Teachers' union boss instrumental in school lockdowns, child mask mandates joins call for 'pandemic amnesty'

The head of America’s second largest teachers union who pushed relentlessly for extended school closures is now asking for “amnesty” along with other architects of the pandemic. 

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is known for not only promoting lockdowns but also for successfully lobbying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to keep schools closed even as evidence showed schools were not at risk for spreading COVID-19.  

Emails obtained by the New York Post showed that Weingarten heavily influenced the CDC’s school re-opening guidelines, which in some places included the union’s suggestions nearly verbatim. While the CDC had reportedly been ready to recommend that schools re-open safely, it changed its guidance dramatically to make no clear recommendation after talks with Weingarten.

The AFT head also reportedly joined the largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), in bullying the CDC to restore mask mandates for children.

On Monday Weingarten joined calls for “pandemic amnesty” after a pro-mandate professor published an article in The Atlantic titled, “Let’s declare a pandemic amnesty. We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID.” 

Weingarten retweeted the article and wrote, “I agree with [author Professor Emily Oster] on this.” 

Weingarten also attacked Jewish parents who pushed for re-opening schools, saying they were part of “the ownership class” and wanted to deprive others of opportunities.  

“American Jews are now part of the ownership class,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Jews were immigrants from somewhere else. And they needed the right to have public education. And they needed power to have enough income and wealth for their families that they could put their kids through college and their kids could do better than they have done. Both economic opportunity through the labor movement and an educational opportunity through public education were key for Jews to go from the working class to the ownership class.”  

She then accused Jewish parents of trying to undercut others.  

“. . . those who are in the ownership class now want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it. Am I saying that everything we do is right? No. Are people in Los Angeles fearful? Yes.”  

Weingarten went on to say that teachers are “scared” of returning to in-person teaching.