Most Detroit Schools Closed Due to Teacher Sickout

DETROIT, MI – Detroit Public Schools said 88 of its 104 schools were closed Wednesday due to another teacher sickout, and teachers said they planned to protest outside the Detroit Auto Show at the Cobo Center to coincide with President Obama’s visit.

The sickout Wednesday was the latest of several staged in recent weeks in protest of overcrowded classrooms, unsafe and dilapidated buildings, and other problems, according to media reports.

Wednesday’s sickout, the largest so far, means that most of the district’s 46,000 students aren’t in school. On Jan. 11, teacher absences forced the closure of more than 60 schools. Other sickouts have forced the closure of fewer schools.

In a statement, DPS spokeswoman Michelle Zdrodowski said the district “has no other option but to close schools when teachers do not report for work.”

One of the teachers involved in a grassroots group called DPS Teachers Fight Back, which organized the sickout, said state officials forced their hand.

“Things have been happening for so long, and I think teachers felt like they had no voice,” Lacetia Walker, an instructional specialist in special education for DPS, told the Detroit Free Press. “This has been a way for us to draw attention to the conditions of the buildings, the fact that teachers’ STEP pay has been frozen for years. …

“We realized that nobody is coming to save us, so we have to save ourselves.”

In his State of the State address Wednesday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said the district is “in a crisis” and asked to the Republican-controlled Legislature to erase the district’s $515 million in debt and create a new debt-free district in Detroit. The district is under emergency management.

“ … The time to act is now and avoid court intervention that could cost all of us much more and be much more detrimental,” Snyder said.

If lawmakers fail to act, the district could run out of money by mid-April.

» Photo by alamosbasement via Flickr / Creative Commons