NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — New York City parents and teachers are demanding a school reopening plan that includes vaccine mandates and a remote learning option.
More than 800 people have signed a new Chang.org petition calling for eight new policies to create a “safer” school year that reduces the chances of spreading COVID-19 and rethinks student performance evaluation.
“The Mayor and New York City Department of Education have promised a full safe reopening of our school buildings, but have yet to communicate any plans for doing so,” wrote the petition’s creator, Daniel Alicea, a special education teacher at the DOE.
“With the surge of the Delta variant, the most transmissible COVID-19 variant to date and most dangerous among youth to date, and an explosion of cases, hospitalizations and deaths that rival numbers from previous COVID-19 waves, a comprehensive safety action plan must be shared with all, now.”
The eight demands include the institution of a remote learning option for all students and a vaccine mandate for anyone above the age of 12. The petition also calls for a mask mandate and “proper, science-based ventilation” at all DOE facilities.
Alicea is an organizer at the teacher group Educators of NYC, which formed around coronavirus safety concerns last year. He and others backing the petition are also asking for better COVID-19 data on the city’s public dashboard as well as more holistic alternatives to testing for learning loss among students.
“[w]e must focus resources on the social-emotional well-being of our students by funding after school programs, PSAL, counseling, social service and weekend programs,” the group wrote. “We desire a pause in required high stakes state standardized testing until performance based alternatives are explored."
As the delta variant has brought a new wave of coronavirus cases around the globe, Mayor Bill de Blasio has remained opposed to reinstituting remote learning. At a news conference on Thursday, he reiterated his position by expressing confidence that high vaccination rates will keep the virus at bay.
“So, we're not going to remote as we had it previously, I've made that very clear. Everyone's coming back to school,” de Blasio said at the time.
“I think we're going to see some kids, some staff who may have to be out for limited periods of time — but we should remember the very high levels of vaccination we have among DOE staff and educators...So, I don't think we're going to have a huge problem there,” he added.
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