BOSTON (WHDH) - Dozens of parents and young students rallied in Boston on Wednesday morning to demand answers from education officials, one day after Mayor Martin J. Walsh said that reopening the city’s public schools for in-person learning likely won’t happen until after Christmas break.
About 75 parents and children gathered in front of City Hall to urge Walsh to reopen schools to ensure students don’t fall too far behind with their studies
Parents could be seen holding signs that read, “Don’t play politics with our kids” and “Mayor Walsh, what’s the plan?” Students had signs in hand that read, “I miss my teacher” and “I want to go back to school. I matter.”
During a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, Walsh said, “I’m not anticipating our schools reopening fully before Christmas, Christmas break…But I’m expecting that we’ll be able to have some clarification on what the phased reopening is going to be after Christmas.”
Most of the city’s schools have been closed since March, with only a small number of the highest-need students returning for in-person learning last month.
Walsh also explained that learning remotely is having negative effects on children’s education.
“I would love to have our kids in school right now,” he said. “I mean, the loss of education by not being in-person, we don’t know what the impacts will be right now. We probably won’t know for a year or so. I think they’re going to be pretty detrimental in some ways.”
Walsh added that he is hopeful Boston can come up with a plan in the next couple of weeks to reopen schools safely but noted none of that can happen unless the city can get better control of the virus.
“As we continue to move forward, if we get these numbers downs and we set benchmarks and we’re below those benchmarks right now, we will begin the process of reopening schools right after the new year, hopefully,” Walsh said.
The city confirmed 407 new cases of the virus on Tuesday — more than double the daily average of 183 new cases for the week that ended Nov. 23.
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