Wednesday, April 15, 2020

SPECIAL COMMISSIONER INVESTIGATING DOE MEMO TO KEEP QUIET ABOUT COVID-19 IN SCHOOLS

Thanks to David Irons for sending out this piece from THE CITY. It is quite scary.

The first few paragraphs:

The Special Commissioner for Investigations for city schools is probing the Department of Education’s bid to squelch coronavirus infection information in the chaotic days before schools were closed.

The investigation comes in response to a report by THE CITY revealing an internal memo advising school officials to not report cases of teachers or staff who tested positive for COVID-19 or were likely infected to the city Health Department.

Following the story, Councilmember Robert Holden (D-Queens) asked Special Commissioner for Investigations Anastasia Coleman to look into the origin of the memo — and whether it contributed to the spread of the virus within schools before Mayor Bill de Blasio reluctantly announced on March 15 that schools would be shuttered.

In an interview Tuesday with THE CITY, Holden said he believes the March 10 memo was intended to help cover up the scope of the spread of the virus within the city public education system to justify keeping schools open amid an avalanche of pressure.

“A lot of teachers were calling us and saying, ‘Why aren’t the schools closed? We have some staff who are infected,’” Holden recalled.

“This is the DOE’s M.O., this is how they operate. They were trying to cover up. They were saying to us, they want to cover this up, we don’t want to cause mass hysteria,” he said.

We know what then happened. Teachers, paras, counselors, safety agents, etc. and students were needlessly infected with COVID-19 as schools were kept open the week of March 9 for everyone and for staff from March 17-19.

We have shown how the UFT admitted they knew that the DOE was not properly applying DOH's closing policy during that week of  March 9. The UFT did not ever tell us to keep out of unsafe school buildings.  The best they would do is threaten a lawsuit. Why are they not under investigation too? A quick glance at the final paragraph of the March 12 THE CITY article says so much about the UFT:

On Thursday a spokesperson for the teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, did not respond to questions about the union’s position on the DOE’s handling of the virus outbreak.

I can't sleep after reading this.

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

No comment from the uft...Typical. But keep paying them dues... AND give up our raises, retro, work for free, all hours of the night, remotely...AND during spring break, while getting disrespected by the uft, doe, mayor, admin and students.

Anonymous said...

And what are we doing about this?

Anonymous said...

Well, if the CDC/FEMA Federal plan is followed, what we'll be doing some time in May is heading right back into schools. We are the first priority of "phase one" of their plans.

"It's a road map for if they want to do it gradually," said one participant in the planning who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made official.

The plan lays out three-phases: Preparing the nation to reopen with a national communication campaign and community readiness assessment until May 1. Then, the effort, through May 15, would involve ramping up manufacturing of testing kits and personal protective equipment and increasing emergency funding. Then staged reopenings would begin, depending on local conditions. The plan does not give specific dates for reopenings but specified "not before May 1."

The first priority, according to the CDC response document, is to "reopen community settings where children are cared for, including K-12 schools, day cares, and locally attended summer camps, to allow the workforce to return to work. Other community settings will follow with careful monitoring for increased transmission that exceeds the public health and health care systems."

Anonymous said...

Want to laugh, ask why we're providing $300+ Ipads not Chromebooks or even fire tablets that are basically throw aways, at $50-100. Answer, the Chromebooks and tablets don't offer a long enough warranty. Forget that you could by 6 or more for the price of 1. Follow the $. Follow it!

Anonymous said...

We need Erin Brokovich to handle this.

Anonymous said...

The uft doesn't care about us. We know that. I will take a buyout, if fair. They could stop paying me altogether. For the record, I have less than 20 years, so dont tell me I would get a huge pension.
The uft is an arm of the dem party.
Maybe if Janella Hinds stopped retweeting chris hayes, msnbc and CNN, things could get done for us. All uft does is flaunt political affiliations and disrespect teachers. I'm not paying for them to go on Twitter and write how much they love the democrats. I dont believe political opinions are appropriate.

Anonymous said...

Add me to the opt out list. I wonder how many other there are. I'm guessing not many.

Anonymous said...

@nycschools
did not count the uniformed safety agents who protect children and staff in their buildings among the 50 school workers who have died of COVID-19. While technically NYPD employees, the safety agents are vital to school communities. At least five of them have perished

Anonymous said...

and custodial staff.

Anonymous said...

So...When Cuomo/de blasio/Trump send us back in May? We are refusing to go in? Who can be trusted when they tell us it is safe?

Anonymous said...

de blasio and his leading health expert told us the chance of getting covid-19 is low and the city preparation was high. go to chinatown. dance in the streets. crowd into small spaces. i wont close the schools.

Imagine
@NYCMayor
and
@NYGovCuomo
had taken the crisis more seriously and closed bars/restaurants/schools earlier, issued the "NY on pause" order earlier, etc.

California, the first to issue a stay-at-home order, is 30th in the US in coronavirus deaths per capita despite China ties. Just about 15 have died in San Francisco compared with more than 10,000 in New York. ⁦

Anonymous said...

What de blasio and carranza did is criminal. Preventing publicizing of cases & not closing affected schools for minimum of 24 hrs as directed by
@NYGovCuomo. They now refuse to publish names and location details of CV cases & deaths.

Anonymous said...

