Maya McFadden Photos
Elizabeth Reyes: “They’re leaving us to die in the classroom.”
Elizabeth Reyes, a special education teacher at Columbus Family Academy, joined 70 other local teachers in a caravan through New Haven neighborhoods Thursday demanding that schools reopen only if they will be 100 percent safe for all.
New Haven’s was one of 25 simultaneous teacher caravans around the state broadcasting the same message.
About 70 cars drove through Fair Haven, Morris Cove, Water Street, Downtown, and down Ella T Grasso Boulevard, and Goffe Street.
The mobile demonstration took place as the Board of Education wrestles with how to reopen schools in September. (Read more about that here.)
The crowd at first gathered at Wilbur Cross High School’s parking lot . The group of educators nearly filled the parking lot as most began decorating their cars with posters and writing on back windshields with messages like: “No one accepts incomplete work! Why should teachers?! A safe and equitable school re-opening.”
Reyes spoke of how she has worked in education for 23 years. She works as a pre-school special education teacher. She said it’s not uncommon that her students attempt to bite and scratch at her. She said she is sure that her students would also pull at her mask and other PPE exposing her to the dangers of Covid-19 in the classroom.
As a pre-school teacher, Reyes said, she also often sees kids have breakdowns when separating from their parents at the start of the school year. “When they’re separating from their parents, there’s tears, mucus, coughing, all of that,” she said. Reyes cited the exposure to bodily fluids in the classroom and other dangers to argue that schools should not reopen and should instead stick with remote learning this fall.
“They’re leaving us to die in the classroom,” Reyes said. “I don’t want to die when someone is hiding behind Zoom.”
But she will show up if she is ordered to do so. Reyes is the breadwinner in her house for her two daughters. She said she has to support her family by working if schools reopen, despite being stressed and scared. “I’m terrified, but who will take care of my family?” she said. “If they reopen I will have to sacrifice myself to save those I love.”
“You’re on Zoom,” read a sign she posted on her car, “yet we are in the classroom.”
In the past, Reyes decorated her classroom with picture frames, curtains, baskets, and shelves to make it home-like. Reyes said she won’t be able to decorate her classroom like usual in fear of items being contaminated. “It’s going to be like a jail cell,” she said.
Sarah Levine, who works at Barnard Magnet Elementary School, heard of the caravan on a Facebook page for New Haven educators. Levine came along with her 9‑year-old daughter Maya Gersch.
Levine said she is concerned as a teacher and mother about schools reopening. “There’s no funding for classrooms to be sanitized and cleaned properly. Some schools don’t even have [full-time] nurses,” she said.
“I’m worried. I don’t want to go back, because of Corona,” said Maya.
Jaclyn Tolkin, a teacher in Meriden, lives in New Haven. Tolkin joined the caravan with her 3‑month-old son Oliver and husband Sam Tolkin.
“They’re treating them like soldiers,” said Sam.
Jaclin said she believes it’s not worth reopening schools this fall. “My son’s life isn’t worth someone else’s child’s education. He needs me,” Jaclin said.
Despite the group getting separated by red lights and no police escort, cars remained in small groups going through neighborhoods. Passing cars honked as they read the signs on the educator’s cars.
Bee Marshall, a seventh- and eighth-grade literacy teacher at Hill Central School, decorated her car for the caravan with a theme: the song “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday.
Marshall came dressed in a mask, a face shield, and gloves. “This would be my everyday attire in the classroom plus a lab coat or scrubs,” she said.
Marshall said if schools reopen they should provide educators with PPE weekly. But she does not foresee that happening, so she bought her own for this school year.
“We don’t work in the ivory towers. We don’t have the funding for a safe environment,” Marshall said.
Marshall too said the school year should begin with virtual learning or a hybrid of remote learning and in-person teaching.
Marshall pointed out Wilbur Cross’s stationary windows on the front of the building. “They want us to be here all day, and we can’t even open the windows for fresh air,” she said.
Marshall taped a painting made by her daughter on her back window to go along with her theme. A sign alongside the canvas read, “Stay online save lives! Educators are not strange fruit.”
In her Hill Central classroom, Marshall said, she has five working computers for her average of 54 students each year.
Marshall suggested that if schools reopen, students in grades six and up be put in the larger high school building where there is more space to socially distance.
“They can’t even make kids put their phones away. How are they going to make these kids keep their masks on?” she said.
Jocelyn Fuentes, a pre‑K teacher at Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Childhood School, said no specific plan for pre-schools has been provided to educators. “Their pre‑K plan is just being lumped in with daycare or kindergarten, which are very different learning atmospheres,” she said.
Fuentes said she often visits her elderly mother. If schools reopen, she asked, “will I need to stop taking care of her?”
Fuentes also worries about the school’s funding and budget plan for safety. As a teacher, Fuentes said, she already often found herself having to purchase classroom supplies out of pocket. Last year she said she spent around $2,000 on supplies for her students.
“All it can take is one kid. These kids deserve safety and so do their educators,” Fuentes said.