe and effective reopening of schools in Orange County,” said Wendy Doromal, the union president, in an statement. “Instead, with just a few weeks to go, we are still in the dark about the District’s plans to keep students and teachers safe.”

The union, which does not think it is safe to open campuses in August, plans a press conference this afternoon to discuss the lawsuit, which also charges that the school district has not complied with public information requests.

“This includes a list of schools and worksites with COVID-19 outbreaks and what is being done to sanitize those worksites and keep students, teachers and all employees safe. The community is entitled to information to make informed and fact-based decisions,” the union said in a statement.

In early July, the district said 18 of 4,529 employees who work 12 months had tested positive for the virus. But it would not say where they worked, citing privacy laws.

The union lawsuit is the third filed in recent weeks challenging reopening plans. The other two — one by a local teacher and mother and the other by the statewide teachers union — challenge Florida’s school reopening order, saying it is forcing schools to open when the number of coronavirus cases and fatalities in Florida has surged.

The state order requires public schools to open campuses in August and give parents the option of a traditional, five-day-aweek schedule, unless health officials have deemed conditions unsafe. Gov. Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran defended the order again Wednesday, saying in-person education is best for most children, schools can open safely and parents should have the option of having their kids back on campus.

The Orange school district said it will start the school year Aug. 10 with online classes and then, to comply with the state order, open campuses Aug. 21 for those students whose parents want them to have face-to-face lessons. So far, about 29 percent of students will be returning to campuses while the rest have chosen online options for the first semester of the 2020-21 school year.

The lawsuit filed by the teacher and the mother has been scheduled to be heard in Orange County Circuit Court on Aug. 13, the attorneys representing the two women said.

“It is not our clients’ aim … to cancel school, but to allow local school districts to begin the 2020-2021 school year in a virtual environment until such time as the COVID-19 pandemic is under control and our school boards are prepared to handle the return to brick and mortar schools with live face-to-face instruction,” said attorneys Jacob Stuart, Jr. and Billy Wieland in a statement.

The attorneys want to call DeSantis and Corcoran as witnesses along with Orange school leaders and a local pediatrician, their statement said.