Teacher Deaths Due to COVID-19 in Several States Raise Alarm With Schools Reopening

Teacher deaths due to COVID-19 as the schools, both K-12 and universities, start to reopen for the new school year are raising alarms.

COVID-19 related teacher deaths in at least three states have worried the American Federation of Teachers president, Randi Weingarten.

He said that if proper precautions are not taken, the return of in-person classes may have a deadly impact on both teachers and students.

For a safe reopening of schools, they should have guidelines such as implementing the mandatory use of face coverings and strictly adhere to social distancing rules, Weingarten told the AP News.

There have been teacher deaths in Missouri, South Carolina, and Mississippi, and this is just in the weeks leading and during the start of this school year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been causing teacher deaths since its early phase back in March.

In New York, which was the first state to have the highest COVID-19 confirmed cases during the early phase of the pandemic, of the 75 employees of the New York City Department of Education, 31 has died due to COVID-19.

The American Federation of Teachers has had 210 members across the U.S. dying of COVID-19. This includes support staff and retirees aside from teachers.

Recent teacher deaths include 34-year-old Ashlee DeMarinis who died after being confined in the hospital for three weeks. She was a social skills and special education teacher at the John Evans Middle School in Potosi, Missouri. She died on Sunday, September 6.

Over in South Carolina, Demetria "Demi" Bannister, 28, a third-grade teacher at the Richland 2 School District, died on Monday, September 7, three days after she was diagnosed to have COVID-19, according to a report on the U.S. News.

Recent teacher deaths also included two in Mississippi, which also tallied 604 COVID-19 positive cases among teachers and staff.

One of the two Mississipi teachers who died was middle school teacher Nacoma James. The 42-year-old teacher also helped in coaching the high school football team. He died August 6, the first week of the school start.

Tom Slade, who taught History, was the other Mississippi teacher who died due to COVID-19. He last held classes on August 21.

There is no specific figure on teacher deaths due to COVID-19 since the start of the 2020-2021 school year.

Weingarten said that if there is high community infection in a state such as Mississippi and Missouri, in-person classes should not be started.

Especially if there is no facility for the COVID-19 testing and the school does not have precautionary measures put in place, Weingarten added.

Not only are the teachers in danger, but thousands of students' lives are also put at risk as well.

In Florida, at the start of the school year during the last week of August, there was an increase of 9,000 COVID-19 confirmed cases among children under 18 years old in just two weeks of school reopening, according to a report on the Latin Post.

There is no doubt that the recent school reopening has contributed to the increasing number of teacher deaths in the U.S. as well as COVID-19 cases among children.

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