Teacher's Take on Reopening Schools Goes Viral: 'I Don’t See ANY Consideration for the Adults'

As the beginning of the school year rapidly approaches in much of the country, many districts still haven’t decided if students will attend in-person or not.

Working parents are worried about how they’ll continue to juggle their job with online learning. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which released a statement that "strongly advocates" for in-person instruction, cited concerns about kids.

But a teacher for Charlottesville City Schools in Virginia says one very important group has been neglected during these very important discussions: teachers and other support staff who keep schools running.

“I don’t see ANY consideration for the adults in school buildings in all the articles calling for schools to open,” says Christine Esposito, who teaches 6th grade honors language arts, in a Facebook post that has now been shared over 6,000 times.

“I’ve seen the research. Kids are, as much as we can determine barely six months into a pandemic, less likely to get it. They’re less likely to suffer from a severe form of the disease, possibly less likely to transmit it. The calls for opening schools with this data make total sense,” she acknowledges, before pointing out the (literal) fatal flaw in this logic: Grown-ups help schools run, too, and they are very susceptible to COVID-19. She’s not only worried about her own safety—she’s worried about her parents, her fellow teachers, the custodial staff, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and instructional assistants who are far more likely to be BIPOC, and thus more likely to suffer severe complications.

“When you’re out there demanding that schools open and all of your arguments are about you, about what you need, about what your kids need, but NEVER ONCE mention the dangers to the staff and faculty who will necessarily need to be in those schools, you can see where I’m a little concerned,” she says.

The AAP’s recommendations for reopening do provide some guidance on minimizing the spread of COVID-19 between adults in school settings. “Given what is known about transmission dynamics, adults and adult staff within schools should attempt to maintain a distance of 6 feet from other persons as much as possible, particularly around other adult staff,” the statement reads.

The statement also suggests all meetings and curriculum planning take place virtually, and that schools should stagger pickups and dropoffs, if possible. “Physical barriers, such as plexiglass, should be considered in reception areas and employee workspaces where the environment does not accommodate physical distancing, and congregating in shared spaces, such as staff lounge areas, should be discouraged.”

In her post, Christine makes a very salient point about those guidelines and others: Many public schools are already underfunded. How will districts pay for the protective gear and strategies that are needed to keep everyone safe?

“Since, for the entire two decades I’ve been teaching, we’ve been asking parents to donate basic school supplies because we can’t or won’t adequately fund education, you might see where we’re a little hesitant to go back into those classrooms without masks, without face shields, because masks don’t work with the littlest kids (though face shields really aren’t nearly as effective as masks, but…), without any promise of reliable, regular testing with a quick turnaround of results, without any plan for what happens when someone gets sick, without any plan for what staff and faculty do when someone in their family is sick, without any plan on how we help parents who need the childcare, so they’re forced to give kids Tylenol in order to get through the temperature screening so they don’t lose their job, without any promise of additional money to hire more teachers, to lease more space, to scale up what distance learning will or could look like,” she says.

That being said, Christine knows that there’s good reason to be worried about kids too. “I know they need to be back at school. I saw how distance learning went this spring. It wasn’t pretty,” she acknowledges. “We’re going to be facing kids who are dealing with layer upon layer of trauma, we need to make time and space for that, so stop telling me kids are behind. They’re not any further behind than anyone else. They’re behind some arbitrary lines we drew in the sand so long ago we’re not sure we remember why we drew them. We need to meet our kids where they are. I don't want to hear one word about testing, unless it involves a nasal or throat swab. Not. One. Word.”

Christine’s final thoughts sum up the grim situation perfectly: Kids and teachers are being asked to make sacrifices while other adults refuse to do so.

“The worst part about this is the completely cavalier attitude I see from far too many about doing what needs to be done if you have even half a prayer of opening schools this fall. Wear a mask. Stay home,” she says. “If you can’t do any of those things, but want me to go back to school in August with a smile on my face, you’re asking me to make far bigger sacrifices than the ones you’ve been willing to make so far.”