The city of Chicago continues to crumble under Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is scrambling for support after a mass bus driver resignation. Dozens of bus drivers quit and left the school administration after expressing their anger over Lightfoot’s recent vaccine mandates. Because of this, 2,100 students have received a two days’ notice that their bus routes had been dropped. Approximately 73 drivers quit over the vaccine mandate. The district already has a shortage of more than 400 drivers.
Chicago’s ABC-7 reported that about 30% of Chicago public school students most likely won’t return to class for the upcoming school year. This comes out to about 100,274 students who are unlikely to reengage with the school systems.
Things are getting so bad for Lightfoot that she’s even spending money on Uber and Lyft to get the remaining students to the schools, even offering families up to $1,000 payments and $500 in monthly payments for travel reimbursements. It doesn’t make any sense as neither Uber or Lyft drivers have vaccine mandates either. If Dems were so concerned about children being around unvaccinated adults, then the logic for a vaccine mandate in bus drivers just flies out the window.
Mind you, the school already put over $100,000,000 in mitigations, including improving air ventilation, air purifiers in the classroom, additional cleaning, and masks. Now, the students have to find a way to get to school if they’d like to attend.
“Getting vaccinated has been proven to be the best way to achieve that and make it possible to recover from this devastating pandemic. And so, we have decided to join other municipalities and government agencies across the nation, including the U.S. military, who are making this decision to protect the people keeping our cities and counties moving,” Lightfoot said in a press release.
The vaccine mandate takes effect on Oct. 15 for all city employees and volunteers. They can apply for medical or religious exemptions, which the city’s Department of Human Resources called a “case-by-case basis.” Lightfoot has continued to stand by her decisions in a vaccine mandate, even though it has opposition from all four police unions.
Union leaders and reps have expressed their opposition to the vaccine mandate, adding that there are no studies for long-term side effects or consequences. The Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter said that his members believe in the vaccine and find that the shots are important to “protect workers and residents,” but doesn’t believe that the end justifies the mayor’s means. He said they should be working together to educate and encourage people, not making the vaccine mandate exist in a vacuum.
With officers targeted in a corner, crime in the city continues to spike. Forty-eight people were shot over the past weekend and the Chicago Sun-Times reports that at least 12 were shot on Monday alone. Four of the shooting victims succumbed to their wounds. One online report found that a total of 84 people have been shot and killed in Chicago in August 2021, with another 441 people shot and wounded.
Lightfoot continues to run Chicago to the ground, trapping bus drivers and police officers from doing their jobs in exchange for the jab. It’s only a matter of time before Chicago becomes the next New York City, with every taxpayer leaving as fast as they can.
