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Like the rest of the country, the death of a favorite educator in Houston has deepened teachers' fear and conflict about teaching in person during the pandemic.

Before Thanksgiving, Erick Ortiz was lying in a hospital bed, breathing hard. He couldn't see his family, so he texted his wife worried about his high school chemistry students: "Did they assign a group for my course?"

Four days later, he was put on a ventilator. He will never recover.

Ortiz died last month after testing positive for the coronavirus, which caused his family and colleagues to be hit hard at Charles H. Milby High School, the poorest neighborhood in Houston One of the services, and caused the city’s educators to worry about teaching in person during the pandemic.

Maria Ortiz, Mr. Ortiz’s widow, said: “I don’t want this to happen again. I have to drop out of school in 2019. They must also be protected.”

There is no evidence that the rate of death of teachers is higher than that of people in other industries, and there is no evidence that the coronavirus is spreading faster in schools than in the entire community, especially in areas where hygiene precautions are strictly observed. Federal researchers

"In places where safety is fully valued, "there is very little evidence that schools have made a meaningful contribution to increasing community transmission."

However, through the contact with children and families, the special role of teachers in the community, and the attention of educators to the safety of in-person teaching, the loss is particularly painful and devastating in many places.

Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said: “Some educators have died for this and died as a result.” The association represents 9,000 seniors. "When this happens, it makes it more difficult to persuade others to move on."

Although there are no exact data on how many of the country’s 3.5 million teachers died during the pandemic, the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the United States, said it knows about 530 schools that lost their lives on Covid-19 last time. Employee year.

The Houston Independent School District, like many people across the country, said it has taken the steps recommended by public health officials, including the requirement to wear a mask, social distancing and plexiglass barriers in classrooms. But many educators say that these rules are not strictly enforced and that preventive measures are used inadequately or unevenly.

Mr. Domenek said that the school director found himself trying to strike a balance between the safety of teachers and the need for face-to-face learning to deal with many inequalities in distance education. He said: “They are always attacked by their teachers. They think they are forced into a situation that they think is unsafe, while the parents want their children to get in and out.”

Educators who have lost their lives due to the virus in recent weeks include

In Grand Prairie, Texas, each other died within a few hours; an art teacher and his student in Fayetteville, North Carolina

At the memorial outside the school; there is also a physical education teacher and coach in Lincoln County, North Carolina, his family

Turn off the TV in his ward, trying to distract him.

In most parts of the United States, the lack of contact tracking and the rapid spread of the virus in most parts of the United States in recent months have made it almost impossible to know where most teachers contracted the virus. But their deaths still exacerbated the community's debate about school safety.

The death of Patrick Key, an elementary school teacher in Powder Springs, Georgia,

On Christmas morning,

Stop studying in person in the Cobb County School District. Rear

, More than a hundred educators showed up to protest before the school committee meeting.

Two board members and the director refused

To commemorate Mr. Key, Key’s obituary requires people to buy and wear masks instead of sending flowers to the funeral.

In Montgomery, Alabama, the deaths of at least four school employees who are battling the virus have increased alarm. Recently

. Monday, Director

Montgomery schools will be converted to remote classes, and it is likely that only 4,500 employees in the area can use the vaccine before in-person teaching can resume.

Some states have

, But not all. Even where the teachers are at the top, the officials

Vaccinate everyone who works in school. Even then, many teachers

About going back to the classroom, obviously

.

The death of Mr. Ortiz in December has an uplifting effect on educators in Houston. In the second week, teachers from about 50 schools in Harris County

A safer learning environment is required during the pandemic.

Traci Latson, a 50-year-old teacher at Meyerland's High School of Performing and Visual Arts, said: "He could have been me." He described his own teaching in Houston as "Russian Roulette". She said that the death of Mr. Ortiz prompted her to straighten out her will and financial situation.

Ms. Ratson said: "I have classes on campus every day. I'm not sure if this is my last day."

