New York City Educators Warn School Reopening Plan Is 'Missing Pieces'
On the morning of Sunday, March 15, I started getting texts from worried parents at my daughter's New York City public school. Rumors were rocketing around that a second grade teacher had tested positive for the coronavirus after being out sick for a week. The school hadn't made any announcements, and parents were getting frantic. The tension ended a few hours later when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced — on that same Sunday evening — that all New York City school buildings would be closed the very next day.
Soon the streets went silent. Then came the sirens; the nightly cheers for essential workers; the fireworks and protest chants. Before the city flattened the curve, at least 19,000 New Yorkers had died, including at least 79 New York City Department of Education employees.
Once an epicenter of the pandemic, New York City's cases have . Since the. That matches countries like Germany, Norway and Denmark, where schools have reopened with precautions in place, without leading to coronavirus spikes.
