Juvenile Justice education staff back at work with coronavirus concerns

As state and local leaders work on a plan to reopen schools in the fall, some educators are already back in the classroom.

The juvenile justice system brought their staff back in 3 weeks ago.

ABOUT THE EVOLVING PLANS TOREOPEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS THISFALL, AND THE CONCERNS OFPARENTS, STUDENTS ANDTEACHERS.

WELL SOME TEACHERSARE ALREADY BACK IN THECLASSROOM.

TONIGHT WE WILLSHOW YOU THE WORRY IN THEJUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM WHERESTAFF MEMBERS TOLD US THEY'RESEEING A NEW POSITIVE TESTWITHIN THE FACILITY EVERYOTHER DAY.

5:3━5:47“If wedoing everything we can do tobe safe and wethose kind of numbers thanthaEDDIE KADHIM SHOWS US WHY THESTAFF DOESNCONCERNS ARE BEING HEARD.Eddie looklive Over the lastfew weeks Istaff members reach out withconcerns about working in thefacility.

I brought theirconcerns to the spokespeoplefor the Juvenile JusticeSystem and the StateDepartment of Education.

Theyboth said the class sizes arevery small and they arestrictly following all CDCguidelines to keep staff andstudents as safe as possible.Take pkg There is no summerbreak from the JuvenileJustice education system.Since the Coronavirus pandemicstarted employees havestruggled as they weigh goingto to work against puttingthemselves and their lovedones at risk.

I talked toemployees in March when theywere still working int hefacility, even after otherschools were shut down forseveral weeks.

They did switchto telework shortly after thatstory aired.

But as June 22ndapproached they startedreaching out again becausethatphysically went back to work.Victoria Rent━ DamondBaltimore City JuvenileJustice Center SchoolPsychologist 18:3━18:50“Wehad been told in March forthose two weeks when they madeus keep working when everybodyelse was closed theyreclassified us as essential.They gave us double pay forone week and took it awayafter one week.

After thesecond week your story airedand I still think thatreason that they were shamedinto finally putting us ontelework for 12 weeks” Inresponse a spokesperson forthe Department of JuvenileJustice said theyall positive staff to thehealth department and that thesafety and security of all DJSstaff, youth and othersworking in the facility andcommunity is the departmentshighest priority.

Sayingtheypractices as noted by theCenters for Disease Controland the Maryland department ofHealth and that the entirefacility is cleaned by aninfectious disease cleaningvendor.

Sharon JosephBaltimore City JuvenileJustice Center Counselor3:2━3:36“Efforts have beenmade to social distance wearmasks, we have screeningprotocols when everyone entersthe building each time youenter the building youscreened.

However wea fairly large group of peoplein a small facility.

Itchallenging to socialdistance.

Our students arestill fighting wearing masksso thatconsistent basis” The DOJspokesperson says they have aquality assurance team thatmonitors video surveillance toensure masks are worn andclassrooms are thoroughlycleaned before and afterclasses.

And when it comes tonumbers they said“TheDepartment has a lowpositivity rate of 1.2 percentat the Baltimore City JuvenileJustice Center.

At thisfacility, DJS has tested 500staff since Universal testingbegan in June.

Out of the 500staff that were tested, only 6staff members testedpositive” Staff is asking formore transparency in reportingthe numbers.

Saying they knowof at least 5 cases theweren't officially told about.6:4━7:09“While we werenotified of the first case onJune 24th when we returned wereceived a letter from ourHuman Resources that evening.It wasnthat we received a secondnotification about a secondcase” Eddie tag The staff watold not come to work todaybecause of the positive testyesterday and the deep cleanthey are doing.

The Departmentof Juvenile Justice says theyare on schedule to completeuniversal testing by the endof July, but can alter theschedule if necessary.

Indowntown Baltimore outside ofthe Juvenile Justice BuidlingEddie Kadhim WMAR2 News.Tropical Storm Faye will shi