School ≠ Buildings
Dear Governor DeSantis and Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho,
I have been a proud employee of Miami-Dade County Public Schools for several years and they have been, by far, some of the best years of my life. I sponsor three clubs, oversee a magnet program, and am heavily involved in my school community. I don’t see being a teacher as a job; I see it as a calling and something that is intrinsically tied to my soul, to who I am as a person.
When we left school in March, I never envisioned us being gone for so long. I couldn’t imagine being out of the building for more than two weeks, let alone until the end of the school year. Then, in the beginning of June, around the time of my birthday, I thought things were getting better. There were fewer than 700 new COVID-19 cases a day throughout all of Florida then. What an amazing gift, I thought. We would be back to normal in no time. I would be able to see my students and colleagues again soon and I would be able to plan for the new school year over the summer. Maybe I would even be able to take part in professional development opportunities in July and August. Yet, that fleeting moment of hope and sense of security quickly dissipated as the infection rates rose and rose.
Today there were 12,199 new COVID-19 cases in Florida, with 3,424 of those cases in Miami-Dade County alone. While I would love to be reunited with my students again and would want nothing more than to return to a brick and mortar school building, unfortunately, I no longer see that as a possibility. At least not yet. You see, my classes range in size from 25-49 students on average and social distancing is nearly impossible in my room. All my students are part of high-risk populations that are especially susceptible to succumbing to coronavirus. Almost half of my students reached out to me during the last quarter of the school year to tell me that either they themselves or one of their loved ones had fallen ill from COVID-19. Several of my students know someone who has died from the virus. I, myself, personally know 32 people who were sick with COVID-19, one of whom almost died. This virus is everywhere, and unfortunately it is so unpredictable that not only is it difficult to contain in our county but would be impossible to do so in a school.
With the decision date for what the 2020-2021 academic school year will look like rapidly approaching, I ask that you please consider all students, teachers, staff, and community members when deciding whether to open up Miami Dade County Public Schools buildings. I have never once been afraid of what might happen to me if I went to work on any given day, but now I am terrified. Today my husband and I finalized our living wills and set up a trust in the event we were to fall ill from COVID-19. As we are both educators, we feel that we need to be prepared but we also feel that we have so much more left to give; so much more left to live for.
While distance learning may not be the ideal way of going back to school, I firmly believe it is the only option until we have a working vaccine against COVID-19 and ways to keep infection rates down. While I didn’t enjoy not being able to see my students in person, I did enjoy interacting with them via platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom at the end of last school year. I felt I was still effective as a teacher because of the connections I daily built with my students through course content and lessons. In my heart, I know that I, and other teachers, will be able to work hard to ensure these same positive outcomes come to fruition if we are allowed to teach from home again. I want to live for my job, for my students, for my family, and for my community. Although it hurts so much not to see everyone in person, we need to hold off just a little bit longer until things are safe. I don’t want to die because of this disease, especially after staying at home and being quarantined ever since school went virtual. I have so many more lessons I need to teach and so many more experiences I need to facilitate. Please, Superintendent Carvalho, give us a little bit more time to stay safe and healthy. Governor DeSantis, listen to your teachers. That way, when we are all finally together again, we will be back stronger and better than ever.
Waiting and hoping,
Elsa Morrison Menendez is a high school teacher in Florida. “Elsa” 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.