According to Texas law, unlike many northern states, teachers and their unions lack collective bargaining power. In many northern states, some teachers and their unions have

Because of concerns about their safety. In Chicago,

Has been upgraded to the point where the area tells parents not to send their children to school on Wednesday because the teacher

Face it personally and possibly strike.

Public health experts have largely agreed that in the case of low community transmission rates, schools, especially elementary schools, are unlikely to seed the virus's transmission route, provided that these schools adopt mitigation strategies. This idea was supported again on Tuesday.

It inspected 17 schools in rural Wisconsin. They often wear masks; it found that there were 191 infections among staff and students during the fall, of which 7 were spread in schools.

In Houston, just as the state required all school districts in Texas to offer in-person teaching options last fall, the school system has mandatory requirements and requires six feet of social distance.

. A regional spokesperson said that it also sets up daily temperature checks at the school entrance, uses plexiglass partitions in classrooms, and conducts nasal swab tests on campus, although some teachers question the universality of this practice.

One teacher provided pictures that she thought there were insufficient dividers in the classroom-there were two, one for her desk and the other to move between student desks-while others said that despite the area restrictions , But their school does not have a policy of routine testing. They know that there are coronavirus cases and even deaths in their families, but they still come to the school with symptoms anyway.

The Houston School District is the seventh university district in the United States, with approximately 200,000 students and more than 27,000 employees. As of Monday,

During the pandemic, 1,199 employees were included, or about 4% of employees.

His wife said that Ortiz is a three-year-old father, now 52, ​​suffering from diabetes. He remained vigilant about returning to the classroom. He is a science lover, studied biology during college, worked in a laboratory, and then became a high school teacher in 1997, a career change inspired by his wife.

Ms. Ortiz said: “I like him a little bit because I like it, and he likes it in the end.”

Her husband wears a plastic mask and mask after chemistry class.

. Ms. Ortiz said she believed that later that month, he was infected with the virus when he supervised the SAT for five hours in a classroom with about 20 students. She recalled how some students coughed during the exam he mentioned.

She said that about a week later, he returned home and felt bad weather and tested positive for the virus. For the next week, he stayed behind the closed bedroom door, in a serious condition, with a fever of 104 degrees, and a growing cough. She said that early on November 16, Ms. Ortiz went to check on him and found that he could not speak. She called an ambulance.

"They didn't even tell me what his oxygen was. They just said it was really low and we needed to take him to the hospital." She recalled. "He never came out."

The Houston school system said in an email, “It’s very sad to hear that one of our beloved Milby High School teachers has passed away,” but the area “still remains committed to providing our students with high-quality education while ensuring that The health, safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff meet the highest standards."

For Ms. Ortiz and her children, the loss was catastrophic. "Dad is everything to them," she said. She also received some letters from her husband’s former students, including letters to the Yiguan. One student wrote: "He is one of the most caring and hardworking people I have ever met."

Her grief and anger are mixed because she believes that the welfare of her husband and colleagues is not given priority. Ms. Ortiz said: "During this pandemic, teachers are also educating children on the front lines, trying to get them ahead." "And they are not respected."

Alain Delaquérière (Alain Delaquérière)

Contributed research.

Rhiana Gay will stand in the kindergarten classroom of Creekside Park Elementary School on Friday, January 15, 2021. Ms. Guy’s students will return to learn in person on Tuesday, January 19. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

At the Creekside Park Elementary School in Anchorage on Friday, kindergarten teacher Rhiana Gay made the finishing touches to the layout of the classroom, placing a clip to fix the mask on the edge of the desk in preparation for the first day of the school year Class.

Most elementary school students from kindergarten to second grade, as well as special education students in sixth grade to self-sufficient classrooms, are scheduled to attend school in person at 9:30 am on Wednesday morning.

Since March, the Anchorage classrooms have been closed for face-to-face learning, and when they were about to start reopening, they were facing serious health risks and took many preventive measures.

The school has been planning for months.

Creekside Park is one of dozens of elementary schools in the Anchorage School District, where teachers and administrators have completed preparations and fine-tuned COVID-19 mitigation strategies to reopen classrooms this week.

