An empty classroom.Photo: Getty
As schools in Florida’s Broward County prepare to reopen, area educators are mourning the loss of threeteachers who all died from COVID-19within a 24-hour period.
The three teachers — all of whom were unvaccinated — came from two elementary schools in the county. Janice Write was a 48-year-old teacher from Pinewood Elementary, while Katina Jones, 49, and Yolonda Hudson-Williams, 49, were teachers at Dillard Elementary,NPR reported.
Broward County Schools will reopen on Wednesday, and Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said that ithas been a difficult week since educators returned to the buildings.
“The whole excitement of going back was just running through our teachers when we went back to work on Wednesday,” Fusco told NPR. “And then the sense of anxiety that our governor’s interfering with the safety protocols and wanting to block the mask mandate because they know it’s an extra layer of protection. And then the deaths that were reported.”
The school district istrying toencourage the staff to get vaccinatedwith monetary incentives, Broward County School Board Chair Rosalind Osgoodtold CNN, “but there are a lot of people that have still not gotten the vaccination,” she said. “And it is becoming a deadly thing for them not to be vaccinated.”
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The county has beenin conflict with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has banned any mask mandates in the state and threatened not to pay superintendents and school board members who defy his guidance and require masks in schools.
Still, Broward County’s school board voted 8 to 1 on Tuesday to require masks in all district schools for students, staff and visitors, with the option for parents to have their children “opt out” and go without a mask.
“The eight of us on our board are adamant that we cannot have people in schools without masks, because we are living backlash of people dying with COVID,” Osgood said. “You can’t take a risk with people’s lives. We feel strongly that the lives of our students and staff are invaluable, and we’re not willing to play Russian roulette with their lives or take a risk of losing people because we have people in schools without masks.”
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source: people.com
