From New York Times, I'm Michael Obaro. This is a daily.

Over the past week, as Omicron infections surged, a high-stakes battle has played out in

Chicago, again, between the city's mayor and its teacher's union, about whether it's

safe or practical to keep schools open. Today, my colleagues Claire Tennis-Sketter and Rob

Sipco spoke with the students, teachers, and parents caught in the middle of the standoff.

It's Thursday, January 13th.

Hi, Sonia. Hi. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. So, I would love to just start by like getting

a little bit to introduce yourself for me. Okay. My name is Sonia Johnson. I'm a special

teacher. I've been teaching in Chicago Public Schools for 21 years, and I've been teaching

in a high school for about 15 years. What has that been like in the recent past? So, winter

break, COVID surges, infection rates just climb. You know, we were constantly watching

the news and wondering, you know, if we were going to go remote, which we all were hoping

we would go remote for safety reasons. But we came back Monday, and, you know, classes

were about 50% full due to COVID outbreaks. Our principal head COVID, she was out. Our

dean, he also has COVID and was out. Wow. Serious, just staffing issues. Teachers were asked

to cover for other teachers who were absent, which I did missing my prep periods and my

lunch period. I had a student in my class with all the symptoms of COVID, and she said,

Ms. Johnson, you know, I feel really, really sick. You know, I have a sore throat, I have

a cough, I feel like I'm like getting a fever. I mean, and she said, but I was tested negative

for COVID. So, can I just sit in the hallway? So, I brought her downstairs looking for the

nurse, and I'm like, how can I send this student home? You know, we cannot have any students

with any symptoms, regardless of, you know, positive or negative COVID tests. So, anyway,

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