Between “4,500 and 10,000 of the school district’s nearly 28,000 students are unable to participate in their virtual classrooms,” Civil Rights Attorney Michael Sussman
By Camryn Sanchez
This week, the group Yonkers Parents Seeking Solutions (YPSS) engaged the help of Civil Rights Attorney Michael Sussman, Esq. to communicate with the city of Yonkers “ in addressing the gross disparities faced by many vulnerable parents who currently lack computers and other resources.”
This semester Yonkers Public Schools has frustrated Yonkers parents with failure to provide transportation, devices, internet connection, and other important tools students require to access their classes. In a letter addressed to Mayor Mike Spano and Superintendent Edwin Quezada, Sussman aims to address “issues which seem highly relevant to our mutual quest to ensure equity in the provision of healthy educationaenvironments for all Yonkers’ students.” Sussman says to fix these problems “will involve a full-fledged effort by the entire Yonkers community because the current situation is delinquent.”
The letter first examines “disproportionality in the lack of computers and other resources in communities of color.” Sussman believes that between “4,500 and 10,000 of the school district’s nearly 28,000 students are unable to participate in their virtual classrooms.”
Many students do not have adequate study spaces at home, and some in-person classes are being run by “less qualified” substitutes as over 100 Yonkers teachers have medical conditions that prevent them from teaching in-person. To correct these issues, Sussman suggests that the city make buildings such as community centers and churches available as student study spaces, and that schools allow their original teachers to simply teach virtually.
In terms of in-person transportation, Yonkers bus aides have been laid off in large numbers, resulting in unsupervised children who require oversight to maintain mask wearing and social-distancing regulations.
Sussman also expresses concern that students with IEPs (special education documentation) are not having adequate accommodations provided.
He asks that Yonkers Public Schools stop threatening to report Yonkers parents to CPS (child protective services) if their children are not participating in online learning, as many families simply do not have sufficient resources to let their children participate.
Finally, Sussman points out that parents are not properly informed on any of these problems. “Parents do not have information on the safety of school buildings, the majority of school communication has been made only in english which is not the native language of many Yonkers families, and families without devices and internet connection are not receiving digital communications from the school district and are left in the dark.
Halfway through the fall semester, Yonkers parents have run out of patience over the city’s failure to educate disadvantaged students. Although Sussman said in a private interview that he would like to “avert litigation,” he also states, “there is always a chance of a lawsuit.”
It appears that parents and the community are taking action.
Editor’s Note: Sussman’s letter can be found at
https://www.facebook.com/YParentsseekingsolution.
During the 1980’s, Sussman served as Assistant General Counsel for the NAACP National Office, and served as lead counsel for the Yonkers Branch, NAACP and a class of approximately 40,000 individuals in a successful school and housing segregation suit against the City of Yonkers, Yonkers Board of Education, State of New York and HUD. This period of Yonkers history was recently turned into an HBO miniseries “Show Me a Hero.”
Efforts are underway to determine how many students need a computer or Chromebook, and then to try to raise money, or get corporations to donate devices.
More on this story next week.
