Over the Christmas break, RedState reported on an online poll sent out by the Chicago Teachers Union to its members gauging the support for a strike and a return to “remote learning.” All credit to Corey DeAngelis, who has helped lead the fight against union corruption on this front, for uncovering the poll and its results.

What it showed is that a large majority of teachers supported the move, and I speculated that a work stoppage was inevitable. Today, that became a reality as the union announced that teachers are not to show up for work, leaving hundreds of thousands of kids to suffer.

The action will end when one of the following conditions is met: The current surge in cases substantially subsides, or the mayor's team at CPS signs an agreement establishing conditions for return that are voted on and approved by the the CTU House of Delegates.

— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@CTULocal1) January 5, 2022

What absolute lazy bums these people are, and harmful ones at that — given the damage they are doing to children. There is no justification whatsoever for schools to close right now. Children themselves are still not strong vectors of spread and are more likely to die of drowning, a car wreck, the flu, or a head injury than COVID-19 (related: Leave the Kids Alone). Teachers themselves have not only had the opportunity to get triple-vaccinated, but they were given priority access when the vaccines first came out.

Further, American taxpayers shoveled tens of billions of dollars to schools in order to make them “safe” (a misnomer in itself, given almost all mitigation is highly ineffective). N95 masks and tests are already provided to teachers at no cost.

Yet, these absolute monsters are striking anyway, once again holding taxpayers hostage and telling children to jump off a cliff. It will take months before the current Omicron spike subsides in a place like Chicago. What are the kids supposed to do? Remote learning is a farce, and even many on the left have begun to admit that school closings are extremely damaging.

Striking quote from @PedsDanny on @AC360:

"Closure of public schools is the biggest public health failure of our lifetime. Why do we want to do that again?"

Schools remain one of the safest places for children from a #covid19 transmission standpoint.

— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) January 5, 2022

But aside from the online backlash, and there’s been a lot of it, the backlash from Chicago’s city government has also been swift and kind of hilarious. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is about as far left as you can get, decided to take no prisoners. She immediately locked the striking CTU members out of their Google classrooms.

Mayor Lightfoot has started locking Chicago public school teachers and staff out of their Google Classrooms. #LoriLockout

— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@CTULocal1) January 5, 2022

Imagine being so undeservedly entitled that you institute a work stoppage and then complain when you get locked out of your Google classrooms. Chicago’s government (via the taxpayers that elected it) has the right to dictate how students will be taught. But the real reason CTU members are upset about this move is that it stops their efforts to rally support. They were using Google Hangouts to organize and spread their message. That’s why it’s so funny that they are throwing a fit now for being locked out.

To be as frank as possible, these large teachers unions in blue states are evil, abusive organizations. That may not be true for some of the more mundane ones that exist in the South, but in regards to places like Chicago, teachers unions have become a force that harms children. It’s long past time city leaders and parents stand up to them.

In summary, this isn’t a complicated issue. While I respect teachers who are doing the right thing (including those in my city), these Chicago teachers are not special, and they are not the only ones who can do the job. If they believe going to work represents such a clear and present danger that they must continue to abuse children in response, then they should quit. It’s that simple. Stop being lazy do-nothings and quit.