As I prepare to lend my love & support to today’s day of action for a safe reopening, I have so many feelings. It has been a difficult year. And I’m not just talking about Covid. #SchoolReopening #Refuse2Return #Road2Reopen #OnlyWhenItsSafe #SchoolsOurStudentsDeserve
Even when schools aren’t closed and there isn’t a public health crisis, students, teachers & parent leaders often find themselves scrambling to find footing in an educational structure not meant to center their voices. #SchoolsOurStudentsDeserve
The idea that ‘parents are partners’ only goes as far as their rapport with the administration in their school community and if they don’t have a handle on trauma informed teaching, culturally responsive education & restorative justice- yikes. #SchoolsOurStudentsDeserve #BLM
SOME of our students have access to student councils & other clubs where #StudentVoice is centered but most do not. There is no intentional space created for our most vulnerable students- those navigating Eurocentric curriculum as POC, those learning Eng, those w disabilities etc
Knowing this, we create our own spaces. Black student unions.Muslim student associations. Aspira. SAGA chapters. You name it. But their futures usually rely on funds from members families & a single adult in the school who keeps it all together-usually w/o additional compensation
Yet & still we create the things we wish existed. We fundraise amongst ourselves & pass the same couple dollars around to get by while wealthy schools 10 blocks away raise 30K in a single night. We show up. We advocate. We persist. Our ‘family values’ are present & accounted for.
Yet somehow the dominant narrative, even as we discuss things like ‘pods,’ remains that some communities simply ‘care more’ & ‘work harder,’ and that no one should be made to ‘feel guilty’ for ‘wanting the best for their child.’ Here’s my beef with that framing. #NiceWhiteParents
All mentally healthy parents want the best for their children & all children who are kept safe want to learn. What this means is that when children don’t or cant learn there is a lack of security, & when parents dont ‘show up’ it is because they cant.Not 100% of time but majority
In the context of Covid this means that what we see as a ‘good student’ or an ‘engaged parent’ has to change. And honestly? This was always the case. What we subscribe to good parents is aligned w a performance of parenthood that many working class/ poor folks cannot match.
Can’t come to the bake sale if I’m bagging groceries. Can’t chaperone the trip if I’m getting my nursing license. Can’t come to the school play & lose hours when they already cut my shift & these bills come the same time every month. In the remote learning space it’s even worse.
How can a student with no internet access because their family phone is off, living with 3 generations of relatives and no private space to concentrate compete with a student whose family owns 2 laptops, 3 iPads & rooms to spare?
How can a student whose had technology infused into their well funded schools curriculum be used as the litmus test for whether or not #remotelearning works when we have kids in temporary housing with no broadband? How can our marginalized students compete?
But that’s the issue isn’t it? No child should have to COMPETE to be seen as worthy & this idea that ‘resilience’ > CARE is harmful, esp to our Black & Brown students forced to wear ‘strength’ as a badge of honor while they silently scream for the care all children deserve. #BLM
Which brings me back to Covid & school reopening. Our Black & Brown communities were hit the hardest due to the medical & environmental racism that leaves them in food deserts w minimal healthcare. Our criminally underfunded school budgets were slashed DURING A PANDEMIC.
But the story @NYGovCuomo @NYCMayor & @DOEChancellor are trying to sell is that a safe September reopening is a feasible possibility.
Chancellor, I like you, I do- but I can’t tolerate you playing with our children’s lives, and a mayor who lies about all teachers wanting to go back to physical school is as bad as a governor who slashes healthcare and education funding during a global health crisis.
In the midst of all this, the teachers who have held our worlds together seem to be even more invisible than students & parents despite being heralded as ‘heroes.’ Is anyone actually listening to them? Is there a shred of nuance being applied to the stakes for school staff?
The answer is no. All we’ve heard is that principals are being consulted and that we need to let our leaders do their job. But after the job they did in March, and the continued lack of transparency our communities experience, who would be comfortable with that?
How can we talk about school reopening before we talk about how they closed? How teachers threatened to strike? The fear they had about retribution despite their own health needs?
What about families too used to being disparaged about their children’s behavior to risk an absence even if their child’s health was at stake? And those with no childcare options and no financial wiggle room who literally cannot take a day off and can never have their kids home?
These are the conversations parents, teachers and students Have tried to bring to the table for months but we keep being told that it’s under control and to check the DOE website- something our disconnected families CANNOT DO. Not to mention accessibility & language barriers.
It is unconscionable to attempt a school reopening without any kind of restoration, trust building or healing first. Our friends, family members and colleagues have DIED. Some are sick right now. This must be acknowledged.
In addition to acknowledgement of the death & destruction Covid 19 & racial injustice have caused, communities need a guarantee we will not go back to ‘normal.’ At least not those of us ‘normal’ never worked for. Turns out that’s MILLIONS of people. #CancelRent #BlackLivesMatter
The idea that physical school will provide comfort to our children after social distancing for months is a fallacy because 1. They won’t be with their friends due to split schedules 2. They can’t touch each other, play or socialize 3. No communal gatherings like lunch, art or gym
As for the ‘childcare’ narrative, how does a 1-3 day schedule work for ANY working family? And what BUDGET are childcare facilities & schools using to fund PPE, cleaning supplies, masks & gloves after @NYCCouncil botched funding by refusing to #DefundTheNYPD ? #OnlyWhenItsSafe
If my choice is between my child being safe at home and driving me absolutely insane while I try to navigating mothering AND working or sending her to a shadow of her former school built around uncertainty and limited funds I choose my child’s health and safety EVERY TIME.
Sadly the choice is harder for our families with special needs students who are regressing due to lack of services, families inclusive of guardians w mental health issues who need a BREAK & essential workers. But Even these families are apprehensive. That should tell us something
We know nothing about the REC centers. Our only access to information about DOE staff that passed from Covid is a memorial website that was minimally publicized. The parent engagement sessions are infuriatingly devoid of info. And we’re all just tired & scared. #OnlyWhenItsSafe
This is not meant to be an attack, but a reality check. I know @NYCSchools is doing what it thinks is best in the way it thinks is best. But we as school community members know what’s best for our students & families! & that should MEAN something. Since it hasn’t yet,we protest✊🏾
We rally, march, protest, push back and create for a world in which students, teachers and parents are not add ons to decisions about our 1.1 million NYC students, but integral to our community culture & care every step of the way.
The one beautiful thing to come out of Covid is that it has forced us to reckon w inequity at every level of society. We cancelled elitism laden state tests & the sky didn’t fall. We provided students devices who didn’t have them which we ALWAYS should have done.
We fed, clothed &cared for each other in ways that communities of color have always done because we had no choice if we wanted to survive. Direct giving, frowned upon by many as a ‘scam’ when Black womxn did it, morphed into ‘mutual aid’ & became not only acceptable but essential
THESE are the lessons we must keep with us. And there is NO Infrastructure to build upon these invaluable real world realizations in underfunded, under staffed, partially open, socially distanced schools.
Until we have equitable translation & interpretation, related services, socio emotional support besides links to yoga & mindfulness apps & accountability strcutures in place to remove those who maintain inequitable schools practices, we don’t have the RANGE to reopen safely.
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