Opinion: Opting Your Kid Out? Safety Still Matters, by Jeannine Mele

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, and the upcoming school year approaches, it’s not surprising to see a trend of parents who can afford it, who feel returning to classrooms will be unsafe and remote will be inadequate, hiring private tutors to teach their children. In some cases it’s one on one but also in small groups known as “education pods” and here in New York City it can cost up to 150 thousand dollars for the year.

Some parents rationalize this as a way to open up seats,space and resources for those who can’t afford such expensive options. This is a thought process dripping with privilege. We live in a city, and a community, with vast socioeconomic inequality that allows people living within blocks of one another to live in entirely different worlds. We are also a city and community that would claim to be as progressive as can be. The upcoming school year is an opportunity to stop increasing educational inequality and to prove that progressivism is more than something we claim to be.

If you believe Black Lives Matter; if you’ve joined the protests and spoke out on social media against systemic racism; if you have taught your children that we must all raise our voices against the injustices people of color experience; if you have the luxury of opting out of sending your sons and daughters back into brick and mortar buildings this September, then you must realize that your social obligation does not end there.

Don’t forget that just because your child stays home, it does not mean that a school building will be a safe and nurturing place for other kids. Teachers will still not be able to interact the way they once did with students, and students will still be unable to play and participate in activities with their peers as they did in the past. Teachers are not trained to handle the trauma students will be entering the school with this year, nor are they trained or given the resources that front-line workers such as doctors, nurses, and others in the healthcare field are. Every parent, whether your child is staying home this year or not, must remain outraged that any child is being put into harms way.

So make sure you continue to do your part; contact your elected officials and use your voice to call out the inequity that is present here. Better yet, put your money where your mouth is, and consider helping a family that otherwise could not afford it to also make the choice to hire a private educator this year, invite them into your child’s pod and make sure that you don’t quietly go about your year knowing that your child is safe, but that so many others might.

Jeannine Mele works in the NY Public School system.