School Opening Disaster
Bewildering that Mayor De Blasio is overseeing this dangerous school building retrofitting instead of it being closely directly by licensed architects and engineers from city agencies and public professions who are state-empowered and regulated for public safety of facilities. Political grandstanding is contributing to the hazard level in federal, state and municipal levels from Trump to Cuomo to De Blasio by potential punishment of trained professionals for diminishing the grandstanders.
What is needed immediately is a warning from prosecutors that criminal charges are likely if the politicians do not cease and desist interfering with lawful obligations of technical and scientific professionals. Professionals and their organizations must oppose this interference not kowtow to the brutes exploiting the crisis.
In contrast, natural disasters, hurricanes, tornados, floods, wildfires, are met with the skills and training of the most capable to address them, including with the assistance of a nationwide group of professional volunteers ready to immediately respond. Schools nationwide should call upon the technical professionals not the lip and arm waving politicians, otherwise school administrators and unions may be seen as accessories to criminal behavior in addition to simple cruelty toward students, teachers and parents.