The Puerto Rican Workers' Union (SPT-SEIU) criticized measures announced by the Department of Education to address the spread of infectious diseases in schools. The union accused the agency of presenting mitigation protocols as if they were true prevention measures, while keeping schools without sufficient staff to ensure adequate cleaning, hygiene, and health conditions.
SPT president Israel Marrero said telling a parent not to send a sick child to school can help avoid contagion, but that this cannot be the school system's main prevention policy. He argued that real prevention requires enough workers to clean and disinfect classrooms, bathrooms, and common areas, as well as school nurses and staff to attend to students, and said the Department talks about prevention while it has weakened the very conditions needed to prevent illness.
Marrero recalled that even before the semester began, he had warned about the consequences of a reduction of approximately 1,200 workers dedicated to cleaning and maintenance duties in schools.