YFT Sues YPS –Some Teachers Reluctant to Come Back
By Dan Murphy
During any school day, the Yonkers Public School has more than 4,000 staff and contractors in their 39 schools. This week, after 3 new cases were reported in 3 different schools, a total of 9 YPS staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.
YPS Superintendent Dr. Edwin Quezada called the 9 total cases “extremely low” and the math and health recommendations prove him correct. Nine cases, divided by 4,000 persons in the schools, (remember students in school doesn’t begin until Oct. 5), works out to a percentage of less than 1%, .225%, to be exact.
NY Governor Andrew Cuomo has set the bar for positive COVID cases in any school at 5% in order to close. The Yonkers Public Schools are well below 1%.
Both Superintendent Quezada and the Yonkers Council of PTA’s, believe that the YPS are on track to open their schools to hybrid learning on October 5. “We are still on track to begin hybrid learning October 5, Our families expect that our schools will reopen and we are working to do that,” said Quezada.
“Our goal continues to be in school learning hybrid starting Oct 5—it should be up to parents to decide whether to send their kids to school and opt in,” said Carmen Goodstein, President, YCPTA’s.
In preparation for the Oct. 5th hybrid opening, the Yonkers Federation of Teachers, YFT, filed a lawsuit claiming that school administrators were denying requests by teachers with pre-exisitng conditions to work online and from hom. “Respondents’ continued failure to consider telework as an accommodation for vulnerable faculty and staff unnecessarily exposes at-risk YFT members to serious illness and/or death when instruction can be provided safely and effectively from remote locations,” states the lawsuit.
One reason why Yonkers teachers have been required to work from school during the month of September, when students are still learning online, is the number of complaints made by parents about their students teachers inability to educate their children online during the spring of 2020.
Yonkers Rising did not print details of the letters and emails we received from parents, or of the complaionts we read online. But those complaints included teachers not interacting with their students on Zoom, teachers posting assignments that they had cut and pasted, teachers not showing up for scheduled online classes, and teachers performing other duties when they were supposed to be teaching.
If there are teachers who are ill and cannot attend in person learning, then they should consider utilizing their sick days. For those who are truly at risk because of a pre-exisitng condition, accomodations can be made. But for the YFT to sue the YPS, which in our view, shows an unwillingness or an inability to negotiatite their concerns directly with the school district, is unwise at this challening time for everyone. Any student or parent who doesn’t want to attend in person school can opt out. But for those parents and students who decide that they want to try and go to school, they should be afforded that opproutnity, and given a teacher who wants to be there.
