We are writing this on behalf of 64 teachers at New York City’s Stuyvesant High who love their students and love their school. That is why we need the city to close it.

A day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned public gatherings of more than 500 people in New York City, we are being asked to teach in a building of over 3,000 students, most of whom arrive after long commutes on multiple trains and buses across multiple boroughs. No amount of hand washing and extra cleaning can prevent our thousands of students and hundreds of faculty and staff members from transmitting germs as they move in and out of classrooms for 10 periods a day.

We have received many emails a day from students whose parents are keeping them home out of fear. Students in our classes have developed fevers and dry coughs, or say their parents or siblings have these symptoms.

Our students are distracted and terrified. Many live in small apartments with grandparents that they do not want to infect. One student spent six periods crying in a department office out of concern that she would spread the virus to her grandmother living with cancer. Compounding their terror is the racism many of our Asian and South Asian students are experiencing as they commute to school. Not only is this a viral epidemic, it is a threat to our global mental health.