Some teachers and parents are demanding the city implement their version of a “safe reopening” for schools — and threatening to walk out if they don’t get their way.
The group has a list of eight ultimatums they want enacted when the school year begins, including: barring any unvaccinated people over the age of 12 from instructional spaces; a mask mandate, “strict adherence” to social distancing — and a remote option.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s current plan is for a mask mandate, but no remote option.
But the demands, made in an online petition with more than 800 signatures, don’t just cover COVID-19 safety procedures.
The groups also insists there be “no academic screening/diagnostic assessments for so-called deficit of learning/learning loss.”
“Rather, we must focus resources on the social emotional well-being of our students,” the petition says. “We desire a pause in required high stakes state standardized testing until performance based alternatives are explored.”
The petition concludes: “Failure to implement these demands will result in a coalition of educators and parents urging UFT members, families and students to stay out of buildings deemed unfit until they are safe for teaching and learning.”
Daniel Alicea, a 25-year veteran special-education teacher in Far Rockaway, created the change.org petition.
The bid to ditch academic testing “definitely deals with the trauma that many students and families have endured,” claimed Alicea, who is part of an informal group of educators that came together in 2020 around COVID-19 safety issues. He’s also a cohost of the WBAI program “Talk Out of School.”
The DOE and UFT didn’t respond to requests for comment on the petition.
