Nearly four years after the first round of school nurse lays offs in Philadelphia, which sparked weekly protests that lasted months, staffing has worsened and stakeholders continue to be outraged, leaving a mass boycott of the school district as the remaining valuable option for those seeking justice.
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A winter protest in Philadelphia is the last place one would expect to see a math problem, but there it was plastered on sign held by a supporter of public education, more specially, school nurses: 47 fewer nurses x 700 students per nurse equals 32,900 students without a nurse on a given day.
It was a frigid day in late December of 2011 and dozens of school nurses—many whom were among the 47 laid off by the School District of Philadelphia ahead of the holiday season—and activists were protesting the job losses in front of 440 N. Broad Street, the district’s headquarters.
“Nobody will even take responsibility for who’s in charge of these layoffs,” said one former school nurse who, at times her voice cracking from emotion, spoke out at the protest.
“I don’t care about my job, I worry about them,” said another former school nurse, who grabbed a nearby student, held them close to her, and asked the onlookers to “pray for the children.”
On Tuesday, she notified the crowd, South Philadelphia High School won’t have a nurse on staff.
A chant of “students need nurses” broke out and it became the rallying cry for every protest following, which was, for a few months, a weekly occurrence organized under the banner of Occupy 440.
But like the Occupy Philly movement from which inspired its name, Occupy 440 faded from the public’s view without ever impacting the policy which served as the catalyst for its occupation.
Nearly four years later—in between then and now a 12 year-old student, Ms. Laporshia Massey, died at a West Philly elementary school after suffering an asthma attack on a day where a nurse wasn’t on duty—the problem has only worsened.
The Philadelphia Inquirer today confirmed that three Philadelphia School District schools have no nurse coverage at all this year, not even once a week.
“A higher number – 16, nurses say – have no regular coverage, but do have a nurse assigned to check on the school if there is a spare moment,” reported Ms. Kristen Graham for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
In addition to budget cuts which require the district to operate with as much frugality as possible, “a higher-than-usual number of retirements, workers on disability, recent resignations, and a market where nurses have plenty of other job options,” stated the Philadelphia Inquirer, is a significant contributor to the staffing shortage.
“We have so many families living in deep poverty, and for some of these families, the only medical attention they get is from the school nurse,” Mr. Jerry Jordan, President, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, told the paper.
Almost a year ago today, Mr. Jordan, along with Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers, and other labor leaders, held a massive rally in front of the district’s headquarters, which attracted thousands of people. Among the speakers at the rally, which preceded a Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting, was Mr. Henry Nicholas, President, Union 1199c.
He said, in response the SRC’s vote to cancel their contract with the teachers union and the overall poor standing of the district and its finances, that “we cannot believe business as usual is normal behavior.”
In other words, desperate times call for desperate measures. On that day, October 16th, 2014, Mr. Nicholas said a vote for a citywide strike (for teachers) was still on the table, and that drew a thunderous response from the large crowd, though it never materialized.
Now approaching the four year anniversary of the first Occupy 440 protest, it would behoove Philadelphians to try a different tactic and boycotting seems to be the only reasonable and untried measure.
Four years of protesting has generated plenty of headlines, but very little progress in terms of social justice for students, teachers, parents, principals, and stakeholders.
A boycott wherein students were absent indefinitely would send a clear message on behalf of the taxpayers that the service being providing by the government is wholly unacceptable.
Now is the time, on a local level, to say to the system: “justice or else,” and the “or else” must be meaningful, measured and maintained.
* Tune into 900amWURD or 900amWURD.com every Friday evening at 6:30pm to hear me relive #TheWeekThatWas*
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
So how do you intend to find the money to pay for the nurses? In some systems, wrt asthma, the school will not allow kids to carry their inhalers–incipient druggies, those asthmatics are, probably selling the inhalers for cash or something–and if the school has the inhaler in a drawer some place and no nurse around to keep track, only an administrator–aka incompetent–you could have a problem not stemming from a lack of a nurse. I read recently that, nationally, public schools have had 6% more kids and 84% more staff than several decades ago. I know of one school… Read more »