Wednesday, January 20, 2016

88 Detroit Public Schools Close Due To Teacher Absences

Scores of educators from Michigan’s largest school district called in sick Tuesday and Wednesday to draw attention to deplorable classroom conditions.

Students work on reading skills at the Detroit Public Schools' Academy of the Americas in Detroit on Sept. 19, 2014. It was one of 88 schools forced to close Wednesday.

Carlos Osorio / AP Photo

Detroit public school teachers – tired of deplorable classroom conditions and lack of funding – called out sick Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, forcing the district to close 88 schools for the day.

The collective action was reportedly intended to highlight ongoing problems in Michigan's largest school district, which range from unsafe campuses to a lack of funding for basic classroom necessities like textbooks.

A spokesperson for Detroit Public Schools (DPS) told BuzzFeed news that teachers began calling in sick Tuesday night. At 9 p.m., the district announced five school closures on its Facebook page.

The statement noted that staff members employed at the temporarily closed schools were still required to report to work.

By Wednesday shortly after 6 a.m., the list of closed schools increased to 68. A DPS spokesperson told BuzzFeed News at 10 a.m. that 88 schools in the district were closed for the day.

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Facebook: DetroitPublicSchoolsFanPage

Detroit teachers involved with the mass call-out said the demonstration was intended to shed light on a longstanding issue of the quality of public education in the city.

"Things have been happening for so long, and I think teachers felt like they had no voice," Lacetia Walker, an instructional specialist in special education for DPS, told the Detroit Free Press.

"We realized that nobody is coming to save us, so we have to save ourselves," she added.

The dangerous and, at times, unhealthy conditions at Detroit public schools had a turn in the national spotlight last week when Twitter user Detroitteach began posting photos of classrooms with mushrooms sprouting out of cracks in the floors, leaking ceilings, and bullet holes in the walls.


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