[Golodryga:] New York's governor has given the green light for schools in the state to reopen for in-person classes with some safety measures. That includes New York City schools, the largest school district in the country. For more on this, let's bring in CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro, my partner in crime in covering this beat. Evan, tell us more about the thinking behind this decision. It's been long awaited. Other major school districts decided to start virtually, but with the levels being so low, along with safety precautions, the governor is saying you can reopen.
[Evan Mcmorris-santoro, Cnn Correspondent:] That's right, Bianna. What the governor said is he looked at the numbers, and you say, and said, look, this state that was once the epicenter of the coronavirus is now in pretty good shape, safe enough to reopen the schools. But that doesn't mean that all the schools are going to reopen. Let's take a look at a couple of graphics just to sort of give the viewers an understanding of this situation. The New York City school system, New York state public school system, nearly 2.6 million students, 212,000 teachers, and 749 districts. Each of those districts has to come up with its own reopening plan under Cuomo's guidance, and then has to convince all those teachers and all of the adults involved in the lives of all of those students that it's safe to reopen. And that's the process that's going to happen now. In the next couple of weeks, the governor is demanding these school districts set up listening sessions with parents and teachers in which they're going to reveal plans for remote learning, plans for testing, plans for contact tracing, all the things the governor says are required to build the trust up to actually get parents to participate in these schools he says it's safe to reopen, Bianna.
[Golodryga:] Still a lot of concern within New York state, New York City. I know about ventilation, proper ventilation in schools and whether there are going to be enough nurses on hand. Buy Evan, school districts really across the country have started to reopen, and some of the things we're learning from them aren't very inspiring.
[Mcmorris-santoro:] That's exactly right. That's the story, when you think about New York, you think about the way the governor here in New York has characterized this as a trust issue. You then look to some of the other reporting we've been doing here at CNN about Georgia, where you see schools have reopened there, and you see immediately spikes in the pandemic. You've seen people coming down with COVID and having to be quarantined. We've seen that story about the viral image from the sophomore that took a picture at her high school and ended up getting suspended over it, and then un-suspended. These kinds of images, these kinds of things that are happening in schools, parents need to be convinced that the way schools are reopening is something that they can be comfortable with. And when you look at stories like in Georgia, that may be a hard sell, Bianna.
[Golodryga:] You teed us up perfectly for our next conversation. Evan McMorris-Santoro, it's going to be a busy few weeks for us. I look forward to working with you, as always. Thank you. Several school districts in Georgia returned to in-person classes this week, as Evan just mentioned, and you just heard him say this photo became viral, showing a crowded hallway with high school students packed shoulder to shoulder, and not many of them are wearing masks. It's raising a lot of concerns about safety. The picture also got the Georgia student who snapped the photo and tweeted it out briefly suspended from her school. The school has since reversed that decision and will allow the sophomore to return to classes on Monday. Now, that student is speaking about why she shared that photo.
[Hannah Watters, North Paulding High School Student:] I mostly know that even though these things aren't enforced, I know that what I'm doing is right, and I'm not only helping myself and the people at home, but I'm helping everyone around me. And that really kind of motivates me to keep on doing it because I have immunocompromised people at home, and I, myself, have had asthma since I was a kid. So it really does motivate me to help not only my family but everyone around me.
[Golodryga:] She went on to echo the late John Lewis, saying that she was getting into, quote, good trouble. The superintendent of that Georgia County saying in part, some in the news media and some individuals on social media are taking this photo and using it without context to criticize our school reopening efforts. Shan Wu is a former federal prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney. Shan, that student was suspended for a conduct violation of using a phone without permission. As we know, the school reversed that decision. But that doesn't sound like mea culpa from the school administrators there, saying, a, that this was taken out of context, and, b, that it was just a few minutes in the hallway and passing it didn't speak to the larger issue as to how the school was handling it. What is your take?
[Shan Wu, Cnn Legal Analyst:] What's right, Bianna. It's certainly far from a mea culpa. They're really doubling down. I think the principal later said that in the future any negative type of publicity would have consequences. This is really just the tip of the iceberg of legal issues confronting these schools as they open up. They are going to be there are attempts to comply with the rather sketchy guidance they've been given in terms of health and safety. That type of compliance is going to evaporate in the face of crowded hallways, mask-less students. This was a very bad case. The school was wise to cut and run when they could. You couldn't have a more prima facie example of selective enforcement. The idea that she was going to be suspended or disciplined in any way for talking about this really important public health issue is a First Amendment right. And basically what they're saying is we're only going to punish negative speech, not positive speech. And that's just simply wrong. In a pandemic, it's an opportunity to teach students, not punish them.
[Golodryga:] And as she said, she got herself into good trouble, and we're thankful for it because this brings about a national conversation about what's happening in some of these schools as they're starting to reopen to make sure that that doesn't happen again. And I want to ask you, as more schools across the country begin to open in the coming days and weeks for in-person classes, what rights do students, and I guess their parents really have if they want to talk about what they're seeing, if they want to bring public attention to it for the safety and well-being of not just themselves, but their peers?
[Wu:] They have the perfect right to do that. It's called the First Amendment in the Constitution. The only limit to that is if they're doing something to disrupt the school. So this idea that the school really is going to enforce the use of cell phones in the hallway, that's just silly. They would have to suspend the entire high school. But for a student to do something that disrupts the classroom, or, typically, you'll see this type of issue, I see it in my practice defending students, where a student has surreptitiously taken a photo of someone, trying to embarrass them, maybe something offensive, that's different. But if parents and students are speaking out and even taking pictures about conditions they think are unsafe, they have a perfect legal right to do that, and the schools would be wise to avoid the courtroom on that issue.
[Golodryga:] Shan, does that apply to teachers as well, especially teachers that are part of a union?
[Wu:] It does apply to the teachers. When you're an employee and you have more strict rules about your conduct, a little bit more leverage on you than for the students. But the unions should be speaking up for the rights of their employees, the teachers, to speak out against dangerous conditions and to make sure that they're safe. With this type of a situation, the employer can always claim you're somehow being insubordinate, you're undercutting the mission of the school. But, again, schools need to be very careful in balancing this public interest issue because a public health crisis like this, one we've never seen before, it really is an opportunity for people to shine as well as to be fearful. And we want to show our teachers, our parents, and our students that we can abide by our principles even in the midst of fear.
[Golodryga:] Thank you so much for laying this out for us legally. It's so important that we have teachers and students and parents that feel comfortable. And if they see something, they've got to say something, and in this case tweet something if it's not right. We appreciate it. Thank you.
[Wu:] Good to see you.
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