NYC DOE Will Not Allow Students Back Without In-School COVID Testing

Parents Should Sue

11-27-2020

By Michael Kane

***Update 12-3-2020 — For the most recent legal advice from our attorneys, go to the following link: https://nyteachersforchoice.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/forcing-covid-tests-in-nyc-schools/ ***

The New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) just announced they will not accept any student back to in-person education without a signed consent form allowing in-school COVID testing of the child. In my opinion, parents should immediately sue the NYC DOE over this new policy.

Up until recently in-school COVID testing was “strongly advised” for students and they were threatened with being kicked out if their parents did not consent. To date we have heard of no instance where a student was actually removed from in-person education due to the parent not consenting to in-school testing. We did hear stories of parents being threatened, pressured and coerced, but not ultimately kicked out if they stood their ground. It may have happened, but no one has brought it to our attention.

Now NYC DOE says if you don’t hand in the consent form, your child can’t walk in the building. Here is the exact language from the DOE’s website:

The increasing levels of COVID-19 infection overall in the city are very concerning, and we must strengthen precautions further for our school communities. Therefore, no student will be permitted to return to the building without a signed consent form for in-school testing. Your consent must be submitted by the first day your child resumes in-person learning. If you have already provided consent via NYCSA or a paper form, we encourage you to submit it again to ensure we have the most up to date form on file. You can find instructions on easy ways to submit consent below. (emphasis added)

There are 3 main reasons why I feel parents should consider suing NYC DOE.

1. We still don’t know if student DNA samples are being catalogued
2. There are no “reasonable accommodations” offered to students
3. There has been no clarification of what a “trained individual” is

There is an agenda afoot to close brick & mortar schools permanently; especially in big cities. This agenda has been in the works since at least 2015 when “reimagine education” was given a thumbs up by every significant national leader in education – including the head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Randi Weingarten. Essentially reimagine education is the expansion of remote education and the closing of brick and mortar school buildings. If parents are forced to consent to in-school COVID testing, it is likely less students will show up to school and will instead choose all remote. In a certain sense, it is possible the new COVID testing regime has less to do with safety and more to do with increasing the number of parents that choose fully remote learning for their children. I can not definitively prove this to be the case, and I am not positive I am correct, however this hypothesis must be considered in light of all the evidence currently in front of us.