Mulgrew’s Delayed Response

Today on television, UFT President Michael Mulgrew made a statement about COVID in our schools. Why did it take him so long to come forward? In the last five days alone there were over 3,000 cases of infection in the schools. In just one day -on December 16 there were a total of 571 confirmed cases, including 336 students and 195 teachers, with 374 classroom closures. The data from the DOE clearly shows that since the start of school on Sept. 13 there have been 21,175 cases of COVID. The media has been showing teachers and staff at several schools  demonstrating in front of their schools highlighting unsafe conditions. So the question stands- why didn’t Mulgrew sound the alarm and advocate for his members when everyone could see what was happening? Why wasn’t he listening to his District Reps and Chapter Leaders who were surely communicating with him? And why did he wait until after the United for Change coalition issued a statement on the COVID crisis before speaking out?

Michael Shulman, Chair, New Action/UFT