Staten Island City Councilor Joe Borelli joins a group of New York City parents and continues to reopen schools, claiming Mayor Bill De Blasio ‘failed’ citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The Mayor of Blasio and Chancellor Carranza have continued to disappoint our children on many occasions”, Borelli said in a statement Saturday following a Friday night filing in federal court in Manhattan. “Even though they have had six months to prepare for this school year, they haven’t and our children are forced to pay the price.
Mayor De Blasio recently closed all schools, citing the city achieving a 3% positivity rate on a seven-day moving average as the reason.
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Borelli, who is also involved in a class action lawsuit filed last month in the Richmond County Supreme Court to reopen schools, said distance learning had “Turned out to be a failure” and deprives children of an appropriate education.
James Mermigis, one of three lawyers representing the plaintiffs, called for the decision to close schools “Just another example of the random and arbitrary decisions that are made in Albany and at Town Hall.”
“Incompetence at the top is unacceptable”, he added.
Last night we filed our second lawsuit in an attempt to continue learning in person @ #NYC schools. The DOE has done a good job, yes a good job !, To keep children and staff safe in school buildings and the medical and scientific consensus is that schools are not super spreaders. pic.twitter.com/s00Bj2sCSD
We know that we are causing irreparable harm to students and that distance education simply does not work. It was a good solution in the spring, but the kids can’t go a whole year without a real school. Our second costume is in court fed, in addition to our original in New York, in Richmond.
The closure of New York City schools came amid multiple pandemic restrictions imposed on the city and state as a whole, with Governor Andrew Cuomo recently announcing a business curfew for example.
The shutdown came on Wednesday after hours of uncertainty, leaving many parents scrambling to plan childcare.
Borelli is just one of many local officials to criticize the mayor’s decision, with critics citing the restaurants that remained open as hypocritical.
Governor Cuomo added to the confusion at a press conference Wednesday when he had a shouting match with a reporter asking if schools would be closed and he insisted there shouldn’t be “confusion” and they remain open under the law. A few minutes later, he was informed De Blasio had announced that the 3% threshold had been reached and had ordered the schools to be closed.
Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) mocks and argues with a TV reporter during a difficult exchange today about school openings: “What are you talking about?” pic.twitter.com/jMrDFbiyTe
De Blasio said on Thursday the city was working on a plan to reopen schools, which will include “Increased testing” for students.
We all want to bring our schools back. We need to reset the equation to keep our schools safe. We are working on a new standard, including increased testing, to bring students and staff back safely.
New York has reported more than 590,000 cases of Covid-19, as well as more than 33,000 deaths. New York City is home to the bulk of those numbers, with more than 290,000 reported cases and more than 24,000 deaths.
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