Chicago Teacher Battling Cancer Slams Union for Voting to Halt In-Person Learning

Nick Gilbertson

A Chicago teacher with cancer slammed the city’s teacher’s union for voting to halt in-person learning until coronavirus cases dwindle or their safety demands are met. The vote resulted in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) having to cancel classes on Wednesday and Thursday.

CPS teacher Joe Ocol laid into the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) during an interview on Tucker Carlson Tonight.

“I joined the Chicago Public Schools as a teacher, first and foremost as a teacher, and my role, I believe my role should be inside the classroom with my students,” Ocol told Carlson. “It should not be in the picket line. I did not join CPS to be a union member, first and foremost to be a teacher.”

Breitbart News reported that 73 percent of teachers in the union voted to not show up for in-person learning:

Pedro Martinez, CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the third largest public school district in the nation, announced during a press conference Wednesday in-person learning would be cancelled on Thursday.

The union voted on Tuesday, with 73 percent in favor of not showing up for in-person learning until their demands were met for greater health and safety conditions in schools, including more coronavirus testing and vaccination sites, and ventilation.

In his conversation with Carlson, Ocol suggested the union is using pupils as a bargaining chip.

“I believe there are ways to fight city hall,” Ocol said. “You don’t dangle the plight of the kids in the middle of the fight just to secure demands.”

“There are other ways, I believe there are other ways,” he continued. “I have nothing against the union, but I have something against people using the union as a tool for political gain.”

Ocol highlighted his duty to serve his students as their teacher.

“Despite my battling cancer, I still have a role to play right now, and I just want to make my life relevant somehow – the thought that I can be of service to my students and I can touch their lives and make a difference in their lives,” he explained.

Ocol went to his school on Wednesday to organize and plan, according to CBS Chicago.

“There were no students, and I was the only teacher there,” Ocol told the outlet. “I miss my students. It’s just that this is a different situation, and I feel sad about this.”

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the CTU is holding children “hostage.”

“I will not allow [the Chicago Teachers Union] to take our children hostage,” Lightfoot said during a press conference, per Fox News. “I will not allow them to compromise the future of this generation of CPS students. That is not going to happen.”

On Wednesday, Lightfoot spoke to WBEZ on the matter.

“We love our teachers. We appreciate them,” the mayor said. “But the CTU leadership is a whole different matter. And we cannot allow them to blow up the school system because they decide that they want to engage in disruptive, chaotic conduct.”

The union also voted to transition to remote learning and accused Lightfoot of locking them out of their online classrooms.

In his interview with Carlson, Ocol spoke to the many problems he has run into with remote learning.

“I had done the remote learning for more than a year with the students, and I’ve seen the limitations and the challenges that a teacher faces with remote learning,” he explained. “And it’s not really effective, it’s not as effective as in-person teaching, and I feel that it’s not also fair to the parents, where the parents need to be with the students when they should be earning a living.”

“So, I think that the union should look at it not in a sweeping way – they did a sweeping manor on their demands, but there are schools without covid,” he continued. “I have my classroom, I have 82 students, and I am not aware of anyone having covid, I am also not aware of a teacher having covid in my school, so I think it’s a measure of the administration coming up with ways to really ensure safety measures being observed. So, I think the union has to look at it on a school-to-school basis, it should not be in a sweeping way because that is unfair to the students, that’s not fair to the parents.”

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