BTF SUPPORTS BUFFALO PARENT TEACHER ORGANIZATION"S (BPTO) CALL FOR RAPID COVID-19 TESTING

The BTF, in previous correspondence to the Superintendent and School Board, has stated there should be “written and posted admission and departure procedures that, all would agree, provide for safe and healthful admission and departures from the schools.”

The extensive BTF/hybrid reopening safety plan reflects the belief that the reopening plan should have the support of all stakeholders to be successful. It calls for agreement by “all”, i.e. “teachers, parents, school administrators and of course the Superintendent and Board of Education and all required local, state and federal agencies” (click here).

“We join with the Buffalo Parent Teacher Organization in calling for the business community and insurance companies to provide the resources necessary to ensure that there is rapid coronavirus testing for all students and adults prior to entering our schools/sites and that such testing be ongoing.

We also call upon New York State and the Federal government to provide the resources and legislation necessary to ensure that this rapid coronavirus testing is implemented.

This is not only a matter of life and death, but of permanent respiratory and neurological (brain) damage.

We cannot allow for the outbreaks that we have seen in other schools and communities.

Most of our parents and their children can not afford to pay for, or have the insurance to cover, a rapid coronavirus test.

Not protecting them is not only wrong but immoral”, stated Phil Rumore, President of the Buffalo Teachers Federation.