The classroom and COVID: Teachers say they want to be ‘treated like real people’

At a school board meeting in Phoenix earlier this month, parent after parent got up to speak, letting the tensions of a year of uncertainty spill out inside a musty auditorium at the Queen Creek Unified School District.

At issue was the upcoming school year, which was set to start August 17 almost entirely in-person. The end of the previous term had challenged their children, many parents argued, and it was time that they return to the classroom.

Why, asked one dad and a physical education teacher at a local high school, if a registered nurse he knew who is a cancer survivor had not missed a day of work, were other teachers saying they wouldn’t be willing to return?

“You can make that choice to come into work and say that …you love your profession,” he said, “then I’ll see you on the 17th, brother.”

The audience exploded in raucous applause.

A Columbia County student returns to Evans Middle School in August 2020.
Children went up to speak, too. “I hope they let me go back to normal school in person,” said one kindergartener. Another pleaded with the district through sobs: “Please, let us go back.”

But some teachers told another story: In the week before the start of school, they felt they had few options.

Resignations had started at Queen Creek — eight teachers gone between the end of July and early August. Unlike other districts across the country that were adopting a hybrid model allowing teachers to move online if they prefer, online learning in Queen Creek will come from teachers outside the district.