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New York’s powerful teachers’ union called for an immediate shutdown of the city’s public school system due to coronavirus fears — as reports flooded in of plunging attendance.
“We don’t suggest this lightly,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew in a statement. “We understand the immense disruption this will create for our families. But right now more than a million students and staff crisscross the city every day on their way to schools, putting themselves and others at risk of exposure and increasing the likelihood of bringing exposure into their homes and communities.”
“I have met with the Mayor and outlined our reasons for urging a shutdown,” Mulgrew added. ” He believes the schools should stay open, though he has agreed to a number of additional safeguards and accommodations. In the end, we have decided to respectfully disagree.”
The Department of Education runs the largest public school system in the country, educating 1.1 million pupils at its more than 1,900 schools.
With fears over the contagion mushrooming, parents, teachers and sources told The Post that attendance plummeted in schools across all five boroughs Friday. Some teachers stayed home too, the sources said.
Sources said only about 1,000 kids were present at Wagner High School on Staten Island, where roughly 4,000 students attend on an average day.
Several teachers at PS 107 in Park Slope — where a parent tested positive for coronavirus — did not show up for work Friday, sources said. Student attendance was also minimal.
Despite mounting pressure, the Department of Education has doggedly insisted on keeping the system open in order to maintain crucial social supports for vulnerable kids and working parents.
While parents kept their kids home in all zip codes Friday, a UFT source said attendance has dipped most sharply in affluent sections of the city.
“You just have more options,” the source said. “You can get a babysitter, you can work remotely, whatever it is. There are a lot of people in this city who don’t have that luxury. This is just an impossible situation right now.”
Mulgrew urged the city to ensure that secondary functions of the school system remain intact.
“We must find ways to keep our children safe, and to see that they are fed,” he said. “We must do all we can to help ensure that our students can continue to learn. But we have reached the point where continuing to keep our classrooms open poses a greater lasting threat than the disruption that will result from school closings.”
