Detroit teachers on Monday organized a “sick-out” to call attention to the school district’s “abominable” problems, including filthy buildings and overwhelmingly large class sizes, and called on officials to follow through on long-held promises to salvage the city’s educational system.
“Detroit kids matter!” teachers chanted at a rally Monday afternoon at the A.L. Holmes Elementary School, which they say is infested with mice and beset by structural problems, such as wet ceilings and broken entry steps.
One educator taking part in the rally, Theresa Williams of Burton International Academy, held up a sign that read, “I have 39 first-graders in my classroom.”
According to the Detroit Free Press, nearly 60 public schools were closed Monday, with more than 50 percent of the teachers at those schools calling in sick over the “deplorable environmental and learning conditions that Emergency Manager Darnell Earley has long ignored.” The Press ran a list of the schools closed by the action.
Ivy Bailey, interim president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT), said Monday, “The deplorable conditions in our schools have created a serious environmental and educational crisis that is being ignored.”
“The children of Detroit, Flint or any other community should not be exposed to atrocious, environmental hazards,” Bailey said.
Among the teachers’ demands are improved working and learning conditions, decreasing classroom sizes, increasing teachers’ benefits and salaries, and restoring local control to the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) system, which was revoked in 2009.
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