Detroit Kids Miss Field Trip To Opera Thanks To Teacher 'Sick-Out' Closing School

DETROIT (WWJ) - Students at a public school on Detroit's west side were planning on taking a field trip Friday but they wound up not even going to class, thanks to an apparent teacher "sick-out."

Bates Academy was forced to close Friday for the second day in a row because too many teachers "called off sick" and there weren't enough educators to fill the classrooms. Many are speculating that the sickness is actually tied to a dispute between teachers, Detroit Public Schools and the state.

While the teachers are "recovering" at home, students arriving for class were greeted with locked doors at the school, located near 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue.

Ronasha Payne, a seventh grader, was dressed to the nines because she was supposed to be taking a school trip to the opera -- a field trip that is now cancelled.

"I feel kind of sad, like, I just think it's sad," she said. "Like, do you want to teach us or do you not? I just don't understand that."

Payne, who was clearly frustrated, has a strong message she wants the teachers to hear.

"Just grow up, please. Just be honest with us," she said. "If you didn't want to teach us, why would you take the job? That's all I have to say."

Just after 10 a.m., DPS spokesperson Michelle Zdrodowski finally addressed the situation, calling the teacher's actions "selfish and irresponsible."

"...It results in a day of lost instruction for our students as well as money wasted in a district that is so desperately in need of financial assistance to regain solvency," Zdrodowski said in a statement. "Using the children as pawns in a game orchestrated to further their group's political agenda certainly does not make a compelling argument for the investment that the district so desperately needs the state to make in its future. The community, especially the parents who are highly inconvenienced by these inexcusable actions, as well as the entire state should be outraged and demand accountability from those responsible."

But many parents, like Lynn Garland, are supporting "the sickness" because they say teachers have serious employment issues with the district.

"We entrust these people with our most precious resource, our future. And they have to fight like this just to make a decent living? There's something wrong with that picture," she said.

Others say they understand the serious issues between DPS administration and the teachers, but enough is enough.

"I'm hoping that both sides come together because Bates is a good school, I love what's happening here, and I'm just hoping that both sides come together and get the students back in school because learning is the most important thing that we're trying to do," said a parent who has a child in eighth grade.

More than 800 students from kindergarten through grade eight attend Bates Academy.

Just a day earlier, seven schools across the city were closed due to an unauthorized teacher sick-out. DPS Emergency Manager Darnell Earley issued a statement condemning the so-called sick-out, saying teachers should be focused on their students' education and not their own agendas. He added that anyone suspected of being involved in the incident will be under review.

"The District has the right to review suspected abuses of sick leave. Any DPS teacher calling off on personal illness in connection with any reported 'teacher sick-out' will be subject to a review of their actions," Early said. "The review will include requiring medical documentation to substantiate the illness in order to determine whether the reported time was legitimately charged as personal illness. Failure to provide documentation may result in the absence being without pay, and further disciplinary action being taken in accordance with district policy."

Educators involved in sick-outs are saying they "caught the Snyder Flu."

"Teachers are sick of Snyder's Plan for DPS and sick of the national attacks on public education," said Nicole Conaway, a teacher at East English Village Prep Academy — one of the school on emergency status. "The only cure for the 'Snyder Flu' is building a strike to win."

Gov. Rick Snyder's plan, outlined in April, calls for the division of DPS into an "old" and "new" district — one to pay off $715 million in operating debt and the other to operate schools he says are in academic crisis.

The new Detroit Community School District would handle academic operations, payroll, health care, employee contracts and computers. The current Detroit Public Schools would remain intact for tax-collection purposes and to retire the debt.

A Detroit Education Commission – with three gubernatorial appointees and two mayoral appointees – would hire a chief education officer to craft accountability, facilities and enrollment plans. The commission could reorganize or close low-performing traditional and charter schools.

The new district's board initially would governed by gubernatorial and mayoral appointees, transitioning to a fully elected board in 2021.

The Detroit Public Schools have been under state oversight since 2009.

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• Detroit
• Detroit Public Schools