Some Texas teachers fear return to in-person classes. But they’re afraid to speak up.
Angela Guthrie received a call in early August from an assistant principal at Summit High School, where she teaches advanced placement English. The school, which is part of the Mansfield Independent School District, needed one teacher for online classes and another for in-person classes.
Guthrie’s mother has terminal cancer, so she asked to teach virtually even though one of her favorite places for the past 25 years has been in a classroom teaching her students about language and composition.
“I said, ‘I think it would be best for my mom because she can’t get COVID. That way, I can spend as much time as possible with her without risk of exposing her,’ ” Guthrie said.
The assistant principal called her back the next day and said the school had decided to put another person in the virtual teaching position and have Guthrie teach in person, Guthrie said.
“He said my AP scores were so high that they needed me in person in front of those kids because that’s what’s best for students,” she said. “It made me feel like they don’t care at all about teachers.”
“They only care about student test scores and what looks best for the district,” she added.
Across the state, many teachers are concerned they have been pushed to return to in-person lessons or risk losing their jobs. And there are secondary concerns about finding substitutes when teachers fall ill and about the long-term effects of the situation on the number of people who choose the teaching profession.
Educators’ fears
Mansfield began offering the choice of in-person learning on Sept. 8 along with seven other school districts in Tarrant County. Fort Worth ISD began the school year that day with online learning only.
More than half of the 35,293 students enrolled in the Mansfield district opted to return to the classroom in person. A survey of Tarrant County public school districts found Mansfield had some of the most stringent safety guidelines for in-person learning. As of Sept. 15, the district reported 36 staff members, including teachers, and 18 students had tested positive for COVID-19.
Diana Cervantes, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at UNT Health Science Center, said teachers, as adults, are at a much higher risk than students due to COVID-19 and because many have some kind of chronic health condition. A study by Kaiser Health shows one in four teachers are at an increased risk of serious illness if infected with coronavirus.
“Districts need to be sure that they’re doing the very best that they can to protect these teachers by providing all of the necessary resources that they need — barriers, masks — but I think another very important thing is they have to be very supportive,” Cervantes said. “Not only on discipline with students who break the guidelines but also support in their mental health.”
Teachers who spoke to the Star-Telegram for this story said they are dealing with an overwhelming amount of change this school year. Not only are they required to learn and follow a constantly changing array of procedures, but they feel like their own well-being is given less priority than the needs of students and parents.
The Star-Telegram spoke to five teachers, but Guthrie was the only one who did not express fear of retaliation and spoke on record. Representatives of teacher associations and unions say educators across the state share concerns about in-person learning and fear of losing their jobs.
This month, Guthrie wrote an open letter to the school district voicing her concerns and the concerns of some of her colleagues. After sending it to her superiors, she posted in on her Facebook page, where she tagged Gov. Greg Abbott and several teacher unions. The letter received more than 150 shares and 110 comments. Most were other teachers thanking her.
One teacher in Arlington wrote, “Thank you, Angela, for sending this letter. You are spot on! Every teacher in our district feels this way. Thank you for expressing your voice on our behalf.”
In an emailed statement, Mansfield ISD said it has 21 teachers working from home due to extreme medical conditions, and those interested in becoming a virtual teacher were asked to apply during the summer. Guthrie said she she did not want to teach virtually until she recently found out about her mother’s terminal cancer.
Exodus of teachers?
Hundreds of violations of COVID-19 safety guidelines have been reported by members of the Texas State Teachers Association during the two weeks since many school districts began reopening campuses to students.
In an online survey, 664 TSTA members from 135 districts around the state reported a variety of district practices and deficiencies, including personnel policies, which violate recommended guidelines or best practices for school safety related to COVID-19.
“The biggest issue our members are raising involves inadequate accommodations for high-risk employees or those with high-risk dependents at home,” wrote TSTA President Ovidia Molina in a news release. “These teachers with underlying health conditions should be allowed to teach remotely from home, but in many cases, they are being required to teach from their classrooms or risk losing their jobs.”
The Texas Education Agency said these issues are local matters and are handled by individual districts.
Steven Poole, executive director of the United Educators Association, which represents 26,000 North Texas public school teachers and staff members, said the organization is being contacted every day by members with questions and concerns about school districts not doing what is necessary to protect them. Many teachers have also been asking, “How do I get out of my contract,” Poole said.
State law says teachers have up to 45 days before the first day of instruction to resign their contract without a penalty. But since many districts did not tell teachers they were going to be teaching in person until a few weeks before classes started, teachers were in limbo, Poole said.
“My big fear is that we’re going to see teachers leaving the profession in droves, and that’s going to create domino effect for many years to come,” Poole said.
If teachers quit and violate their contract, they could also face a one-year suspension of their certification. Districts report violations to the State Board for Educator Certification, which then determines whether a sanction on the teacher’s certification is appropriate.
Teachers will not be sanctioned if they can prove “good cause” for abandoning their contract, according to the TEA.
Good causes include a serious illness or health condition of the educator or close family member of the educator, relocation to a new city as a result of change in employer of the educator’s spouse or partner who resides with the educator or significant change in the educator’s family needs that requires the educator to relocate or to devote more time than allowed by current employment, according to TEA guidelines.
If the board finds that there was no good cause, the usual sanction is a one-year suspension unless a teacher can prove he or she helped the district either train or find a replacement before leaving.
Some districts and school boards have asked teachers to stay until they find a suitable replacement, according to Poole. But he said teachers, especially substitutes, have been scarce for years.
Possible shortage of substitutes
Many substitutes are retired teachers, and many of them are not willing to sub in a classroom where the teacher they are filling in for could be out because of COVID-19, Poole said.
At Summit High School, various teachers had to pop in and out of a class when a teacher was out with the flu recently, according to Guthrie.
The district wrote in a statement that its usual protocol when it can’t find a substitute is for staff members to fill in, But the district said it has enough substitutes to cover absences.
“Right now, teachers are mostly here, but what’s going to happen when more teachers start getting sick?” Guthrie said. “It’s going to be a nightmare.”
She said that in past years they’ve split up students into various classes when there’s not a substitute, but this year it would mean putting more children in already tight, badly ventilated spaces. She said it is only a matter of time before schools are closed again.
“We don’t have any subs, we don’t have any backup bus drivers, we don’t have any backup cafeteria workers, we don’t have any backup teachers when teachers quit or get sick,” she added. “This experiment is bound to fail.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
