Council Member Joseph Borelli, along with Staten Island parents of public school students, announced that as a result of Mayor de Blasio’s decision to close public schools, filed an emergency order to show cause for a preliminary injunction seeking the re-opening of public schools. This emergency order to show cause was filed in the Southern District of New York on Friday, November 20, 2020. This is in addition to the class action lawsuit filed on October 21, 2020 in Richmond County Supreme Court.

“Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza have continued to fail our children time and time again. Even though they had 6 months to prepare for this school year, they failed to do so and our children are forced to pay the price.” said Council Member Joseph Borelli. “Remote learning has proven to be a failure and now they have taken the extra step of closing the schools completely. This is utterly irresponsible and unacceptable.” 
“Our children belong in school. Remote learning is a disservice to our children and places unmanageable burdens on their parents.” said attorney Mark Fonte.
“The decision to close NYC schools again is outrageous. The NYS Constitution states that all children should be afforded a quality education!” said attorney Lou Gelormino. “It’s quite obvious to anyone with school age children that online learning is in no way providing a quality education. We are requesting an immediate injunction from the courts to open the NYC school system.”
“Governor Cuomo said just two days ago that ‘the infection rates in the schools are very low and the infections are not coming from the schools.’ The seven day infection rate average for NYC remains at 2.5% according to forward.ny.gov.” said attorney James Mermigis. “According to the Governor, New York State has the fourth lowest infection rate in the country. Why are we closing our schools? This is just another example of the random and arbitrary decisions that are being made in Albany and City Hall. But now, we are hurting our children and this incompetence at the top is unacceptable.”
The Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Mark Fonte, Lou Gelormino, and James Mermigis. If you are a parent of a public school student and are interested in joining the lawsuit, please visit parenyc.com. You may also contact Council Member Borelli’s counsel Michael Tannousis at 1-718-984-5151 or via email at mtannousis@council.nyc.gov.