蜜桃影视

School leaders and doctors met Wednesday to unpack newly released reflecting the disproportionate destruction COVID-19 to wreak upon the Latino community 鈥斅燼nd to address the implications those numbers hold for New York City鈥檚 contentious school reopening plan.

鈥淟atinos have been hospitalized as much as people who are white,鈥� said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who participated in the event hosted by SOMOS, a New York-based nonprofit network of health care providers. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e seeing, in terms of the start of school, is the kind of neglect from the top down that is unconscionable: the lack of resources to schools to reopen them safely. All of this could have been solved. This kind of work should have started in April.鈥�

As part of the virtual press conference, Matt Barreto, a co-founder of the polling firm Latino Decisions, presented his group鈥檚 new data, which were collected between Aug. 7 and Aug. 15 and surveyed 1,842 respondents, 838 of whom have children ages 17 or younger. Most were from Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and the New York/New Jersey area.

Among the findings: The Latino community encountered a dramatic wave of cases over the summer; 1 in 10 Latino homes around the country has been hit by the virus; more than half of Latino homes have lost income as a result of the pandemic; more than 1 in 3 Latino parents are currently out of work.

鈥淕iven the spike in coronavirus this summer, it stands to reason that half of Latinos with children in grades K-12 are considering not sending their students back to school,鈥� the researchers said. Their data show that 85 percent of survey participants reported anxieties about their children being exposed to the virus at school this fall. Of that group, 59 percent said that the possibility made them 鈥渧ery concerned.鈥�

Those trends hold true in New York City, where a fierce debate rages over how and when to reopen the nation鈥檚 largest school system, and where roughly 40 percent of students are Hispanic. Also on hand for Wednesday鈥檚 event was Michael Mulgrew, president of New York City鈥檚 United Federation of Teachers; the UFT鈥檚 vice president for education, Evelyn DeJesus; Servia Silva, the union鈥檚 representative responsible for some 30-plus schools in East Harlem鈥檚 Community School District 4, an area with a high rate of COVID-19 infections; and Moses Ojeda, principal of Thomas A. Edison Career & Technical Education High School in Queens.

Ojeda said that recently, families have been asking him questions about the reopening that he isn鈥檛 equipped to answer.

鈥淭hey trust in the leader to make the right decisions,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 hard for me to lead a school without answers. It鈥檚 even harder when I think about what we went through [in the spring], and that we might potentially be there again 鈥� We鈥檙e about to go back to the front line, and we need to make sure we鈥檙e ready.鈥�

The Latino Decisions survey results show that 59 percent of Latino households in New York and New Jersey have experienced job loss or a pay cut or have closed a business due to the pandemic, and just over half of respondents there said they are considering not sending their child back to school this fall.

That decision comes with serious complications. Respondents expressed concerns about the possibility of their children falling behind this fall and, in the case of those whose kids have special needs, anxiety about losing access to specialized services. Many are worried that remote learning could mean their kids will have to forgo free meal programs provided through school.

Respondents also addressed barriers to remote learning: More than a third said they didn鈥檛 have anyone to stay home with their child, 34 percent said they didn鈥檛 have Wi-Fi, and 38 percent said they didn鈥檛 have enough devices at home.

The data did supply some potential solutions for districts, including New York City. Parents said administrators and teachers could help them out by communicating more about expectations, assignments and performance. Some 61 percent said that distributing more resources in Spanish would help their children. Overall, the survey reflected parent interest in a gradual reopening of schools, based on advice from teachers, scientists and health experts.

That sentiment was echoed by DeJesus, who holds executive positions in both the AFT and the UFT and helped assemble the New York City teachers union鈥檚 school reopening plan. She closed the meeting on a personal note. Back in March, the former early childhood teacher said, she caught the virus. DeJesus ended up with a stroke and, later, Bell鈥檚 palsy.

鈥淚 speak as a survivor working 18 hours to make sure our schools get what they need,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y husband got [COVID]. I lost my mom. We want our schools open. All our teachers, and all the members, the nurses, the SOMOS community. We鈥檙e all together in this. The mayor is not.鈥�

Neither Mayor Bill de Blasio鈥檚 office nor the Department of Education responded to requests for comment. Their official position remains that a Sept. 10 reopening is best for the city, despite widespread concern over whether the system is equipped for a safe hybrid model that will supply in-person and remote learning to NYC鈥檚 1.1 million students.

On Monday, the mayor principals to submit outdoor learning plans. On Tuesday, he promised to engineers to check ventilation in tens of thousands of classrooms across the city. But critics of the mayor鈥檚 process say that it鈥檚 too little too late 鈥斅燼nd they question the feasibility of implementing the necessary protocols on a tight budget, just two weeks before school is scheduled to start.

鈥淭he goal is to get schools open 鈥斅燵to give] our parents the information that equity is on the horizon,鈥� said DeJesus. 鈥淭hat is not the case here.鈥�

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