Most Detroit schools closed by ‘sick-outs’

The latest sick-out shuttered more than 85 of the struggling district’s roughly 100 schools and was timed to coincide with a visit to the city by President Barack Obama. “Teachers have one of the most important jobs on the planet”. Wesley had to scramble to find a sitter for her 5-year-old daughter, Myajai, as Ann Arbor Trail school was closed.

Many of those who chanted and carried signs were Detroit Public Schools teachers who were taking part in a massive sick-out Wednesday that closed the majority of the district’s schools.

The district has filed a request for an injunction in the Michigan Court of Claims naming the union, activists and about two dozen teachers.

Teachers have complained of crumbling infrastructure, mold in the classrooms, leaky ceilings and too many students per class.

Singer Cher, who has most recently made news for donating 180,000 bottles of water to the city of Flint, which is around 70 miles north of Detroit, shared in the outrage over the schools’ conditions, tweeting photos of mildew and water damage in the classrooms.

The motion names the Detroit Federation of Teachers, interim teachers union president Ivy Bailey and 23 Detroit Public Schools teachers.

“We’re talking about 45 fifth graders in one room”, Mitchell said.

The Detroit schools are in need of a transformational change, he told lawmakers….

They are looking for city and state government officials to step in and take action to improve school conditions.

Newsy Teachers have been staging so-called “sick-outs” for months to protest dilapidated conditions in schools.

But as of Wednesday night, the Detroit Public Schools’ Facebook page indicated all schools will be open Thursday. “They are doing homework”, Watson-Whittaker said Wednesday afternoon. They’re trying to bring attention to what they call “deplorable conditions” at their schools.

Duggan said teachers’ “frustrations are legitimate, but the solution is not to send the kids home”. “Lansing needs to act”.

In discussing Detroit schools in his State of the State address, Snyder focused on the debt problem facing the district, which is expected to run out of money this spring.

Those demands will include smaller class sizes, pay raises, adequate books and supplies, and the restoration of art, music and physical education programs, former teachers’ union president Steve Conn said.

On January 11, 64 of the district’s schools had to shut for the same reason.

“We actually are getting text messages, our friends are calling us like ‘Oh, I think you’re being sued, ‘” she said.

They ultimately chose to continue these protests for another day, but do not expect it to be quite as big as today.

Zdrodowski said there would be no class Wednesday in 88 schools, about 90% of those in the system.