Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
Mayor de Blasio said he made “that very tough decision” to keep schools closed for the rest of the school year after several daily conversations on the subject with Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
By Michael V. Cusenza
City schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Saturday.
Hizzoner had been wrestling with the move for days, but ultimately decided to shutter public education institutions because “it will help us save lives,” de Blasio said.
“We’ve got to think about what our children are going through. This has been such a tough time for them; such a disorienting time. Our kids, we all know, are resilient and we all know that our children can feel our love even if we can’t be in the same room with them or even in the same city with them. They can feel our love. But for so many children right now, this is a really difficult, challenging time,” the mayor added. “And think about what we’ve asked of our children. It’s a lot, nowadays just in normal times, to deal with all the challenges of modern society. I can say as a parent, our children deal with challenges today that I never dealt with when I was growing up and they grow up kind of faster nowadays and there’s too much information available, too many real difficult things put before our children, even in normal times. Now think about what these last weeks have been like for our children. Think about the disruption. Think about the confusion and in so many cases the trauma.”
De Blasio said he made “that very tough decision” to keep schools closed for the rest of the school year after several daily conversations on the subject with Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
“Lord knows having to tell you that we cannot bring our schools back for the remainder of this school year is painful. But I can also tell you it’s the right thing to do. It clearly will help us save lives because it will help us to guarantee that the strategies that have been working, the shelter in place, the social distancing, all the focused strategies that are finally beginning to bear fruit, they need the time to continue to be effective,” the mayor said Saturday. “The worst mistake we could make is to take our foot off the gas and end up in a situation where this disease had a resurgence and threatened us even more. We’re not going to allow the coronavirus to start to attack us even more and to make sure it doesn’t, we have to be cautious. We have to be smart about the moves we make and we can never get in a situation where we end up jumping too soon and regretting it later.”
State Sen. Joe Addabbo, Jr. (D-Howard Beach) agreed with de Blasio’s decision—and cautioned leaders across New York to avoid making any moves to re-open schools until the pandemic is under control.
“We cannot risk sending students, teachers and staff back to schools prematurely. If we do, we may witness a spike in coronavirus cases once again,” the senator said Wednesday.“I understand this is a confusing and trying time for us all, but we must work together, with all levels of government and citizens, in order to protect the health of our residents, and more specifically when discussing the schools, our children and school personnel.”
