Lydia is arguing before a judge that the Department of Education's safety policy is arbitrary and capricious. She is claiming the masks are inadequate. KN 95 masks last only 25 hours. She also says the ventilation is deficient. She goes on to say the class sizes are too high. She then adds that the courts have ruled on many occasions to override school policy. She says switching to remote will cause learning loss but that is much less harmful than keeping buildings open because switching to temporary remote would keep many more people healthy. She adds that she caught COVID in school in January. She asks that the schools be remote through February 1. She cites numerous statistics to back up her argument.
Judge asks who she represents. Lydia argues that she represents all people who signed her petition, which is thousands of people. Judge asks her to show her citations and Lydia does.
City attorney argues that their plan is rational. Parents will have issues if schools are remote. DOE has mitigation strategies. Lydia can't bring a class action pro se. New York City DOE has an obligation to provide for children and is doing it. The issue is moot because she asked for schools to go remote until January 18 and that makes it moot.
Lydia gets a rebuttal saying 75 DOE have died since pandemic started. She goes over masks again.
City says there is a rational basis for what they have done.
Judge says he will make a decision. It's over at 10:16 a.m.
8 comments:
Lydia is doing for free what the lame UFT should be doing while on our payroll. She is a hero, plain and simple.
I would consider this a victory if we can force the city to provide 1 clean N95 a day.
Thank you Lydia for trying. Thank you James for reporting.
I appreciate the effort. No chance this happens. No closure happening. Just more grade fraud and fake attendance.
Lydia has done an amazing job bringing forth the issues that educators have. Sadly, the UFT should be having this fight but I am so thankful for Lydia for caring about her fellow educators. They definitely need to move to remote for at least two weeks. They are already lying on the attendance statistics because so many staff and students are absent due to COVID.
Kudos for trying which is what Mulgrew never does. J.K. Rawlings had her first Harry Potter book turned down by over 50 publishers before someone would publish it. The important thing is to keep fighting. You don't get all you want the first time.
They Mayor knows that 25% of students were out on Friday, but he says the transition rate 1% in schools. Now he wants a remote option only for students who are testing Positive. Have we not been doing this from the start of this year? I guess the other 24% can just repeat a Semester or an Entire school year. 1% MY ASS!!!!! I get at least 7 exposures a day just from my classes.
Agree with the first comment - Lydia is doing what our union should be doing. A huge thank you to her for doing her best and bringing our concerns to the next level.
Lydia is fantastic. One day we will be honored for her to be our UFT a president.
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