{"id":1420,"date":"2020-10-28T10:15:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T10:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=1420"},"modified":"2021-02-25T10:36:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T10:36:40","slug":"demanding-an-unsafe-teaching-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/10\/28\/demanding-an-unsafe-teaching-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Demanding an Unsafe Teaching Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amongst the many strange bits of guidance issued to staff in recent weeks, Managing a Safe Teaching Environment<\/cite>, a set of rules on masks and social distancing issued on 2 October 2020, is well worth a closer look. Many teaching staff will have been wondering whether, faced with a potentially difficult situation in a teaching space, they should put health and safety considerations first. There is now a definitive answer from the University – no<\/q>.<\/p>\n

The document is officially unauthored, but the file properties credit Prof Alisdair Gillespie (Law School) as the creator.<\/p>\n

Staff are reassured that masks aren’t really needed in the first place: if a person is in a class without a mask then, so long as social distancing is maintained, the risk of transmission is not increased significantly.<\/q> The word significantly<\/q> is doing some heavy lifting there.<\/p>\n

Social distancing regulations are treated very seriously and can be enforced by Security. If a student refuses to maintain social distance, you can ask them to leave and take a note of their name. If they refuse to leave, you may need to contact Security or end the class.<\/p>\n

But as for masks – well, there are valid reasons why some students are exempt from wearing them. They may choose to wear a sunflower lanyard<\/q> to indicate their exempt status, or use an e-exemption card<\/q> on iLancaster, but this is not a requirement. In a classroom situation, students and teachers will understandably be concerned if someone turns up not wearing a mask or displaying a sunflower lanyard. What should the teacher do?<\/p>\n

The University’s official advice is: you must do nothing, even if you believe the student may be putting others at risk, or if other students have indicated their concern. There is no requirement for students to inform the tutor that they have an exemption in advance of the session. Politely asking to see a student’s e-exemption card, or discreetly inviting a student outside to have a socially distant chat about safety, may be embarrassing or exclusionary<\/q>. If other students voice their worries, your duty is to remind them that some students are exempt, and do everything you can<\/q> to ensure that students not wearing a mask don’t feel uncomfortable. The most you can do is note the offending student’s name and take it up with them afterwards. Could be a bit late by then!<\/p>\n

Ah well, at least we’re not allowing students who are coughing and sneezing to stay in our seminar rooms. What’s that… we are? Yes, we are. Remember, students with colds are entitled to attend classes<\/q> and asking a student to leave the class when displaying symptoms of a cold is likely to prove highly embarrassing and distressing to a student, potentially leading to complaints.<\/q> Well, at least we know they’ll be wearing masks… oh…<\/p>\n

As an aside, it’s interesting that the risk of Lancaster receiving a (possibly vexatious) complaint seems to alarm senior management more than the risk of staff and student infection.<\/p>\n

Prof Gillespie’s guidance received endorsement from a surprising source on 15 October, in an email from Lancaster UCU to its members. Having sought clarification from HR and the Safety Office about face coverings in classrooms, and what to do if students don’t wear them, the union’s stance is that, it’s tricky \u2013 but the short answer, reasonably, seems to be that we can and should do NOTHING.<\/q><\/p>\n

subtext<\/cite> readers are reminded that, according to section 44<\/a> of the Employment Rights Act 1996 on workplace health and safety, they have the right not be subject to any detriment by their employer if, in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent and which he could not reasonably have been expected to avert, he left (or proposed to leave) or (while the danger persisted) refused to return to his place of work or any dangerous part of his place of work<\/q>. If you think someone is potentially putting you and your students in danger then you are within your rights to leave, bringing your students with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amongst the many strange bits of guidance issued to staff in recent weeks, Managing a Safe Teaching Environment, a set of rules on masks and social distancing issued on 2 October 2020, is well worth a closer look. Many teaching … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[606,572,607,601,442,116,70],"class_list":["post-1420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alisdair-gillespie","tag-covid-19","tag-employment-rights-act-1996","tag-issue-195","tag-safety-on-campus","tag-teaching-methods","tag-ucu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-mU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":143,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/26\/lessons-in-how-not-to-do-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":1420,"position":0},"title":"LESSONS IN HOW NOT TO DO THINGS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 26 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Not long after the messy introduction of a divisive plan to close down a department in LUMS (see subtext 165), subtext learns of some rather odd and worrying developments in the Law Department. 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