Amanda Geduld

Published Work

The Maine Monitor •

Twenty-two challenges to school library books have been filed in Maine since January 2022. Just one book has been removed.

On a Monday in September 2022, a semi-retired Livermore Falls resident requested the removal of a graphic novel from the shelves of the local school library. It was the seventh official challenge the area’s school board received that month.

The challenger, Arin Quintel, had no children in the school district, though she said she previously volunteered as a foster grandparent in the local elementary school. She eventually left the volunteer program, concerned by the direction she felt the educat
The Maine Monitor •

Opioid overdose drug finds home in more Maine schools

School hallways are often lined with colorful lockers, inspirational posters and hanging student work. But this summer, district leaders in Cumberland and North Yarmouth will introduce a new element: naloxone, also known as Narcan. The MSAD 51 superintendent, Jeff Porter, said he and his team first considered adding the medication, designed to rapidly counteract an opioid overdose, years ago.

“Given the continuing opioid concerns, along with a number of our own students being involved in advoca
The Maine Monitor •

Maine homeschooling numbers remain high following a pandemic spike

In the fall of 2016, Jessica Coakley became increasingly concerned that her son, Braden, was falling behind in school. The fourth grader had an Individualized Education Program, requiring certain services for students like him with different learning needs.

But his mother worried it was not enough.

“I was feeling like the teachers and the principals and the people weren’t listening to me,” said Coakley, who lives in Bradley, just north of Bangor. “I would go to these IEP meetings and I’d be cr
Chalkbeat New York •

New York City’s graduation rate rose during the pandemic, bucking national trends. Why?

When high school teacher Rachel King welcomed a new cohort of 10th graders to her classroom in the fall of 2021, she made a discovery: a number of her students had never completed their coursework from the previous year.

At the time, the 36-year-old taught English at The Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in downtown Brooklyn. It was her 13th year teaching and her third at the all-girls middle and high school, which serves predominantly Black and Latino children from l
Chalkbeat New York •

School bus delays help drive chronic absenteeism, parents and advocates say

One morning in late October, 8-year-old Eric Vilchis’s school bus picked him up on Bushwick Avenue at 7:30 a.m. About three and a half hours later, his mother, Araselis Pedrasa, received a phone call from his school: Her son had never arrived.

Panicked, the Brooklyn mom began calling the bus driver and bus attendant. Neither answered their phones.

“We didn’t know where the bus was,” she said in an interview translated from Spanish.

Pedrasa learned later that the bus had never left Brooklyn. A
Columbia News Service •

Brooklyn Mother Indicted On Murder Charges Says She Went to Beach to Hurt Herself, Not Kids

A Brooklyn mother accused of murdering her three children was indicted Tuesday in Kings County Criminal Court.

Erin Merdy, 30, is accused of drowning her children, aged between 3 months and 7 years, in the early hours of Monday Sept. 12 on the beaches of Coney Island.

The most serious of the charges is first-degree murder, which carries a potential sentence of 30 years to life.

According to the police report, Merdy told an officer that following a phone argument with her ex-husband, she walke
amNewYork •

Op-Ed | The mayor & union must finally collaborate for the good of our students

A few mornings ago, I awoke from a back-to-school nightmare. Any teacher will tell you this is common at the start of the year, but we’re halfway through the year, and this one was different. I was not trapped in front of a classroom without a lesson plan or walking through the halls in horror, realizing I was still in pajamas. In this dream, I was getting in trouble for sneaking a student into the school building.

As a pre-pandemic high school teacher, I spent much of my career trying to convi
CNN •

NYC's disastrous start to the school year is a cautionary tale

Editor’s Note: Amanda Geduld has a B.A. in English literature from Dartmouth College and a master’s degree in education from Boston University. She is a high school English teacher in the Bronx. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.

On Thursday, September 17, in the early morning, I entered my eerily empty classroom in the Bronx, cracked the windows, and counted the tiles on the floor to ensure that my desk was, in fact, 6 feet apart from the teacher with whom I share
Washington Post •

Opinion | I’m a New York public-school teacher. A safe return to school simply isn’t possible right now.

After the town hall’s ominous start, it continued in a similar vein. The schools chancellor discussed budget cuts, layoffs and his desperate hope to receive last-minute state or federal funding. That didn’t inspire confidence that Carranza or his staff had adequately prepared for our return to school buildings in three weeks.

The start date has not been confirmed, just as schools don’t have a calendar for the year. I’m dubious that the city has an effective plan to supply personal protective eq