Almost All Detroit Schools Were Closed Today Over Teacher ‘Sickout’ Protest

President Obama appeared in Detroit earlier, and you would think that would be the biggest news out of Detroit today. But to coincide with the president’s visit, teachers across the city staged “sickouts” to protest poor school conditions.

As a result, according to NPR, almost every single Detroit public school––a reported 88 in total––was closed today.

Teachers are taking issue with classroom overcrowding and generally poor conditions like mold and collapsing ceilings. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder only briefly addressed a need for “transformational change” in Detroit schools during his State of the State address yesterday.

However, Detroit school officials were outraged by teachers doing this, and a Detroit Public Schools attorney filed court documents today to force teachers to end their protest and return to work. They say that it’s “plaguing the district” and not serving the students.

Here’s how the teachers’ union responded:

“It is regrettable that the Detroit Public Schools seeks to punish those who speak out about the deplorable conditions in our schools. It would be so much more productive to actually do something to fix Detroit schools rather than file restraining orders against those who expose the miserable conditions.”

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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