The number of NYC schools where staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 ballooned to 150, including 108 where infected staffers came into contact with colleagues.
DOE officials again refused to disclose the total number of teachers and administrators who have been quarantined for 14 days since reporting to buildings on Sept. 8
At IS 51 Edwin Markham in Staten Island, about 70 staffers — more than the 50 previously admitted — are now forced to isolate until Oct. 1., teachers told The Post.
“It was a s–t show,” said a source familiar with the coronavirus catastrophe. About half the faculty and all administrators have been exiled. “No one is running the school.”
After word first leaked about the massive quarantine, the DOE blamed the IS 51 staff, saying they “disregarded social distancing protocol.”
But Principal Nicholas Mele snapped back in a statement Friday calling the accusation “completely untrue.”
“We followed all appropriate social distancing and meeting guidelines,” Mele wrote.
Two sources familiar with the mess said a teacher who tested positive last weekend had worked in the building the previous week before starting to feel ill — and being sent home.
The city’s COVID-19 contact tracers then learned the infected teacher had joined a group of 43 staffers who met in the cafeteria, as well as smaller meetings in classrooms.
“It wasn’t until I spoke with the DOE and the contact tracers . . . did I learn that any meeting lasting more than 30 minutes would require everyone in the room with the identified person with a positive test to quarantine even if all safety protocols were followed, which they were,” Mele wrote.
In response to Mele’s denial, the DOE stuck to its stance that safety
protocols were violated. “Based on the answers we received, it was
determined social distancing was not reliably followed at all times,”
said spokesman Nathaniel Styer. He did not elaborate.
Regardless of the reason, some quarantined teachers are worried about getting sick or infecting their family members.
This is just like what happened back in March before the contagion started to spread.
11 comments:
DOE? Obfuscating? hahahahaha. good one.
DOE also known as the money pit, financial black hole.
After leaving Queens many years ago for a RED State. I glad to report that our schools have been open as usual since August. NYC is a lost cause.
Abandon ship!
Once again, all of these city schools have been occupied by kitchen staff serving food to children, elderly and homeless and junkies, custodial staff cleaning the building top to bottom, school safety, essential workers children, emergency personnel, nurses, contractors,plumbers, steam fitters, and electricians. Also, many schools were used as cooling centers.
Not a single problem, no covid, no building closures. Teachers first day back? 20 CASES. Too much partying on the shore and protesting. The UFT’s buzzword is “ventilation” but that’s nonsense. If that was the case, the above mentioned people would have been wiped out. Teachers are back to work EVERYWHERE in the country, even in this city, except NYC public school teachers. 17,000 are home right now making six figures, job security and full benefits. I like teachers, but everyone that knows one knows full well how LAZY they are and how much they complain. It’s not safety, they DONT WANT TO WORK. How many teachers are home with excusals for obesity and newly discovered “asthma”? Kudos to the UFT for pulling this scam for their members, as the rest of us actually go to work, and not give a 2 hour zoom class and call it a day. Maybe they should just keep 40 of the best teachers on staff to teach every student city wide, and furlough the other 25,000 so they can be safe at home. UFT is winning this battle but might potentially down the line render all their members irrelevant and non essential. Why pay 40k staff for what could be done by 1/4 of it. This goes for principals as well
Defund the UFT !
Home school or Charter schools My Kids My Choice ...
@Anonymous
Well put. Couldn't agree more.
For the record, 2017 stats,
"The city shelled out a whopping $25,199 per pupil during fiscal 2017, compared to just $12,201 nationwide, according to data from the US Census Bureau."
For the common core folks, that's $302,388 for 12 years!
Now what do the unsuspecting parents get for this? Indoctrination in socialism, education in how to be a good consumer, violence, just about everything, but real education.
As George Carlin said once, the powers to be don't want educated people who realize how the system is screwing them.
Where is the money going? Defund this crap, not the police!
Total joke. Employees at my local grocery store, bodega, 7-11 working non stop. These clowns not content with summers off want the whole year off.
Agree with Anon. School choice is the biggest civil rights issues of our time
If teachers are not working, they should not get paid. Then they'd be begging to go back and do their jobs. I am suspicious of Covid stats that suit a purpose. Our governments, state and city, have been juking the stats all along to get more bailout money and to keep people scared and compliant.
You'd have as much luck defunding the UFT as you would recalling the current useless Mayor. The UFT Welfare Fund alone, receives over $300 million dollars of you NYC tax dollars.
Is actually easier to defund UFT.
As some very astute lady from Harlem said it once on MSM, "give the money you spend on my two kids in public schools and will send my kids to the best private schools for half of that money."
The rich aren't stupid. Public schools are for serfs.
Defunding UFT, or any other Municipal Union Welfare Fund, will never happen and has never been seriously considered. Only one Mayor in my memory even brought up the overfunding of the Municipal Unions, and that was Giuliani. He immediately got blasted by every City Union on the City tax payroll and never uttered another word about it.
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