New York City closes largest US public schools system to curb spread of coronavirus
New York City will close the largest public school system in the US on Monday, sending more than 1.1 million children home in hopes of curbing the spread of coronavirus, the city’s mayor announced on Sunday, calling it a “very troubling moment”.
A somber Bill de Blasio announced the decision to close schools through at least 20 April and possibly for the school year, following a growing number of closures in communities and entire states nationwide and mounting pressure in New York from residents, city council members and others.
The mayor called it a “very troubling moment, a moment when I’m just distraught at having to take this action, but I became convinced over the course of today that there is no other choice”.
He also announced that there were now five deaths in New York and that he was ordering the end of elective surgeries.
De Blasio said students in kindergarten through 12th grade would begin “remote learning” a week from Monday, with teachers being trained on the novel methods beginning on Tuesday.
“They have been working on a wartime footing to prepare it,“de Blasio said of administrators.
The shutdown affects the city’s nearly 1,900 public schools. Many private schools already have closed. Multiple states had already announced they were closing schools. So have cities including Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office announced the city school closure moments before de Blasio, but initially said it would start as early as Tuesday.
De Blasio had been reluctant to close the school system because of the consequences for students and families. On Saturday, the Democratic mayor said keeping schools running was critical. He worried that healthcare workers, first responders and other needed workers would have to stay home to care for children, and that hundreds of thousands of poor students could go hungry without their free or reduced-price school meals.
“We’ve never been through anything like this,“de Blasio said. “We’re all trying to make sense of it … everyone is confused. Everyone is in pain. Everyone
feels like we’re dealing with the great unknown because we are dealing with the great unknown.”
The city would get through it, he said, through everyone “looking out for each other”.
Schools chancellor Richard Carranza called Sunday “a very sobering day for all of us“and said the decision was made after a situation that’s been evolving and been monitored “day by day, hour by hour and in some cases, minute by minute”.
He said closing the schools was considered the last possible option, but “we’re at the last resort”.
The shutdown had started to seem inevitable as de Blasio lost key support to keep schools open and Cuomo called for all downstate schools to be closed. County officials have said schools will shut on Long Island, in Erie county, including Buffalo, and in Westchester county.
Earlier, George Gresham, president of the healthcare workers union SIEU 1199, called on de Blasio to close city schools, a step the mayor still seemed reluctant to take when he cited the union’s support for keeping the schools open as he spoke on WABC-TV.
The union had warned that hospitals, now bracing for a flood of virus patients, could face a manpower crisis if schools closed suddenly and healthcare workers had to stay home with their children.
Gresham, though, said in a statement he was now confident a plan could be reached to provide childcare for healthcare workers through school resource centers. He also called on the city and state to provide more funding for childcare for healthcare workers.
“With these critical processes moving, I am now calling on Mayor de Blasio to close New York City’s public schools to help protect public health and prevent the spread of Covid-19,” he said.