A Year After Teachers Closed Them, NYC Schools Are Still Unsafe
Last year, as elected officials dithered on whether to shut down schools at the pandemic’s beginning, educators forced them shut. A year later, educators are making the same demand — against the efforts of both Mayor Bill de Blasio and their own union, the United Federation of Teachers.
The first day back to school on December 7, 2020 at Yung Wing School P.S. 124 in New York City. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images)
During the second week of March last year, fears mounted that New York City was in the grip of a serious health crisis. On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the NBA postponed its season; on Thursday, March 12, Broadway went dark.
Educators began hearing about schools with COVID-19 cases that the Department of Education refused to close. More than four hundred of us gathered on a Saturday Zoom call and discussed how to #CloseNYCSchools. We organized phone trees in our school buildings to convince our colleagues that the best service for our students was not to go in to work on Monday. In some schools, 60 to 70 percent of staff called in sick.
While Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo would never admit it, the sickout threat is what forced them to announce that schools would be closed on March 16, 2020.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.