Georgia teachers’ head: Back to school not a return to normal

by

Lisa Morgan, Georgia Association of Educators

As the Cobb County School District continues with online-only instruction, the head of a professional teachers organization in Georgia said that the classroom experience that awaits students when they return will not be the way it was before COVID-19.

In a commentary distributed to news organizations, Lisa Morgan of the Georgia Association of Educators asked parents “to please listen to us—the educators who you are asking to enter the school buildings in the midst of a pandemic.”

The GAE represents 30,000 teachers in Georgia, including those in its umbrella organization, the Cobb County Association of Educators.

Unlike teachers’ organizations in other states, they are not unions.

The CCAE supported a July decision by Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale to start the school year online-only, instead of giving parents an option of virtual or in-person learning.

Ragsdale has said that the cases per 100,000 people in Cobb—now averaging around 300 for the last 14 days—represents high community spread that’s not safe for students, teachers and staff.

Cobb school parents have expressed frustration with virtual learning and the lack of a timetable for returning to a classroom environment. Ragsdale said he will be guided by data, and not dates, in making that decision.

Under the district’s previously announced reopening plans, K-5 and special education students will return first, followed by middle school and high school students.

While the virus transmission rates and case numbers for children remains low, Morgan wrote that placing them in large group settings at schools poses a threat: “If the risk is 1 percent  that any individual child will become sick, that means that in a group of 100 the chance that one of our students will become sick is 100 percent. Just as it is objectionable to you knowingly to put your children in a situation that will bring them harm, for any of our students to be harmed is unacceptable to us.”

She said that once students do return, “the adaptations necessary to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 will result in a classroom experience absent of the interactions that your child is missing now.”

Those include one-on-one encounters between students and teachers over homework and class assignments and students working together on projects in class.

Lunchtime will also be different: “The current plans for meals vary from system to system, but all include either smaller groups and social distancing in the cafeteria or meals being consumed in the classroom. The social-distanced cafeteria will, by necessity, be a mostly quiet space.”

Other tasks, such as cleaning and hand-washing, also will be time-consuming and disruptive, but they’re precautionary measures Morgan said must be undertaken.

“As much as we all wish returning to in-person instruction would allow us to engage with our students as we have always done, doing so is simply not possible,” she said. “The mode of instruction is not the issue we must solve. The realities of the virus and the continued high rates of transmission in our communities dictate that we must err on the side of caution and safety. While we all can agree that virtual instruction is not optimal, unusual times call for unusual measures that include sacrifice on everyone’s part.

“Working together to ensure that everyone is first and foremost safe and healthy will allow us to then work together to ensure everyone recovers academically, socially, and emotionally.”

You can read her full commentary by clicking here.

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3 thoughts on “Georgia teachers’ head: Back to school not a return to normal”

  1. How did Ms. Morgan feel about sending kids to f2f school during a flu season for the past ten years or so? That one is more trouble for kids than this one is … so why only concern about this one? Will flu numbers be reported the same way c-19 numbers have been reported, which has never happened before? If not, then why not?

    I’m fine with giving parents the option … I am not fine with forcing all students to have to learn online. Nor am I fine with the continued forcing of weakening immune systems. If it wasn’t done with the flu, then it shouldn’t be done with c-19.

  2. I’d like to voice my agreement with keeping kids away from school until the risks of spreading throughout the community are much less.

    Teachers usually love their kids and WANT to be back in a school environment, but not at the risk for all of us.

    Every child in school effectively gets exposed to all their classmates, their teachers, each other’s families and close coworkers for all those people. Your family may not have someone with underlying health issues or someone older, but many families do.
    These educators are actually listening to health experts for how to best reduce the risks of spread for the entire community. Sadly, parents don’t always choose what’s best for their children.
    I appreciate this stance by the BoE.
    I also sympathize with parents who need to work to pay their bills, but when it comes to the health/possible deaths for a family or society, that overrules all personal financial considerations. People first. Money later.

    • “People first, money later”? Must be nice to have enough money set aside to do with with impunity. Don’t force that on others, especially when most parents in that circumstance have the option to send their kids to private schools. Possible deaths for family members have been a reality since families began. Every child in school has been exposing their friends and families to what they catch at school since school began. What’s the difference this time?

      The society is dying right before our eyes in the name of “safety”, and this is not the first time that has happened.

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