We Demand Safety Now or Safety Walkouts. #ProtectNYC

Sign our petition for a mandated, comprehensive safety plan for NYC public schools

As the Delta variant rages and we’re seeing unprecedented numbers of young people and children infected, the choice is clear. It’s not what any of us wanted.

Despite the claims that somehow the COVID-19 global pandemic is behind us. With some leaders irresponsibly claiming victory over the virus, in fevered pitch, ticker tape conga lines, with manufactured herd immunity proclamations, while loosening mitigation protocols and not aggressively seeking herd immunity through mandated vaccination, we are painfully reminded that anti-science pied pipers, naysayers and opportunists and their disinformation have helped usher another surge.

We cannot, and will not, mortgage the safety and health of our elderly, or children, or most vulnerable, or first responders, or health care workers, or families, or educators, as dire projections show that numbers this coming fall will rival the COVID-19 highs of the past year and a half.

I am joining a call from UFT educators, and NYC parents and families, for a mandated, comprehensive, science-based and equitable safety plan for New York City public schools.

Yesterday, I posted a petition with clear demands to address this life and death matter. If we cannot take these necessary public safety and health mitigation measures to safely reopen schools, we will call for those in our school locations that are unfit for teaching and learning to simply …. WALK OUT.

I ask you to read the demands and sign your name to this movement to PROTECT LIFE, especially for our most vulnerable and those who have limited access.

These demands include common sense measures such as: mandated vaccinations for those eligible while allowing for medical exemptions, mandated masks in school spaces, aggressively pursuing vaccine equity in underserved areas, focusing on addressing the traumas endured, and a remote learning option available to parents.