SO...A lawsuit? A refusal to work?

Anonymous said...

When I mention the reckless spending by
@BilldeBlasio
with no oversight of
@NYCCouncil
there are ample examples. The Renewal School program & THRIVE alone cost $2B & both are well known failures. Tip of iceberg. Rivington deed change “mistake” cost about $80M (DEB donor) etc

Anonymous said...

Nice work doe/uft/mulgrew/carranza/de blasio...We mourn the loss of David Behrbom, a physical education teacher at PS 55 in the Bronx, to coronavirus-related causes. David loved old-school hip-hop, had a great sense of humor and enjoyed making people laugh. A lifelong New York Yankees baseball fan, David also coached baseball and soccer in Westchester County, where he lived. Each spring, he organized the “Olympic Games” at PS 55 that brought together students and staff for a fun day of athletic competition. Read more about David's legacy: https://ufthonors.uft.org/behrbom/

Anonymous said...

Santa Clara chief executive says 'miracle' necessary for NFL to start on time in SEPTEMBER...But we should go on crowded buses and trains, then go into schools with hundreds or thousands of people, within weeks.

Anonymous said...

You are expendable 5:00. Didn't March show you that?

Anonymous said...

And nothing will change. I pulled my dues. Whenever someone has a plan or lawsut, let me know.

Anonymous said...

Cuts have begun. We are all expendable.

Also on Wednesday, de Blasio confirmed that two education initiatives were already “on pause” as part of $49 million in program cuts.

Single Shepherd, a program providing counseling to middle school students, and College Access for All, meant to help students get to college, are both part of the mayor’s Equity and Excellence” agenda meant to address various disparities in the city’s schools.

“They’ve both been areas where we’ve fought inequality,” the mayor said of the programs. “Those are on pause because of the kinds of choices we have to make now — we have to stay on the basics.”

Will this create more ATRs?

Anonymous said...

ATRs still get paid, just not on a specific school budget. What they should do is force place ATRs, hire nobody new, let teachers retire, that would save money...Would have thousands less on payroll last year.

Anonymous said...

Those stupid de blasio programs dont work anyway.

Anonymous said...

Of course, but then again the doe doesn't give a rat's ass about the kids. They cut the job placement summer program, but let ATRs flounder in the ATR pool getting paid top salary when they could be in the classroom saving the doe money.

Anonymous said...

Stupid and de Blasio are synonyms.

Anonymous said...

When we go back next month, how do I socially distance on the packed 4 train or in the school itself?

Anonymous said...

All the lefties who love big government and the bureaucracies that go with it, here is the result. Governments are stupid and the best remedy is to get them out of our lives.

Anonymous said...

The only thing stupider than de Blasio, is 7:41. If we hadn't completed gutted public resources in the USA for 40 years, we may have been able to fight this pandemic a bit better.

Anonymous said...

Republicans say government is the problem. When they come into power in DC, they prove it. I don't include the Republican Ohio governor in this assessment.

Anonymous said...

Is this what the teachers' union is suppose to protect you from?
Can we just not go to work? We would get fired. There is no we kill you if you don't come into school policy. I don't know if it's worth the risk.

Anonymous said...

Sharia Law has come to NY. About time!

Anonymous said...

At some point, most likely before June, we will be told to go back. We have to really think about what our response will be. Think about potential infections on a packed train and a packed school. It's great to bitch on here, but our alarms will ring and we will be walking to slaughter. The uft and doe showed us they dont care.

Anonymous said...

The death rate for the coronavirus is now shaping up to be 0.3%. Just a little bit of an irrational response by our government don't you think? And please don't say that a lot of people have died, a lot of people die every day for all sorts of reasons. And we don't have a running count on the news 24/7 of those deaths do we?

James Eterno said...

A lot more people have died than in a normal year.

If we average 2017 deaths with reports from 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, the daily mean death totals that emerge for New York City are 153 per day for March, and 149.4 per day for April.

2013-2017 NYC average is 3,213 deaths from March 11-March 30 and 1,942 from April 1-11. Add them up and we should expect 5255 deaths in an average year for that time period. (That's the time period for this year where we have Coronavirus deaths counted.)

For 2020, it is 18,551 deaths in NYC between March 11 and April 11.

My source is Talking Points Memo.https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/how-many-people-have-died-in-nyc-during-the-covid-pandemic

James Eterno said...

That comes to an average of 580 deaths per day for March 11-April 11 2020. That death toll is frightening.

Anonymous said...

If it makes you unable to breathe, that is pretty scary.

Anonymous said...

With that said, what are we doing when told to go back to work?

Anonymous said...

Most of you will go back to work and not say a damn thing.

Anonymous said...

I don't know how people do math. Acccording to all the stats the death rate of coronavirus is about 5% even more in NYC.

Anonymous said...

Taking in the new accountability tally by DeBlasio, current death rate as of April 16th is
9.2%

Ttl NYC deaths/Ttl # of cases = 10,899/118,302 * 100 = 9.2%

James Eterno said...

It might be lower, however, because so many have not been tested who are either asymptomatic or only show minor symptoms and don't even know they have it.

Anonymous said...

Check out the NY Daily News' article on Correction Officer union that had to sue to get protective gear. That is what a union does - protect it's members.

Anonymous said...

@10:00

Ours just protect their wallets