SCRANTON, Pa. — These are the words of Scranton Federation of Teachers President Rosemary Boland that touched off a controversy:
"We have children from families who are underserved by our medical community, nobody thinks about them, our black children, our brown children, our immigrant children, we don't know who in their family has had Covid, we don't know if they have been vaccinated because we don't know any of that because nobody has documentation for that part of our population right now."
"There is no way that anybody can say with certainty, 100% certainty that there will be no transmission because the one thing you cannot control is the student factor, our students go home, they are not going home to the Donna Reed home, they are going home to homes in Scranton School District. Do you know our students, do you know our families? Do you know some of our students have been in Philadelphia, they have been in New York, so some of their family members could take care of them? Do you know that they left the US and that they returned, and there is no way we can figure out who was, has been, or not has been positive with COVID?"
The comments were made during a February 1 and February 8 school board meeting about the district's plan to reopen its schools.
Parents and school board members are calling the comments racist for perpetuating stereotypes about people of color.
"Sitting at my mother's kitchen table, who is an immigrant from another country, I felt dirty at that moment and other people who then listened at that moment and afterwards felt the same way," said Sarah Cruz, who sits on the Scranton School Board.
Cruz says Boland's comments set the stage for people to blame students of color if there's an outbreak of COVID-19 in the schools, some of which will begin reopening next month.
"I felt like she was singling out that specific demographic, even though they are disproportionately more affected by COVID, white children from middle-class and upper-class families also get COVID in our community," said Cruz.
In a statement, the Scranton School Board said Boland's words "convey an image of our students and their families this board does not endorse."
In her own statement, Boland apologized and said she regretted the language she used.
Boland said, "I do wish to clarify that what I intended to express with my words was a sentiment that all Scranton families should have access to quality health care and the mitigation strategies necessary to help our schools reopen safely, and the reality is that many do not."
An online petition calling for Boland's resignation currently has hundreds of signatures.