I was just a New York City mom with two public-school kids in March 2020. An immigrant from the Soviet Union who arrived at age 6 in 1977, I knew what it means to escape tyranny and find freedom in America. I knew what public education means for families like mine. So when “15 days to slow the spread” turned into months of closed schools, it wasn’t just personal — it was a betrayal of everything I understood America to be. I sued Mayor Bill de Blasio in the only lawsuit to reopen schools in New