Parents, teachers demand NYC schools reopen

Parents, teachers, students and coaches rallied outside Department of Education headquarters Saturday demanding that New York City schools fully reopen.

They chanted “Open schools, open schools.”

One student held up a sign that said, “I’ve been to 11 days of school since Sept. 2020. Does that make sense???”

“Kids need to be in school. It’s imperative. They’ve lost too much learning on a Zoom classroom,” said Kathryn Garcia, the former city Sanitation Commissioner who is running for mayor, said at the rally.

Maud Maron, a City Council candidate, said there were more than 700,000 students who haven’t seen the inside of a classroom in a year.

Eleni Filippatos, a third-grade teacher, said “Our schools have been safe.”

“There is no reason to continue keeping me and my students home for 10, 20 days at a time,” the teacher said.