New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio isn’t sure what is a bigger threat: leaving students without supervision or potentially exposing them to the coronavirus.
Teachers in the city are planning a “mass sickout” in response to de Blasio refusing to close public schools despite a rising number of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus leading to shutdowns elsewhere.
During a Sunday interview on CNN with host Brianna Keilar, de Blasio argued that it might be a bigger risk to leave students with no place to spend their days.
“I’m very reticent to shut down schools for a variety of reasons, not just because that’s where a lot of kids get their only good meals, where they get adult supervision, especially teenagers, who otherwise would be out on the streets, there’s health and safety ramifications to that,” de Blasio said.
He continued, “Those first responders, those healthcare workers that depend on the schools so they can get to work. We need those workers desperately.”
De Blasio also pointed to Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s remarks that schools could be shut down for the remainder of the school year as another reason why he doesn’t want to make a decision to close schools.
“My blunt fear is if schools shut down, they will be done for the year, for the school year, maybe even for the calendar year,” de Blasio explained.
The mayor noted he believes the safest place for students is in the schools. He said any other option that will be put in place for students if schools are closed would not be as beneficial to the students.
“I think people deserve real talk, Brianna,” de Blasio said. “The difference between a functioning school system for over a million kids versus creating alternative centers for feeding or for the kids of healthcare workers, that kind of thing. We’ll, in every way we can, if we got to that point, we would improvise anything and everything, but it will not be, by any means, as good by definition as what we do every day when we have a functioning school system.”
UPDATE: Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday afternoon that all New York City schools would be closed starting Monday. Staff will remain in place to provide child care for essential employees on Monday and a long-term plan for food services and childcare will be unveiled by the end of the day.
Gov Cuomo announced Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk & NYC schools will close w/ childcare for essential workers & food programs
NYC must have a plan for childcare &food in place within the next 24 hours
Schools will close in NYC early this week; Nassau/SUFFOLK/Westchester tomorrow
— Melissa DeRosa (@melissadderosa) March 15, 2020
