Turkey Plans to Reopen All Schools as Long as Virus Keeps Receding

Seagulls in front of the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul on April 8, 2020 (AFP)
Seagulls in front of the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul on April 8, 2020 (AFP)
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Turkey Plans to Reopen All Schools as Long as Virus Keeps Receding

Seagulls in front of the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul on April 8, 2020 (AFP)
Seagulls in front of the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul on April 8, 2020 (AFP)

Turkey plans to reopen schools nationwide on Aug. 31, to get students back into classrooms and free up working parents, assuming a recent stabilization in coronavirus cases holds.

Teachers and administrators are preparing on-site health precautions, but two government sources told Reuters that the daily infection rate may need to dip below the more than 900 seen recently to allow them to execute what they called Plan A.

Schools shifted to distance education in March, when Turkey identified its first case and began restricting movement.

Much of the economy reopened on June 1, after the school year ended, but masks and other hygiene measures are still required in public.

“We have been told that the schools will reopen, so we will see how it goes,” said a first-grade teacher in the southern city of Antalya. “I do feel a bit concerned about my students’ and my family’s health, of course.”

About half of Turkey’s nearly 230,000 cases and more than 5,600 deaths are in its biggest city, Istanbul, the government says. The capital Ankara and Diyarbakir in the mainly Kurdish southeast have also been hotspots.

One government source said that “if the number of cases decreases, all schools will be opened”, but that otherwise schools in high-infection areas might remain closed.

A second senior official said classes might have to remain online for some southeastern provinces. “The normalization is under way ... but the numbers should have fallen faster.”

A primary school teacher based in the southeast said some of her students had not had the means to attend online classes, adding: “Online teaching can never be as efficient as classroom learning.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his cabinet will make a final decision late next month based on the spread of infection and advice from scientists, the officials said.

Turkey's economy virtually stagnated in the second quarter and is expected to shrink this year.



Worker Dies after US Immigration Raid on California Farm

California National Guard troops face off with protestors during a federal immigration raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California. BLAKE FAGAN / AFP
California National Guard troops face off with protestors during a federal immigration raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California. BLAKE FAGAN / AFP
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Worker Dies after US Immigration Raid on California Farm

California National Guard troops face off with protestors during a federal immigration raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California. BLAKE FAGAN / AFP
California National Guard troops face off with protestors during a federal immigration raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California. BLAKE FAGAN / AFP

A farm worker died on Friday after being injured during a raid by US immigration agents on a legal cannabis farm in California that resulted in the arrests of 200 undocumented migrants and clashes with protestors.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, called demonstrators involved in attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents "slimeballs" and said they should be arrested, reported AFP.

In another development, a district judge ordered a halt to "roving patrols" in Los Angeles by federal agents who were detaining suspected undocumented migrants without probable cause and denying them due process.

District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ordered an end to the arrests, which she said were being made "based upon race alone," on whether a person was speaking Spanish or English with an accent or because of their place of work and ordered them stopped.

Trump's remarks and the court order come a day after a chaotic raid on a cannabis plantation in Ventura County some 56 miles (90 kilometers) from Los Angeles left one farm worker critically injured.

The United Farm Workers labor union said in a post on X on Friday that the worker had "died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday's immigration enforcement action."

Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman, said the man who died was never in custody.

"Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet (10 meters)," McLaughlin said. "(Customs and Border Patrol) immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible."

The DHS said 200 undocumented migrants were arrested during raids on marijuana growing sites in Carpinteria and Camarillo on Thursday and 10 children were rescued "from potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking."

Glass House Brands, which owns the farms, said in a statement that it has "never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors."

DHS said more than 500 "rioters" had attempted to disrupt the operation and four US citizens are facing charges for assaulting or resisting officers.

Tear gas was used against the protestors, some of whom were seen in television footage throwing projectiles at law enforcement vehicles.

The department said immigration agency vehicles were damaged and a $50,000 reward was being offered for the arrest of an individual who allegedly fired a gun at law enforcement officers.

Showdown

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he had watched footage of "thugs" throwing rocks and bricks at ICE vehicles, causing "tremendous damage."

Trump said he was authorizing law enforcement officers who are "on the receiving end of thrown rocks, bricks, or any other form of assault, to stop their car, and arrest these SLIMEBALLS, using whatever means is necessary to do so."

"I am giving Total Authorization for ICE to protect itself, just like they protect the Public," he said.

Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to deport millions of migrants, has been involved in a showdown over immigration enforcement with Democratic-ruled California for weeks.

The Republican president sent thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles last month to quell protests against roundups of undocumented migrants by federal agents.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the troops were not necessary to address the mostly peaceful protests, but his legal efforts to have them removed have failed so far.

The cannabis farm in Camarillo was calm during a visit by an AFP reporter on Friday as workers waited in line to collect their belongings and paychecks.

"We've been here since six this morning asking questions but they're not giving us any information," said Saul Munoz, a 43-year-old Colombian whose son was detained on Thursday.

"I just want to know how he's doing," Munoz said. "Bring him back to me and if it's time for us to leave, we'll leave.

"The truth is the American dream is no longer really the American dream."