Chalkbeat reports that at least 40 NewYork City educators have died because of the coronavirus but the Department of Education refuses to release their names or to explain their reticence.
Christina Veiga writes:
Rosario Gonzalez, a 91-year-old paraprofessional who cared tenderly for children in an East Harlem special education program, rarely missed a day of work in more than three decades.
Claudia Shirley continued to teach in Bushwick even after retiring, and loved her job so much that she inspired her two daughters to become educators themselves.
Carol King-Grant, a special education teacher in the South Bronx, was known for her love of sudoku and beautiful singing voice.
All died in recent weeks from suspected cases of the coronavirus, according to the United Federation of Teachers. The union announced that, as of Friday, it knew of more than 40 of its members presumed to have been claimed by the pandemic, including both active educators and retirees.
The union is naming names, and releasing a tally of the lives lost at a time that the education department has refused to do so. The department’s silence has sparked an uproar among teachers, who feel the lack of recognition is a smack in the face, particularly as they continued to report for work even after the danger of COVID-19 was The education department has kept mum on the number of cases within its ranks even as other public agencies, including the police department and transportation authority, have released figures. However, the education department stopped confirming cases as community spread became rampant and the health department told New Yorkers to assume they have been exposed.
“We understand there is a lot of uncertainty across the City surrounding COVID-19,” education department spokesperson Miranda Barbot told Chalkbeat on April 2. “School employees are sometimes reporting information to their principals and superintendents, and we are determining how best to collect this information in one place.”
Teachers have demanded that the city publicly disclose deaths among their colleagues. In the absence of official information about the disease’s spread within school communities, teachers have taken it upon themselves to inform their co-workers of positive cases. They have blasted the city for keeping campuses open even as the number of sickened New Yorkers skyrocketed. well known.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I can’t tell you how terrified many of us were reporting to overcrowded buildings during those last two weeks of school. We knew if schools weren’t shut down it would be a catastrophe. While the mayor closed down Broadway, we were told to report as usual. While the governor prohibited large gatherings, we were navigating through mobs of students during class changes. We called the union. No help. We signed petitions to which the commissioner and mayor responded with complete and total arrogance. Now we are subjected to a pissing match between the governor and mayor, Whenever I hear people applauding Cuomo’s response, I seethe. He put all New Yorker’s lives in danger because of petty politics. Many New Yorkers would still be alive had the governor took more decisive action earlier on. And don’t tell me he wasn’t forewarned – he was! This is an epic fail throughout all layers of government.
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I think CUNY is doing the same thing. Educators work within communities of schools and then systems. Communities should not hide information from their members.
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This comes as no surprise to me, as I have met and worked for some the nastiest, corrupt human beings who got to manage the schools where professional educators gave their best to educate children. The teachers love the kids. How very sad!
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In 16 years of employment with the New York City Department of Education, I grew very, very tired of and angry with this kind of contempt.
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I applaud the union for stepping into this particular breach.
Any employee corona virus confirmation– let alone death– should have been announced immediately [not necessarily by name] concurrent with closing that school building for 2 weeks, regardless of district closure status. 3/11 early a.m.– 8 days before NJ schools closed [& 6 days before NYC’s], a district near me announced a 2-wk closure effective that day for its six schools when a student’s parent became NJ’s 11th confirmed case. Did NYC Dept of Ed politics prevent that from happening? If so that’s unconscionable. Building head is responsible for the safety of its students and personnel. Elderly staff needed to know immediately if they were at a far greater risk than indicated by NYC’s then-low count [16 confirmed as of 3/9].
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Releasing the names of those who died from COVID 19 would appear to be a violation of HIPPA, a federal law protecting people’s privacy. If people are interested in who can legally be told about the health status of people without their permission, see https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/february-2020-hipaa-and-novel-coronavirus.pdf
From the bulletin: “In general, except in the limited circumstances described elsewhere in this Bulletin, affirmative reporting to the media or the public at large about an identifiable patient, or the disclosure to the public or media of specific information about treatment of an identifiable patient, such as specific tests, test results or details of a patient’s illness, may not be done without the patient’s written authorization (or the written authorization of a personal representative who is a person legally authorized to make healthcare decisions for the patient).”
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Bingo
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Undoubtedly NYC was slow to act Being 3 to 5 days behind Seattle and San Francisco does not explain the difference in infection spread. The Metropolitan areas reliance on a massive public transit system spread the virus throughout the region.But their actions would have been speeded by a month had there been leadership from the Federal Government. The virus that came to NYC might as well have been called the Lombardi virus as the genetic comparison of the viruses show. And it arrived from multiple sources in the second to third week of February. What a difference federal leadership would have made Random testing and testing of any flu like symptoms would have forced a shut down by the first week in March
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