VOA常速英语:美国教育工作者抗议返校

Thousands of parents, educators, students and community members marched in the streets of Manhattan in early august to demand safe and equitable schools. We lost a co-worker to covid in April and we do not want any more teachers gone this fall. We need a hundred percent remote schooling in the fall to keep everyone safe. In New York, like many states, schools will reopen based on regional conditions. In New York city itself, students will be in classes for only up to three days a week. Here's the deal, for the vast majority of kids in the vast majority of schools, you'll be going to school, to the classroom either two days a week or three days a week, depending on the week. Again, certain other schools will have exceptional dynamics, we can talk about that as well. If there is a confirmed case of covid-19 in a school, the whole class will be quarantined for two weeks. If there are two positive cases in two different classes, the whole school will be quarantined. But for many teachers at the protest, sending children and educators back to the classroom is premature.

They point out that some one and a half million teachers or one in four have pre-existing conditions, which makes them more vulnerable if they contract the coronavirus. Our schools have already been overcrowded without proper ventilation or facilities, and they want to send us back even though cases are increasing nationwide. And there's no plan in place and with budget cuts, no way. This is my playground, I miss being on it. The school that fifth Grader Lawrence was attending has been closed since March. But he hopes to be back in the classroom soon. He's mindful of the pandemic, but dreams of playing with his friends, and taking his favorite classes in person and not online. I miss my friends, I miss my teachers, and I want to come back to school. I think that the reopening plan is a sham, because schools are going to be underfunded, under resource,and we will not have the classes that we need or the teachers that we need. Sixteen-year-old Meryl Mussoom says her classmates share her opinion. New York city mayoral candidate Diane Morales supports that view. I am a former special education teacher, I am a former foster care social worker,and I am the parent of two young people with IEPs. And that is why I believe in and support teachers and students in the plan, to not go back to school until schools are safe. Despite the national day of protest, schools in Georgia, Mississippi and other states are reopening, though some cases of coronavirus have emerged among students and school employees.

For Nina Vishneva New York Anna Rice VOA news