Hostage Negotiation: Life vs Livelihood
Dear TEA and Mike Morath,
Allow me to introduce myself: I am a special education teacher at a Title 1 school district in Texas. I have a Masters degree in education. I’m a daughter, a wife, a friend. I like sitting on my porch enjoying the summer nights with a Dr. Pepper and playing in the backyard with my family. And I have asthma.
An acquaintance recently compared teachers to those on the front line in the military and to doctors and nurses, suggesting that we chose to work in a germy petri dish and we need to stop complaining. What?
When I chose to become an educator I knew I would have to deal with stomach bugs, strep, and flu. I knew that working with special populations would mean working with challenging behavior situations that could put my safety at risk (but special education teachers like me are trained to de-escalate situations so that our safety and our students’ safety is rarely in jeopardy).
I did not sign up to be in a position where I have no choice in the safety of not only myself, but my students (some of who are also at risk when it comes to COVID), my co-workers, and my husband at home.
I’m upset that if I want to have a "choice" in the matter, I would have to leave teaching entirely. Most teachers cannot financially afford to leave their job—many of us, myself included, have summer jobs to make ends meet. There is already a shortage of teachers, and the current policies may force some of us to leave the profession whether we want to or not because it is literally our life or our job. To be clear: the choice to teach in a situation that is life-threatening or to quit is not a choice. That’s a hostage negotiation. It is my life versus my livelihood. How do I pay my mortgage or buy groceries without a job? Did you know several districts are preparing for the school year by advising teachers to write a will? This isn’t how choices work.
How should I handle the loss of one (or more!) students and co-workers during this school year? Is there funding for teachers and students to receive mental health services and counseling? Who is going to take my class when I’m out because I got COVID-19? In a good year, we already spend our planning periods covering for other teachers because there aren’t enough subs.
How we handle the pandemic will have far-reaching effects for educators and teaching as a profession. Why would anyone want to join the profession, to become teachers after seeing how we’re treated? How can we possibly keep present educators in the profession? What is the plan to handle the extreme teacher shortage after this (and there will be one)?
Who is going to help me get through this pandemic when all of the hospital beds are occupied and the doctors and nurses are not able to provide services?
All it takes is one student or employee to test positive to spread it to the whole school and community. I hate to think that anyone finds it acceptable to put our entire future at risk. How many student and teacher deaths will it take for this to be real? Will it be too late?
When I signed my contract, I promised to execute the duties of my position along with “other duties as assigned or necessary.” I thought that meant bus duty or chaperoning a field trip. I did not understand it to mean triage or actual life and death decisions. But, hey, I chose to work in this petri dish—what have I got to complain about?
(With increasing difficulty) Respectfully Yours,
“Nikki Grandin”
Nikki Grandin is a special education teacher at a middle school in Texas. “Nikki” is a pen name for the purpose of this blog; she has chosen to remain anonymous. Click her name to learn more about the inspiration behind her choice of pseudonym.