Teachers threaten to call in sick

Angry New York City teachers lashed out Saturday at Mayor de Blasio for keeping public schools open amid the spreading coronavirus crisis even as a second Staten Island student tested positive.

Scores of teachers are threatening to call in sick in an uprising over the mayor’s insistence that schools should stay open even as many schools nationwide shut down.

“The mayor’s reckless refusal to close the schools has created a climate of fear. Public health demands the closure of our schools now,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents city schoolteachers.

The student whose coronavirus was disclosed Saturday stayed home from Intermediate School 27 after taking sick, officials said. It was unclear if any others at the West Brighton school were exposed.

IS 27 — the Prall Intermediate School — will be deepcleaned over the weekend and is expected to reopen Monday, city Education Department spokeswoman Miranda Barbot said.

In the earlier case, two Staten Island public schools were closed Friday after a student who attends both locations tested positive. Barbot said New Dorp High School and the Richard H Hungerford School would be deep-cleaned again over the weekend.

De Blasio insisted that he had the public’s well-being at heart by resisting calls to close the nation’s largest school system.

“What are these kids going to do?” de Blasio asked on MSNBC on Saturday. “Do we really think they are just going to stay at home in their rooms? Do you want 400,000 teenagers at home without adult supervision?”

Despite the growing cases of coronavirus in classrooms, Hizzoner said keeping public schools open was one of the key pillars in defending the city against the pandemic.

De Blasio also defended keeping the subways open.