For the children, faculty, and administration that attend public schools and have to make a commute that could take up to two hours, many of them have to take the subway to get there and while the MTA is making an effort to clean often, we know that some people are afraid or reluctant to get on the subway. It’s still very dirty and there are people on it that might do unsanitary things and you don’t know who’s touched what. 

Additionally, that leaves people with the option to come to school or stay home and some parents make their children stay at home. That creates a problem because our attendance is being marked, but it’s not always our choice  whether we’re allowed to come or not. I know that many kids my school are no longer allowed to come and we have on some cases, half of the class missing because their parents won’t allow us to come to school.

 Now, one of my teachers explained to us that one of the reasons why the DOE has but closed public schools is because of the families that rely on school as their only source of food. I certainly understand that that poses a problem, but might there be a way to address that other than keeping school open and millions of people at risk of the coronavirus. Isn’t our safety also of great importance? I believe that there are many local solo kitchens and pantries and I don’t think that it’s smart to keep schools open solely for that reason. 

In conclusion, I think that the best way to address the problem of corona is to close public schools, and start online schooling. Then there is more of a change that we will all remain safe and that people don’t have marks against their attendance because their parents wouldn’t let them come.