Teens take a stand
Stuyvesant High students stage walkout
over persistent COVID-19 safety fears
BY ISABEL SONG BEER
AND DEAN MOSES
Students at Manhattan’s
Stuyvesant High School
staged a walkout on Jan.
11 g to demand online learning
options and safer classrooms
as COVID-19 cases continue
to spread across the city.
Protesting for school COVID
safety, students demanded that
NYC public offi cials – including
Mayor Eric Adams and his
administration – offer what they
believe are necessary remote
learning options and immediate
COVID health protocols.
Coordinated by three
Stuyvesant High School juniors
who were uncomfortable with
the lack of virtual options offered
to students amidst the rise
of the Omicron variant, Rifah
Saba, 17, Samantha Farrow, 16,
and Cruz Warshaw, 16, created
social media accounts on Instagram,
Facebook, and Twitter to
organize the citywide walkout.
After uploading their fi rst
post on Jan. 6 promoting a
walkout, they realized they were
LOCAL NEWS
not receiving positive feedback
from their fellow classmates
until students from Brooklyn
Technical High School reached
out to them and helped spread
the news — igniting a spark of
advocacy throughout the fi ve
boroughs.
Warshaw complained for
weeks to family members regarding
Mayor Eric Adams decision
to keep schools open following
the winter break, despite
the rising number of COVID-19
positivity cases among students
and teachers. After talking
with her mother about staging
a walkout in her school, she
teamed up with her classmates
Saba and Farrow.
“When Cruz had asked me
to be a part of this, my dad had
COVID, but I was still forced
to come to school,” said Saba.
“I thought that was ridiculous
because I could be asymptomatic
and infect other people. So
I got involved.”
Farrow’s brother also caught
COVID-19, and she was forced
to attend classes. While she has
noted some teachers quietly offered
their support, she thinks
that the school administration
did not allow faculty to openly
share their opinions. Additionally,
some fellow students
were simply indifferent about
the cause.
“I felt really hopeless at the
time because we are the people
who have to go to school and
risk catching COVID-19 and
bring it back to our families. We
don’t have a say as to whether
we could go back to school or if
we had other options,” Farrow
said.
The walkout took place simultaneously
at Stuyvesant
High School and Brooklyn
Technical High School at 11:52
a.m. on Jan. 11, while also igniting
the participation of several
other schools throughout the
city. Many of the participating
schools permitted the walkout
but required permission slips
from parents or legal guardians.
Mayor Adams has repeatedly
reiterated his belief that
schools are “safer for children”
than their homes during this
current surge in the pandemic,
NYC Student Walkout for COVID Safety at Stuyvesant High
School in Tribeca
going as far as to say in a press
conference Dec. 28 than 1% of
students were testing positive
at schools, while 15% of those
at home were testing positive.
However, many parents and
educators believe this to be inaccurate
data.
The NYC Department of Education
(DOE) issued a statement
via email Jan. 12 in response
to the student walkout:
“We understand the concerns
of our school communities
during this crisis and
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
wholeheartedly support civic
engagement among New York
City students. Nothing is more
important than the health and
safety of our school communities,
and we’ve doubled inschool
testing and deployed 5
million rapid tests to quickly
identify cases, stop transmission,
and safely keep schools
open. Student voice is key and
we’ll continue to listen to and
work closely with those most
impacted by our decisions —
our students.”
Manhattan COVID cases now lowest in city
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
The fast-moving, highly
contagious Omicron
variant of COVID-19 has
sent New York City into uncharted
territory in the nearly
two-year-old pandemic, with a
7-day positivity rate of 32.64%
and a 7-day daily case average
of 32,799 reported on Jan. 7.
But as brutal as the numbers
are right now, there’s some
indication within the recent
data from the New York City’s
Health Department that the
Five Boroughs may be nearing,
or beginning to move past, the
peak of this latest (and highest)
wave of COVID-19 infections.
Additional data is needed to
demonstrate whether the city
has indeed reached the peak of
this crisis, which Health Commissioner
Dr. Dave Chokshi
indicated on Jan. 5 might still be
A woman gets a COVID-19 test in Brooklyn on Jan. 7, 2022.
weeks away. Yet there are some
encouraging signs.
Take, for instance, the transmission
rate, which measures
the spread of COVID-19 across
the city. The 7-day transmission
REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID
rate for the Five Boroughs
on Jan. 2 stood at 3,261.35
cases per 100,000 — but two
days later, on Jan. 4, that number
had dropped to 2,753.95
per 100,000.
Similar declines were seen in
the 7-day positivity rate, from
34.42% on Jan. 2 to 32.59% on
Jan. 4; the 7-day daily case average,
from 38,842 on Jan. 2 to
32,799 on Jan. 4; and the 7-day
hospitalization rate, from 797
on Jan. 2 to 586 on Jan. 4.
Hospitalizations are still rising
across the city, with the vast
majority of cases involving previously
unvaccinated New Yorkers.
The city’s Health Department
reported that, as of Dec.
18, the hospitalization rate for
unvaccinated persons was 79.16
per 100,000. That’s 14 times
higher than the hospitalization
rate for vaccinated persons,
which was 5.64 per 100,000.
Breakthrough cases are being
reported across the city among
vaccinated individuals who
nonetheless contracted COVID
19. But the case rate among
vaccinated persons (457.4 per
100,000 people) is still about
seven times less than the case
rate among the unvaccinated
(3,292.65 per 100,000).
As for communities hardest
hit by COVID-19, the city’s
Health Department reports
23 communities with a 7-day
positivity rate of 40% or higher
between Dec. 29, 2021 and
Jan. 4, 2022. The vast majority
of them, 15 of the 23, are in
the Bronx.
On the opposite end of the
spectrum, 15 areas of the city
registered 7-day positivity rates
below 20% for the period.
While the area with the lowest
rate was in Brooklyn —
Bedford-Stuyvesant/Clinton
Hill/Fort Greene (11205), at
14.59% and 692 cases — 11
of the 15 areas with the lowest
positivity rates in the city were
in Manhattan.
The Financial District
(10004) had the fewest new
cases reported during the week,
with just 62 diagnoses and a
20.53% 7-day positivity rate.
8 January 13, 2022 Schneps Media