Leigh Busby photo / @busbyleigh Instagram
Protest scene as some in-person schooling resumed in New Haven.
School buses headed out of the First Student company campus before dawn Tuesday morning to cries of “What disinfectant do you use?” and “We are here for you.”
A few passionate parents and leaders of community organizations held the protest at 140 Middletown Ave. in opposition to New Haven Public Schools’ first day of in-person school since the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Despite plans to block the buses, the protesters parted and allowed the buses through after requests from police officers. No one was arrested.
Emily Hays Photo
Protest organizer Catherine “CJ” John.
“I have not seen anybody clean a bus. I don’t see how anyone could not be passionate about this,” said Catherine “CJ” John, a lead organizer of Black and Brown United in Action.
John planned the protest with City Wide Parent Team President Nijija-Ife Waters as a more overt addition to Waters’ request that parents and teachers call in sick to remote and in-person school on Tuesday.
Starting on Tuesday, pre‑K through third-grade students have the option of attending in-person classes four days a week. Fourth and fifth-grade students have the option of in-person classes twice a week. Some students with disabilities, as well as English learners in the “New Arrivals” program, will also have in-person options.
The majority of testimonies at the recent Board of Education meeting were opposed to reopening schools before all school staff could get a vaccine. Four of seven ed board members decided to move ahead with the reopening, after hearing advice from medical professionals that reopening for lower grades, with precautionary measures in place, would be safe.
Leigh Busby photo / @busbyleigh Instagram
Since earlier forms of protest had not succeeded, John and Waters planned to line up cars at 4:50 a.m. in front of both of the entrances to the First Student bus company campus as an act of civil disobedience.
Waters and John only told a few fellow activists and members of the press, in the hopes of preempting police and district action.
“This is about showing the district that we mean business,” Waters said.
Leigh Busby photo / @busbyleigh Instagram
However, when the protesters arrived, a police car was there too.
Sgt. Martin Feliciano said that First Student had hired one officer from the New Haven Police Department to watch the campus, starting Friday. The company had thefts of batteries from vehicles stationed in New Haven and Hamden sites worth $25,000.
When Feliciano arrived, he said, he saw the protest starting to coalesce and called for backup. Two other officers arrived. Feliciano stayed at one entrance and persuaded the protesters to move the car blocking that side. The other officers asked those holding signs at the other entrance to part every time a bus was ready to leave.
The security guard present at First Student, Anthony Fox, said he heard on Monday night from First Student management that protesters might gather outside the bus lot on Tuesday morning.
“I’m not sure how they found out, but I heard someone was handing out flyers to advertise it. The police are doing a great job this morning. I think every bus is going to be able to leave on time without any issue,” Fox said.
Buses Cleaned At Night, Between Runs
Leigh Busby photo / @busbyleigh Instagram
The protesters were concerned that they did not see buses being cleaned and that at least one bus driver was not wearing a mask when he pulled out of the lot.
Cleaning happens at night and between the morning and evening runs, according to New Haven Public Schools Transportation Director Carl L. Jackson.
Jackson said that the district requires bus drivers to wear masks when they are driving with children or bringing them onto the bus.
Protesters were also concerned that they could not find the disinfectant the company planned to use on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official list.
Since a similar problem happened in August, the district has planned to use Cintas’ Signet Neutral Disinfectant (DS1). That name does not pop up on the EPA list of disinfectants approved to use against Covid-19.
However, the EPA asks users of their list to search by number, not by name, because the same chemicals are marketed and branded by different companies. Entering “10324 – 141”, the first digits of the EPA registration number for DS1, does result in a disinfectant approved for use against Covid-19.
In other words, the liquid inside the DS1 bottle is approved by the EPA as a disinfectant that combats Covid-19. It is just listed under a different brand name on the EPA website.
Emily Hays Photo
First Student sent further information on their safety protocols, including testing drivers regularly for Covid-19.
“All drivers are regularly tested for COVID-19, in partnership with Community Health Center. Before a driver begins a route, their temperature is taken, and they must pass a health questionnaire supplied by the New Haven Health Department. Our full focus will continue to be on safe, clean and reliable transportation for the students and families we serve,” a First Student spokesperson wrote by email.
Bus driver Will Vidro, whose route is in Shelton, confirmed that the buses get cleaned after every route. He said that he gets paid $15 an hour.
“We are using the proper tools and cleaning supplies. I feel safe on my route. We put down tape on the seats to make sure the kids are social distancing. Each time the bus comes back here after going out on a route, it gets disinfected by the driver, cleaned by a cleaning team, and then it sits for an hour before going out again,” Vidro said.
Another bus driver, Irida Mercedes, was more worried about kids getting Covid-19 at school than on the bus.
Leigh Busby photo / @busbyleigh Instagram
John said that she’s the parent of one New Haven Public Schools graduate and one current 10th grader. High schoolers are not part of the in-person school plans yet, but John plans to keep her child learning remotely anyway. She has severe asthma and cannot risk her child bringing Covid-19 home to her.
When asked about other families who might want to send their children to school, John said that other services should be stepping up to deal with child care and give parents income to stay at home. With more rental supplements and other support, bus drivers and other school staff could better choose for themselves whether they feel safe in pandemic-era school.
“Shouldn’t it be their [school staff’s] choice if they want to risk their lives?” John asked.
The current reopening plan allows families to keep their students learning remotely if they so choose.
“Minorities are getting affected most by the virus, and they will be affected most by schools reopening,” said Unidad Latina en Accion organizing director John Lugo.
Protester Clemente Teniza, who works in construction, is taking that remote option.
“I heard about this protest yesterday. I have three kids. One of them is at Career and two go to Betsy Ross [Arts Magnet School]. They were allowed to go to class in person a week ago, and one of them wanted to, but we decided not to let her. I was sick with the virus two months ago, and my wife got really sick. Everyone in the family was really sad,” Teniza said.
The protest lasted for around two hours before the protesters dispersed to family and work obligations.
Watch the beginning of the protest below.
These women are right. People will be dying in New Haven because of this. The CDC is projecting a peak of hospitalizations and deaths 3 to 5 weeks from now. This is simple science. Why does the Mayor believe it is proper to put the poorest people at risk, and their need to be heard, and respected, and responded to, as tax payer, residents, and voters, as VALUELESS? These are the representatives of their children! Not just their parents, but their voices is matters that adults force upon them unfairly, and very possibly illegally. Please don't ignore the proof that is now public in Flint Michigan, where all those who did or did not make the water healthy, were ordered to do so by a MAYOR, and now a Governor. And why would a Mayor do such a thing? Because the public's recourse, if their ever comes a time when one of these elected officials is held responsible, legally, will fall to the payment of money, in the form of civil settlements, that will be funded with the hard earned dollars of tax payers. Not the Mayor's money. This is painful, that a Mayor could be so calloused against children the same ages as his own, and even if he wants to risk their health, to force it on others because he sees it as the "right thing to do" does not make it right. He has lost the ideal that he does not tell the public how they should think or feel. He should listen to them, and respond with the city government to insure their needs are met. Not ignored. This is sickening, sad, detestable, and not how representative government was ideally meant to work. The Mayor acts like he cares, fakes his fear of God, acts badly his sympathy and empathy of the individual citizen, for the press, but his actions speak loud and clear. Essentially he tells the economically suppressed, he will not listen to their pleas, ideas, requests to be heard out, as he feels, and his staff, they know better than the public, and will do as they please, regardless of the casualties they cause.