Judge denies district request to halt teacher sick-outs

The state-appointed emergency manager for Detroit’s public schools said the sick-out closed 88 schools and caused almost 45,000 students to miss classes.

The sickouts mean that most of the district’s 46,000 schoolchildren will be forced to stay home.

More than 60 schools were closed January 11 due to teacher absences.

Disgruntled Detroit educators have stepped up efforts to protest Gov. Rick Snyder’s plans for the district, its ramshackle finances, their low pay, dilapidated buildings and overcrowded classrooms. Some marched downtown Wednesday where President Barack Obama was getting a tour of Detroit’s auto show. Darnell Earley called the sick-out “a publicity stunt” and said “sooner or later, the families who have been so adversely affected by these sick-outs will express their displeasure and voice their disdain of these actions”.

Teachers returned to work after an attorney for the school district filed a request for a restraining order forcing teachers to end the protests. She is among those named in the District’s court filing.

The Detroit public school district says all schools are in session a day after a massive sick-out by teachers closed most schools.

Detroit schools reopened Thursday.

Meanwhile, several dozen people marched in front of Detroit’s convention center.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton decried the deplorable condition of Detroit public school buildings Thursday, tweeting that “No one would tolerate these conditions in a wealthy suburb”. I hope that the public will quit vilifying teachers, and turn their attention to demanding that our legislators fix the dysfunctional school system that they have helped to create and perpetuate. “Lansing needs to act”.

‘DPS has requested the court’s intervention in addressing the ongoing teacher sick outs that are plaguing the district, ‘ spokeswoman Michelle Zdrodowski said in a statement, adding: “There will be no further comment until we receive direction from the court'”. The sick-outs also appear to be gaining support from more of the rank and file.

“This movement has grown, and I think it has grown among the teachers themselves”, Mitchell said. Next month, the school system will have to pay $26 million per month to service over $260 million in loans that were taken out to keep the schools functioning, a substantial increase from the roughly $15 million in monthly debt payments Detroit Public Schools had past year, and these payments don’t even cover all of the school’s debt.

“Detroit schools are failing at the most basic fundamentals of education: teaching children”, Snyder said. Now, officials say Michigan’s largest school district could be bankrupt by April.