On Friday, the second grade teacher Kristin Soult (Kristin Soult) got down from Gay and moved the table around the school’s usual art room, with a distance of at least 3 feet or more between each place .

She said Suter needed more social distancing because she hoped that about 20 students would return.

So far this semester, the school district sheriff Deena Bishop has announced three times that he plans to return students to the classroom in stages, and then

These plans are due to the spread of the coronavirus in Anchorage.

For months, parents, teachers, administrators, and school board members have debated the merits of the case and weighed the risks of opening a school when COVID-19 is spreading in the community. What some people worry most is that closing schools will harm students.

Among them are the most vulnerable students, while others worry that opening a school may cause the virus to spread further throughout the community.

Many teachers emphasized plans to open face-to-face schools during the global pandemic, and their unions are taking measures such as notifying school districts of unsafe working conditions.

Due to risks, some families choose not to allow students to return home

.

Facing the eventual return to the classroom, Gay said that she felt "scared, happy, nervous and well prepared" at the same time.

Principals and teachers are committed to creating personalization

Every school. They completed the planned one-way route to maintain social distancing from the children so that the children walked into the corridors and created personalized classroom materials tote bags for each student, so they did not have to share frequently touched objects such as marker Pens and crayons.

"We are ready," said David Christal, the principal of Creekside Park.

Christal said that in the morning before school, he would draw hundreds of dots on the snow outside the school, with each dot being six feet apart, to mark where children can line up to enter the building.

He said that the preparation of the classroom is a bit tricky because teachers cannot always determine how many students will be returned, because some families are choosing to use the district's virtual program and making a final decision.

He said that if their children go to school, some families may lose daycare workers because of the risk of COVID-19. Creekside Park is a Title I school, which means that many families have low socioeconomic capabilities.

He said: "Many of our parents sometimes do two jobs." "The loss of a daycare service provider will be a big blow to him, so this is a difficult decision for many of our families. "

He said that Krystal’s school has seen many students attend in person in the past few months because it piloted a small tuition program for some students in October, which included about 20 students and 4 teachers.

He said that because the students did not return to class as expected in November, and there were about 9 teachers in the school who volunteered to tutor 80 children, the tutoring work was expanded. He said it almost served as a test run for face-to-face schools.

"How will the children walk in the corridor? Well, we have seen them walking in the corridor," Krystal said. "...Are we worried about masks? No, because we have completed the counseling program and it's good to see children wearing masks."

He said that the success of the plan eliminated many of his worries and eased his teachers' views on the mitigation process and the spread of COVID-19.

"We were able to keep the COVID out," said Crystal Whitney, a first-year teacher who volunteered as a tutor. "...This shows me that as long as you are safe and the children follow the expectations, and the teachers follow the mitigation process, you can shut it out and the children can learn."

All of Whitney's preparations revolved around the question: "How to keep children safe while still being able to educate them?" she said.

She has planned a way for the children to be active throughout the school because they will not be able to get up and leave the classroom or move around the school as usual. She must also consider how to help them gain the physical and social connections they desire, while also teaching them to distance themselves from society.

Therefore, she will encourage children to give themselves "bearing hugs" and squeeze their arms to imitate the feelings of friends. She said that when children need to move, they will jump and rest, and do some small dances on the video.

Whitney said: "Most of your teaching is based on your relationships with people and the funny and stupid things that happen in the classroom."

She said that in online courses, those spontaneous learning times are more difficult to create because children are often muted and must take turns to speak.

Whitney said: "I think that when we get home and the children come here, they will look and feel different, while still feeling what school it should be-that community, a good place to learn and grow. ," said. "This is what they need now. They need this connection to be able to see their peers and others."

Nevertheless, many teachers are still worried about the health hazards of attending schools in person, and the conditions of different schools when operating under such strict health precautions.

In Gay’s kindergarten class, she will focus on students’ social and emotional well-being during the first week of class. She hopes that they will practice the new routine, wear masks and wash their hands.

