“When I get sick with anything I get sicker than anybody else would,” Decherd said. “I want to be there for my students, I want to be there for me, for my family, for my colleagues. But it is not safe.” 

Even though Decherd received his Covid-19 vaccine, his body did not produce the antibodies needed to fight off the virus, leaving him, essentially, unvaccinated. 

In July and August, Decherd applied for a medical exemption to be able to teach remotely for the 2021-2022 school year. Because of his severely depleted immune system, Covid-19 has the potential to kill him. Still, New York denied his application — twice.

“It didn’t really seem like they even read [my applications],” he said.

The United Federation of Teachers filed an arbitration to defend educators, like Decherd, who had their religious or medical exemption rejected by the city, but finalized plans are still being negotiated. 

“The reason for the denial is illegal, period,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers in a news conference Friday. “And the way they did it, by not engaging an individual, it was also illegal.” 

The city and the UFT hope to come to an agreement by Sept. 27 — a date that already has a pre-existing deadline for educators to get their first vaccination dose. 

But on Sept. 10, arbitrator Martin Scheinman released his decision. Scheinman ruled that teachers would be granted permission to temporarily teach remotely, if the exemption was approved. Educators who needed an accommodation were asked to reapply.

The decision also stated that the remote teaching option could change to a different assignment entirely, noting that educators could potentially be moved to doing work for the Department of Education. 

“I obviously didn’t get into teaching to do something else other than teach,” Decherd said. “But there’s other issues. It’s not safe for me to be on public transportation. It’s not safe for me to be in a building with people who are not my family.” 

On the evening of Sept. 12, two days after the arbitration decision, Decherd received an email from the Office of Disability Accommodations stating that his medical exemption had been approved, after applying for the third time. 

“We are reaching out to you because you have been medically approved for a COVID-19 vaccination mandate-related exemption or accommodation,” the notification email read. “This means that you will be given an assignment to work outside of a school building (e.g., administrative offices) to perform academic or administrative work determined by the DOE.”  

The email said the DOE would notify Decherd when, where and what his new assignment would be, but until then, he has the ability to teach from home. 

“Essentially we won our argument, that also places negotiations in this particular place,” Decherd said. “At least hopefully, on my part, it allows room to say ‘there are other problems with this [reassignment].’” 

Decherd hopes that he can remain teaching remotely, as going into an office, even with less people, is still dangerous. He said he could even teach students who were medically vulnerable like himself. 

“But, I’m not holding my breath quite honestly that that would be the case,” Decherd said. “My hope is that we can truly negotiate and say ‘Yeah, that’s not a very good idea for me.’ and I can just continue to teach remotely from my home.”

The city was also prepared to take employees off of payroll if they were unable to go to school for any reason — vaccinated or unvaccinated, Mulgrew said. 

“It’s all garbage and disgraceful,” he said. “When the city put on the table that they would recognize someone’s legal right to an exemption or accommodation, but still wanted them removed from payroll, we then knew that we had to challenge the order because that is illegal.” 

Decherd is upset not only about his own situation, but also for what the city is putting his coworkers and family through. 

“I’m obviously upset on my behalf, but I’m also upset on all those other people’s behalf as well,” he said. “It seems very, very unreasonable and I’m really mad about it.” 

 The Department of Education could not be reached for comment. 

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It’s just after noon on Friday at Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Twenty seven students swarmed into their stuffy, 11th grade social studies class.

This was their last social studies class before the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that changed their city and their world. Michael Scherer, 38, their teacher, planned to teach his annual 9/11 class as he had been doing for the past five years.

“Raise your hand if you heard the word virtue before? What does it mean?” he asked the class.

He defined virtue as “doing what is right for the common good and expecting nothing in return.”

Scherer started a discussion about whether people do good deeds out of their natural kindness or for payback. He asked the students for their thoughts and the response was spilt down the middle.

“The point of today’s lesson is to kind of prove that wrong,” he said of those who believed payback was a reason to do good. Scherer had a very personal story to share about virtue and doing good for nothing in return.

Scherer’s father-in-law, Vincent J. Albanese, a veteran firefighter, was among thousands of heroic first responders, who rushed to the World Trade Center and helped to rescue trapped workers after the two planes crashed into the towers. For several months after the attack, he supported clean up efforts at ground zero.

But the toxic dust made Albanese sick, Scherer said. In 2010, he died of bladder cancer. He was 63.

“I watched him pretty much die,” he said.

Scherer isn’t the only teacher who emphasizes 9/11 education at the school. All the social studies teachers at FDR high school are required to teach 9/11 in their curriculum.

Michael Scherer, 38, social studies teacher of Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School. He has been teaching 9/11 to high school students for five years. Photo by Julie Liao.

In fact, the first comprehensive 9/11 education plan for teenagers in New York City was released by a nonprofit group in 2009. Two years later, cooperating with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the Department of Education of NYC provided online teaching materials for students from kindergarten to high school. Through stories, videos and interactive activities, the students would learn about the attacks in four parts, “community and conflicts”, “historical impact”, “heroes and services” and “memory and memorialization”.

But since it is not mandatory, not all schools teach it.

FDR high school administrators believe it is an important part of history and should not be ignored.

“We teach them those events and also some of the historical context in which they occurred to raise awareness about not only global terrorism,but about the resiliency of the American people after those events occurred,” said Christine Imbemba, the assistant principal of this school as well as a social studies teacher.

But 45 minutes is not enough to study 9/11. Although both Imbemba and Scherer said they are more than willing to spend the whole school day teaching 9/11, they have to comply with the school’s curriculum schedule.

After the discussion, Scherer had his students watch the documentary, “The Man in the Red Bandanna.” It is the story of Welles Crowther, 24-year-old equities trader working on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center during the attack. Somehow he found an escape route and led three trips up and down the stairs, even carrying survivors. His body was found in the rubble six moths later.

“… like what if that was me, what if that was my son, what if that was my brother,” said David Ismailati, 16, a student about the documentary. The teen believes terrorism is still a big threat.

Ismailati said he may do an oral history as his 9/11 homework assignment. His father was working about ten blocks away during the attack.

“He had to walk all the way from around the World Trade Center back to Brooklyn because there was no subway,’’ he said. “He came back covered in debris completely.”

Despite the limited time and resources, Scherer said he believes his students will understand his theme of selfless virtue and 9/11.

“I know it was just like a small message, but I think it might resonate,” he said.

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