In his first week as mayor of New York City, Eric Adams sought to ease concerns among parents about sending their children to schools due to the increase in positive cases of the Omicron variant.
After cycling to work, the Democrat said his message to parents is “fear not” as students prepare to return to class on Monday after the break.
“I’m telling them, don’t be afraid to send them back,” Adams told the show’s ABC host “This Week“, George Stephanopoulos.” The statistics are clear. The safest place for children is inside the school. “
“We are going to identify the children who are exposed,” continued Adams. “We are going to get them out of that environment, and the numbers show that just because one child is exposed in one classroom does not mean that the entire classroom is exposed.”
Adams said requiring students to be tested before returning to school, something New York is not doing, was a “good idea,” but that the decision was in the hands of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Parents and teachers expressed concern in recent days for the safety of staff and children, who cannot be vaccinated if they are under the age of 5, as pediatric hospitalizations have quadrupled across the city.
“I care about my students. I care about myself. I don’t know. I feel like I’m stuck right now,” Ada Morales, a teacher in the Bronx told our sister network News 4. She added that she’s not sure what will happen next. Monday.
A school in Brooklyn, PS 58, will not open at all on Monday after the principal emailed parents Sunday saying there are not “enough staff to open the building safely.”
Principal Katie Dello Stritto went on to say that she sought guidance from the Department of Education on a lockdown, but had not obtained a “clear response” to the personnel crisis.
In response to request for comments from News 4, the DOE said PS 58 did not have the authorization to close the school or send the email. The department spokesman said officials were working to provide support for the school to open and the matter is now under investigation.
“All the data shows that the safest place for children is inside a school and we are working with our school leaders to make sure they are fully prepared to safely receive students and staff in person on Monday,” he said. the DOE spokesperson in a statement. “We have strong measures in place to immediately address any staffing issues to keep our doors open for the hundreds of thousands of children and families who depend on schools for their livelihoods every day.”
The school, which offers pre-kindergarten through fifth grade services, will reopen Tuesday, but it’s not the only one dealing with staffing issues. Another parent expressed frustration on Twitter after receiving an email that child care at PS 36 school in Staten Island would be canceled after staff members tested positive for COVID-19.
The president of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents New York City educators, said in an email to members Sunday that the union had asked Adams to postpone in-person learning for a week to assess possible staff shortages.
When school resumes on Monday, the surveillance testing program at the school will double so that the number of students tested equals 20% of all unvaccinated students instead of 10%, Mulgrew wrote to members. The testing pool will now also include vaccinated and unvaccinated students, he said.
“We will know much more tomorrow. I just hope that not many schools are in a position where they cannot be safe because they are not adequately staffed,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said Sunday.
A group of teachers in New York City have filed a temporary restraining order in hopes of delaying the return of in-person instruction until additional security measures can be put in place to protect students and staff from the Omicron variant. highly transmissible.
But despite the worrying numbers and growing concerns from both parents and educators, the new mayor argued that schools must remain open for the social and emotional development of children and will remain open.
“Put your kids in school. If it gets to that point where kids shouldn’t be in school, we’ll make the right decision,” Adams said.
Across the state, new virus cases have broken records in New York recently and topped 76,000 on Friday. About half of the state’s 7,900 people hospitalized with COVID-19 were in New York City.
Nationally, school districts were reinstating mask wear requirements, increasing testing, and preparing for the possibility of returning to remote learning. In New York City, officials announced last week that they would use 2 million state-provided home test kits to increase testing after the hiatus. Students whose classmates test positive can continue to come to school as long as their home tests are negative and they have no symptoms.
Adams also said his administration’s next step is to determine whether city employees, who are already under a vaccine mandate, are required to receive booster shots.
“We are going to examine the numbers,” he said. “If we feel like we have to get to the place of making that mandatory, we are willing to do it, but we are encouraging them to do so now.”
Adams, a former Brooklyn Borough President and former New York City Police captain, was sworn in Saturday in Times Square as the city announced the new year.
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