Question to all NYC Parents with school age children: Do you believe the NYC Department of Education has the budget to keep our children safe in their own bubble just like the one that NFL Quarterback Kirk Cousins has?

If not, then please support and sign this petition for a remote learning option even if you plan on sending your kids into the school building this upcoming 2021-2022 year.

Why?  Because wearing a mask and distancing is the only real way to prevent the spread of the coronavirus particularly the Delta variant.

If every student has to return to the school buildings, there is simply not enough space and proper ventilation in NYC school buildings to prevent the spread.

The Delta variant has arrived and it’s spreading faster than the original coronavirus of last year.  This is the truth.

Vaccination can only help you deal with it in part at this point.  It’s too late to stop the spread because the spread has already started and moving like a freight train all across everywhere.

Societal full vaccination or herd immunity only works if the spread HASN’T rapidly started but that train has left the station weeks ago which is why the remote learning option is needed now.

We are nowhere near 100% vaccination and probably will not be able to achieve this until at least 2022 (if you don’t count the need for a future booster shots), and it’s better to face the realization that we’re all DOOMED if every student is forced to go back into the school buildings instead of being able to space out the children properly by offering the remote learning option.

Look at the states that have already started academic year 2021-2022 like Florida, Texas and Georgia.  They already started with schools having to quarantine children.  Also, to make matters worse, some charter schools here in NYC started on August 3, 2021 and children are becoming infected & quarantining in only week 2.

Parents cannot spend the academic year of 2021-2022 dealing with all this stress and uncertainty.  Parents need to have the remote learning option to be able to plan for what lies ahead and focus on their children learning.

Without the remote learning option, this is what NYC Parents will have to look forward to this coming school year:

-          Lots of classes being cancelled due to infections.  Imagine having to wake up every day and having to check your text messages either daily, hourly or even minute by minute for the latest  on which classrooms have become infected and if your children has to stay home for 14 days to quarantine.  Who can plan their school year like this?

-          Constant stress and worrying if you will have to pull your children out of school completely if the spread becomes out of control.  At some point, a lot of parents will consider their kids not going to school at all as the better alternative than risking a whole family being quarantined or worse complete infection.

Consider the other methods of overcrowding risk for your children before and after school:

-          Public Buses – Do you remember the previously crowded scenes of children being packed like sardines with the adults as the adults head to work?  How many buses will they have to allow to pass before they can board one with the proper 6 feet spacing?

-          School Buses – How many additional school buses will the city need to help maintain the adequate 6 feet distance between students?

-          Public Trains – Not only are they a risk for overcrowding but the public trains are dirtier than they are clean these days.

Additional factors to consider:

-          Poor ventilations in public schools - Most NYC schools buildings are old and simply do not provide the necessary air ventilation required.  There’s no last minute construction work that can be done to achieve this at this point.

-          School overcrowding – Even before the pandemic, overcrowding was an issue in a lot of schools.  How can overcrowding not be an issue if kids need 6 feet to distance?

-          3 feet spacing – CDC regulations now states that 3 feet spacing is acceptable.  Does any parent believe that 3 feet would work better than the 6 feet standard which had lots of infection & quarantine issues last school year?

-          Additional stress – Daily (Morning, Lunch and Evening) news reports of children being infected, schools having to quarantine and endless Anthony Fauci pleas to parents to protect themselves and children.  How much more can parents take?

Today, we should be proud that the United States of America is the most technologically advanced country in the known universe.  There have been virtual classes since the beginning of the new millennium first being offered by some CUNY colleges and today, completely virtual online universities like Phoenix University.

Now is not the time to fear the remote learning option but this is the time to embrace technology and let the technology gods of Microsoft, Apple, Google, Zoom, and Slack help innovate the technology to provide even better online tools than the tools our children had last year for remote learning.

Someday the remote learning option will be a norm option for our society and for the families that are able to support the remote learning option today, these families participating will help the technology companies improve and innovate for future students as well.

During the past week, an article came out stating that the Moderna vaccine is the most effective against the Delta variant and that the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are less effective.  However, our teenage students are only being offered the Pfizer vaccine at this time.

It is unfortunate to state that life has handed us NYC parents a lemon for the 2021-2022 school year and now it’s time to make lemonade.

This is no time to be delusional and believe that magically everything is going to safe and fine when all the NYC children and teachers are all required to return to school.

The Remote Learning Option is the only way to help relieve some of the stress that the children across all grades that have to go into the school buildings will have the adequate spacing and ventilation for a successful school year while the children with families that can support the remote learning option be able to provide their children the safest environment to learn in.

Please sign this petition and support the remote learning option for all NYC students.

As a NYC Parent of school age children, I pray that every NYC student will have a safe and blessed 2021-2022 school year regardless if they have to return to a school building or choose the remote learning option.  No matter which option you choose, our children must always have the opportunity to learn and grow safely either in classrooms or remotely.