A New York City high school student went viral this week after accusing local politicians of giving up on students by not allowing them to return to school amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"I feel like they gave up on us … they looked at the public school kids & said you know what? They really aren't that important,” the high school senior said in the video posted by the Twitter account @KeepNYCSchools1 on Wednesday.
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The student said he attends a public academy in Harlem and added the past year has been “really tough” on him as a student, an athlete, and a person.
“It really hurts because your senior year is your most important year,” the student said, adding that he has several friends who have had trouble applying to colleges without the in-person instruction from guidance counselors.
"You work so hard for your senior year, and it gets taken away from you. … Virtual school is not real school,” he said.
New York schools have been mostly closed for roughly a year, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio drawing the ire of New Yorkers who have taken to the streets to protest the school closures.
“Some parents said the school rules didn’t make sense: Children who live in hot spots often travel by bus or subway to schools that are open in other neighborhoods,” Wall Street Journal reported in October. “In some families, one child’s school is open while a sibling’s is closed. Parents who wanted to send children to school said that after two last-minute reopening delays announced in September, they had little patience for a sudden closure.”
