(CNN) – After months out of the classroom, Sarah Gross, a high school English teacher in New Jersey, is eager for schools to reopen in the fall.
But she is skeptical about how that could safely happen as Covid-19 cases increase across the country.
“I desperately want to go back to my classroom,” Gross told CNN. “But I think a lot of people applying for the reopening of schools, especially because we need childcare or the economy to restart, have no idea what schools are like today.”
Teachers who spoke to CNN said they are trying to solve an avalanche of unanswered questions about schooling amid a global pandemic. As the number of coronavirus cases increases, they are weighing the risks for students and colleagues, their families, and themselves.
“I think a lot of times people forget that kids don’t go to school alone,” said Gross. “Schools are run by many adults, and many of those adults are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus.”
Fears about their health.
Most important to many educators are the health risks associated with returning to the classroom, particularly for their own families and fellow educators.
Phil Strunk, 28, a professor of US history in northern Virginia, said, “He would love to go back to school as long as we do it safely.”
“But I have a pregnant wife at home,” he said. “I don’t want to bring you anything home.”
Jordan Grinnell, 33, a journalism teacher at a high school in the Dallas area, has no children or underlying health conditions. But she sees her parents every week. They are both in their 60s, and Grinnell worries about something happening to them, particularly after her father’s recent prostate cancer surgery.
“If I go back to school,” he asked himself, “does that mean I don’t have to visit them for a whole semester?”
Teachers also fear for their colleagues, some of whom are vulnerable to the coronavirus because they are older or have health problems. Gross, 37, said she is not only concerned with teachers, but also with bus drivers, lunch assistants and secretaries.
Angela McByrd, 30, A high school statistics teacher for a Chicago charter school network noted that classrooms are not the most sanitary places to start. “Children get sick easily and can definitely spread things very quickly,” said Byrd.
Before the coronavirus, parents sent their sick children to school, McByrd said. “And I wonder if that kind of thing would happen right now,” he said, “because parents don’t have childcare.”
Manuel Rustin cares about his students and their families. Rustin, a 40-year-old high school history teacher in Pasadena, California, said many of his students live in extended family units, with older relatives. And you are concerned that students may bring the coronavirus home.
But he hates to imagine a sick student at school. “I don’t think anyone is willing to name the only student who is willing to let them get tubed” based on the reopening of schools, he said.
“What is the number of students or student family members that we agree to lose possibly by being pressured to appear in person?” I ask.
Questions without answer
In addition to their health problems, teachers are imagining the myriad scenarios that could unfold as the start of the school year approaches, for many districts, in a matter of weeks.
Some seem basic, like how will shared instruments be cleaned in music classes? But others are more terrifying, Gross said, such as: “If a teacher hires Covid and can be tracked by contact to the classroom, will the pension system pay his life insurance to his surviving family members?”
Jillian Heise, a 40-year-old elementary librarian in southeast Wisconsin, wondered how the outbreaks could derail any plan schools have. What happens, for example, if she tests positive for Covid-19?
“Is the entire school closed? Because I have been in contact with all the classrooms if I go in person,” said Heise. She also raised the following questions: What if a teacher has to quarantine? Does the class also have to quarantine? Will they learn at home? Does the teacher have to teach if she is quarantined? Would the teacher be paid?
“Those are the questions that many teachers are asking right now that don’t seem to have answers,” said Heise.
Others expressed skepticism about social distancing and possible mask mandates for students. While that seems reasonable for older students, it could be difficult for younger children to meet those guidelines all day, they said.
“So schools trying to enforce the rules will have to reconcile with children whose parents say this is all a hoax,” he said. “That’s a concern, in a big way.”
The school will not look the same
Some district plans involve hybrid models. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said last week that schools would use “blended learning” if they reopened in the fall, meaning students will learn in person on some days and remotely on others.
“Most schools will not be able to have all of their children in school at the same time,” said the mayor.
Many teachers wonder how they can better prepare for the upcoming school year. They are planners by nature, said Karla Amaya, 45, a high school English teacher in Los Angeles. “But we don’t know what we are preparing for,” he said.
Regardless of the plans, schools will not look like before the pandemic, especially with social distancing, no group activities and little socialization.
“You can’t hold a kindergarten child’s hand or hug him when they’re crying the first day,” said Heise. “How do you build relationships and community when it comes to keeping everything at a distance for the safety of life?”
Even hybrid models are flawed commitments, some masters said. Amaya said that even if only half of the students come for part of the day, followed by the other half, they are still at risk.
“We are forgetting that there is a common denominator among all these children: the teacher,” he said.
What would make teachers feel safer?
All of the educators who spoke to CNN said they wanted to return to the classroom.
“Being with students is the preferred learning model. I think before this whole crisis maybe some people would have imagined that online learning was the next big thing, but I think now we see that it is very limited,” said Rustin, the Pasadena history. professor. “That in-person connection is still very important.”
“But I don’t see how that can happen,” he said.
While each teacher was skeptical about returning to the classroom, some felt that there were certain things that would make them feel more secure.
“The important thing is to wear universal masks,” said Strunk, the Virginia high school teacher. “Establish the routine with adults and students beforehand to make it much more the social norm.”
McByrd would prefer to spend the first quarter in school completely online and allow school districts to make decisions about subsequent quarters based on current data.
“Looking and determining if it is feasible to open for the next quarter would actually make me feel more secure,” she said.
Gross wants to see cases decrease in New Jersey and across the country, she said. It’s hard to feel comfortable going back to school when her phone is ringing with a news alert that another record for new cases was broken, she said.
Amaya agreed, saying that if the cases dropped, more teachers would feel safe. “But there is no point in coming back completely when we are in a worse place today than when we were” when the schools closed this spring, Amaya said.
“I think we all hope that one day we can teach this pandemic as history rather than as present.” Strunk said.
CNN’s Christina Zdanowicz and Alisha Ebrahimji contributed to this report.
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