Teacher Deaths Raise Alarms at Start of New School Year
Teachers in at least three American states have died since the start of the new school year after getting the coronavirus.
AshLee DeMarinis was just 34 years old when she died this month after three weeks in a Missouri hospital. A third-grade teacher died Monday in South Carolina, and two other educators died recently in Mississippi.
It is unclear how many teachers in the U.S. have become ill with COVID-19 since the new school year began. But the state of Mississippi alone has reported 604 cases among school teachers and workers.
Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers. She said schools need guidelines such as required face coverings and strict social distancing rules to reopen safely.
“If community spread is too high, as it is in Missouri and Mississippi, if you don’t have the infrastructure of testing, and if you don’t have the safeguards that prevent the spread of viruses in the school, we believe that you cannot reopen in person,” Weingarten said.
Johnny Dunlap is a 39-year-old teacher at Dodge City High School in Kansas. He said he considered resigning before the district made face coverings required for teachers and students. Still, his history of cancer and high blood pressure make him worried about being around so many people. Existing health conditions can put people at higher risk for severe illness and death from the virus.
“I’m at a high school with close to 2,000 students so it kind of runs against the advice we have been given for half a year now,” Dunlap said.
The early part of the health crisis claimed the lives of many teachers. The New York CONTINUE READING: Teacher Deaths Raise Alarms at Start of New School Year