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Mayor Bill de Blasio made the astounding admission on Wednesday that he had closed public schools in the city due to rising COVID-19 infection rates without having a reopening plan in place – and had taken the full responsibility for the error.
“Honestly, I have to hold myself responsible,” de Blasio admitted during a press briefing at the town hall when a journalist asked him why a plan to reopen schools had not been created before ordering the indefinite closure school buildings for in-person learning last week.
“Obviously, the best situation would have been to have this whole plan worked out in advance,” de Blasio admitted, without offering a solution to the problem.
Parents and city officials blasted de Blasio for the stupid move, which came despite no state decision to close or downsize restaurants or other businesses more closely linked to the spread of the virus .
Sam Pirozzolo, vice president of the New York Parents Union, whose son attends Staten Island high school, called on de Blasio and the city’s education management by Chancellor of Schools Richard Carranza during the pandemic of coronavirus “beyond incompetence”, questioned on the rare mea culpa of the mayor.
“It’s not a real education. It’s getting worse and worse, ”Pirozzolo said of the distance and hybrid schooling plan.
Haile Rivera, who has two children enrolled at PS 91 in the Bronx, said, “This decision to close schools has just led to more confusion and frustration.”
But, de Blasio’s father said, “Eventually the man admitted he had made a mistake.”
“De Blasio was trying to show he was running the nation by opening the schools in New York. He made the headlines, ”said Rivera, who is running for city council next year. “Then he closed the schools. How embarrassing.”
Blasio’s administration, over the summer, determined that in-person learning at all of the Big Apple’s public schools would stop if the city-wide coronavirus infection rate hit 3% on an average seven-day mobile.
That metric was smacked in the face last Thursday and de Blasio switched all students in schools across the city to 100% distance learning.
And as a plan to reopen schools was not in place, despite weeks of city data showing COVID-19 infection rates were getting closer and closer to the 3% threshold and the mayor was asked about it by journalists almost daily, the de Blasio administration struggles to find out what to do next.
“I think what really happened was – like with any COVID – we had a moving target. We were trying to see if there were any measures we could take to avoid going above 3%, ”said de Blasio, who admitted last week that a plan to reopen schools had not been formulated.
The mayor – whom the Post reported in October took long walks before and after his daily press briefings, instead of bustling about at town hall – explained: “This is really where our energy was going. , rolling out the tests, trying to take action which we thought might prevent the original measurement from being affected. “
“And honestly, we are spending tons of energy – all of us – trying to keep improving schools, trying to answer the large number of questions raised by blended learning, distance learning and many more. things, ”he said.
Still, de Blasio admitted the basic fact that he should have had a back-up plan out of the box in the event the city’s coronavirus infection rate hits 3% or more on an average of seven days.
“I think we didn’t have a plan B and we should have had a plan B, but I also understand why we didn’t because we were really faced with so many problems every day, from hour to hour. hour and try to avoid reaching that three percent, ”he said.
And de Blasio ordered the closure of public schools, although he said the schools were found to be “very safe”.
According to the Ministry of Education, random internal tests on students and staff in school buildings have consistently yielded minimum infection rates of around 0.19%.
De Blasio promised on Wednesday that details of a reopening plan would be revealed next week.
Many New Yorkers have pointed to the apparent incongruity of school closures amid a spike in COVID-19 cases, while Big Apple restaurants and other businesses have not been ordered to close by the state.
Pirozzolo called the 3% threshold for closing schools an “arbitrary” and “false” figure.
“That’s all BS. It is not based on science, ”he lamented.
Eric Nadelstern, former vice-chancellor of schools to Mayor Mike Bloomberg, echoed the remarks and said the 3% threshold was “too low”.
“The New York school system is in chaos,” Nadelstein said, adding, “It’s good that de Blasio admitted he didn’t know what he was doing. You have a mayor who has no plan and a chancellor [Richard Carranza] who has no idea.
Nadelstern said there was “real damage” to the city’s school system – the largest in the country – and predicted that parents would remove children due to inadequate distance education and uncertain policies.
“I think it’s important for the public to know that [de Blasio] chose it so, ”said Councilor Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the education committee. “It’s not the best New York can do, it’s the best it can do.”
State Senator John Liu (D-Queens), who chairs the Senate panel on education in New York, said: “The sad reality is that DOE officials, as well as teachers and principals, would have been able to have a full plan with contingencies in place by September. , but they were scuttled by the mayor’s dogged pursuit of in-person schooling at the expense of the vast majority of students and families.
“Schools would be better off if de Blasio controlled less,” Liu said.
Meanwhile, the city’s latest data shows the data shows the Big Apple has a 3.05% infection rate on a seven-day moving average, while the daily positivity rate across the country. the city is 2.74%.
These data also show that on Monday, hospitalizations increased with 141 new patients admitted to city hospitals with suspected COVID-19 and 45% of them tested positive.
“Overall, our hospitals are doing very, very well, but this jump is concerning,” said de Blasio.
The seven-day moving average of new virus cases in the city is 1,447.
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