May 23, 2020 / By mobanmarket
NEWARK, NJ — Sending New Jersey students back to school with face masks? That’s just one ludicrous proposal among many when it comes to the possibility of returning to brick-and-mortar classrooms by May 15, a rising tide of Newark residents say.
Recently, several parents in New Jersey’s most populous city reached out to Patch after Gov. Phil Murphy said he was considering the possibility of reopening schools amid the coronavirus crisis.
READ MORE: NJ Coronavirus Updates (Here’s What You Need To Know)
Last week, Murphy said schools will remain shut through at least May 15, and possibly beyond. Resisting the urge to either reopen immediately or close for the rest of the school year, the governor said he made the call after careful consultation with health and education officials.
“There’s no one who wants to reopen schools more than I do,” he said. “We cannot be guided by emotion …. We have to be guided by the facts on the ground.”
“I hope I’ll be put in a position a month from now to make a different decision,” Murphy said.
Despite Murphy’s refusal to shut the door on a remainder-of-the-year closure, the notion of reopening schools May 15 has set off a firestorm of opposition in Newark, which has seen 4,503 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 309 deaths linked to the disease as of Thursday, according to Essex County officials.
“It is foolhardy to even suggest a date for reopening until the actual impact of the deadly virus has been determined and steps taken to ensure that it is controlled and won’t peak again,” a group of concerned New Jersey residents said in a joint statement.
Read the full statement here.
According to the signers of the statement, who included Madelyn Hoffman, the Green Party of New Jersey’s 2020 candidate for U.S. Senate:
“Under these circumstances, and the many still to be discovered, how can any responsible leader suggest that it is now acceptable to ease up on the restrictions, send children back to school and thus grease the way to restarting the economy? Governor Murphy stated that if students were sent back to school on May 15, they would likely have to wear face coverings and practice social distancing. Then why send them back at all? What is the governor waiting for? He can announce tomorrow that schools will remain closed for the remainder of this school year.”
An online petition titled “NJ schools to remain closed for remainder of the year!” had gained more than 1,100 signatures as of Thursday.
It reads:
“Recently, schools were closed due to reducing the spread of COVID-19. Our children are traumatized and have experienced imbalance as a result of this deadly virus. Families have lost loved ones and the uncertainty of containing the virus is unknown outside of ‘social distancing.’ We have not had the time to properly grieve nor ensure that our children would be safe returning to school amid the pandemic. Governor Murphy has declared that our children should return to school ‘at least May 15’ with the use of masks. Sending our children to school with masks would immediately expose our children to the fast spreading virus and may cause irreparable harm. Some children are not age appropriate to understand why him/her are mandated to wear a mask. Educators have had issues in the past with classroom management and therefore will place an even greater task on them by sending children to school with the mandate to wear a mask. Twenty-six states have closed their schools for the remainder of the school year, however New Jersey has insisted that we put our children in harm’s way and throw them in the belly of the beast.”
The petition’s author, Yolanda Johnson of the Newark-based Parents Educating Parents, has a child who attends Newark Public Schools. And there’s no way she wants a return to the classroom while the virus is still spreading.
“What goes through my head is the thought of how vicious this virus is and the rate of its spread, which can potentially wipe out an entire family,” Johnson told Patch. “Our children returning to brick-and-mortar buildings by May 15 would be detrimental to our families.”
Johnson isn’t alone.
Ronnie Kellam, a 2020 candidate for an at-large seat on the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board, said a decision to reopen on May 15 would “really not be healthy” for his 6-year-old son, a first-grade student at McKinley Elementary School.
Although his son is “very active” — like many other kids his age — he also suffers from asthma and hates having a face mask covering his mouth for even a minute, let alone for an entire school day, Kellam said.
“The public school district needs to be closed for the rest of the school year and be properly disinfected, because before this outbreak, most of the schools were in need of some much-needed inspection and disinfecting themselves,” said Kellam, who graduated Malcolm X Shabazz High School in 2011.
“It is imperative that the district for once listen to the parents and close for the remaining of the academic year,” Kellam stressed.
“Why rush to open schools?” agreed Johnnie Lattner, a Newark resident and the co-founder of Parents Unified for Local School Education. “This virus kills and it has no age, race, position or economic status.”
Michael Angelo Bosch, a local grandparent and community activist, said the possibility of opening on May 15 scares him.
“I strongly believe it is too soon to rush to judgment on playing Russian roulette with our children’s lives,” Bosch said, questioning the accuracy of COVID-19 testing.
“We the public, the parents and grandparents of these children, fear that jumping the gun may be placing our children’s lives in danger by allowing them to return to school too soon on May 15,” he told Patch. “We are not prepared to risk their health for the sake of playing politics or for the sake of the dollar.”
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