This petition is to close all NYC public schools, especially high schools now to slow down the community spread of the covid-19 virus among NYC.

The covid-19 virus is highly contagious due to its long incubation period and asymptomatic transmission. Infected young people could carry the virus without showing mild or any symptoms. But the death rate for infected adults is more than 10x higher than seasonal flu, and currently there is no vaccine or specific anti-viral medicine for this strain of virus. Cutting down its routes of spreading (quarantine, social distancing and good personal hygiene) are the only effective measures to prevent an epidemic in our communities. 

NYC public school students, especially those in high schools, commute to school every weekday via crowded public transportation from every corner of the city, stay in enclosed space with high population density for most of the day where social distancing and good hygiene measures are hard to enforce, and then commute back to their own communities across the city. The tens of thousands of commuting students are probably one of the worst (most efficient) routes of spreading a highly contagious virus.

Because the virus infection grows exponentially, a proactive preventative measure at the early stage of the breakout is most effective in protecting human lives and mitigating economic cost. So Dear Mayor/DOE Chancellor, it is critical to shut down NYC public high schools for 2 weeks pre-emptively before any students or teachers are confirmed with the virus infection, to better protect the safety of the students, the teachers, the general public of NYC.  Please act fast before this window for preventative measure closes.