Three Arizona summer school teachers who followed recommended safety protocols for coronavirus while in the same classroom contracted the infection, and one of them died, according to reports.
“It just feels like a bad dream that I can’t wake up from,” Jesse Byrd, the husband of beloved first-grade instructor Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd, 61, told the Republic of Arizona.
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His wife had previously retired, only to miss the classroom so much that she finally returned to work as a first-grade teacher in the Hayden-Winkelman Unified School District in Gila County.
Three Arizona summer school teachers who followed the recommended safety protocols for coronavirus while in the same classroom contracted the infection, and one of them died. (Hayden-Winkleman Facebook page)
In June Kimberley and two other teachers, Angela Skillings and Jena Martinez-Inzunza, met in a classroom to teach classes for a group of kindergarten and first and second grade children, who watched online educators while having fun inspirations inspired by nature. experiments like using Cheetos to demonstrate bee pollination.
The women said they work with masks and gloves, socially estranged and used hand sanitizer to stay safe, CNN reported.
“We were very careful,” Skillings told the Republic.
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Kimberley, who suffered from diabetes, lupus and asthma, was the first to test positive for the virus, and by June 26, less than two weeks after it became a confirmed case, she was dead.
The other two teachers tested positive shortly after Kimberley did so and said they still have complications.
Arizona is among a large number of US states experiencing a recent increase in the virus.
The state reported 2,537 new cases of contagion on Sunday, for a current total of 122,467, more than a third of which occurred so far this month, according to statistics from the Arizona Department of Health.
There were another 86 deaths reported Sunday in Arizona as well, totaling 2,237 deaths. There were 69 deaths reported on Saturday and 44 the day before. The highest number of daily deaths for the state was 177 deaths on Tuesday.
Most schools in the state had a reopening date in early August, until Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said last month that they would be delayed until at least August 17. Last week, Ducey only added that learning at school would start again “when it’s safe,” the Republic reported.
State School Chief Kathy Hoffman wrote on Facebook on July 9: “Today, more than 2,000 Arizonans have died from # COVID19. Tragically among them is Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd, a first grade teacher in the Hayden-Winkelman Unified School District.
“The dedication of teachers to serve students should not be high risk. Arizona must do more to curb the spread of COVID19 and ensure safe reentry into our classrooms. “
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District Superintendent Jeff Gregorich cited Kimberley’s death in arguing against the reopening of local schools in the traditional sense.
“I think [that] really the message or concern our staff has is that we can’t even keep our staff safe on their own. … How are we going to keep 20 children safe in a classroom? She told CNN.
“I just don’t see how you can do that.”
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