She said: "When there is a routine, the child will shine."

However, the situation will be very different.

She said: "I really have to change the layout of the classroom."

Comfortable tents are usually safe, quiet spaces where children can relax and spend time alone. The public writing station is gone. The nursing bear that the child could hug when he was upset also disappeared.

Guy said: "Now only hard plastic can be washed."

Gay said that in kindergarten, students learn through games. But the toy time will be different. Children will choose a bucket of Lego blocks or toys to play alone all week.

Gay said that she missed her interaction with students very much throughout the school year.

Despite this, the risk of COVID-19 entering her classroom is still taking a toll on Gay's house-her father has a weakened immune system and is in a serious condition, and she lives with him. She is worried that he will be given the coronavirus. She said she also felt fear for students and their families.

Whitney is also worried. She didn’t know what she would say to family members if a student contracted COVID-19 in the classroom

Whitney said: "I think this is my biggest fear-if a child gets sick in my class, I will be responsible for it."

Gay is concerned about this because the plan in the area requires that the distance between classrooms be at least three feet, instead of the six feet recommended by the school.

Students will eat in the classroom and wear masks. Health experts warn that eating and drinking indoors around others are high-risk activities.

She said that Guy tried to separate the students as much as possible, and they would use plastic partitions during meals. But there are two students on the table in the room.

She said the reality of having her 18 students wash their hands six or more times a day is also daunting.

Gay said, "However," we will have to overcome it. "Then what should I do to overcome it?" "

Therefore, she will teach in person. However, her fears have been answered by many teachers.

The Teachers’ Union Anchorage Education Association has filed a preliminary complaint with the school district, notifying some members of the school district that they may refuse to perform work tasks due to unsafe working conditions. It also outlines the steps its members can take if they believe they have been pushed into an unsafe situation by the school administrator.

Corey Aist, the chairman of the association, said the goal is to be solution-oriented to ensure the safety of everyone, not a barrier to face-to-face learning. Safety issues range from the absence of six feet between the classroom and students, to close lunchtimes without masks to air circulation and filtration issues.

The teachers hope to do well. They want their students to achieve success. They want students to improve. They want to do this in a safe environment, and they are worried that we are not in a safe environment," Astor said. "They are worried that they will sign up for COVID-19. They worry that their students will sign contracts. "

Emily Goodykoontz is a journalist, covering local government, education and general tasks of the Daily News. She previously reported major news in Portland, Oregon, and worked as an intern reporter for the Eugene Registration Guard, before joining ADN in 2020. She received a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon.

The principal, Roberto Cantu, put on a plastic face mask and greeted students when he jumped off a bus at Poplar Bridge Elementary School in Bloomington on Tuesday morning. Each student carries a backpack full of items, including tablets, art supplies and books, which were used for their home study.

Cantu said: "It's just like our fourth day of school." He was referring to the school's switching between distance learning, blended learning and current face-to-face learning so far this school year.

Tuesday was the first step in bringing many elementary school students back to school buildings in Minnesota. In addition to Bloomington, this week also welcomes kindergarten and first- and second-graders from various regions, including Anoka-Hennepin, Osseo, Southern Washington County, Elk River, Robbinsdale, and Wayzata. February.

Such a large number of schools is a major shift in the state, and the state's decision to transfer between distance learning, blended learning and face-to-face learning mainly depends on the spread of the coronavirus in the local community.

Governor Tim Walz allowed all elementary schools to reopen within this week, as long as they comply with the state's safety guidelines.

State officials said they changed elementary school curricula because the first few months of the school year gave people a better understanding of how the virus spreads in school buildings. They also cited the impact of distance learning on the mental, emotional and physical health of scholars and students.

Compared with middle school, elementary school students usually live with a group of students and a teacher all day, so the risk of virus outbreak is lower than in middle school.

Minneapolis and St. Paul’s schools will bring back elementary school students in February, even though the teachers’ unions in both areas are in

And requested that the implementation of additional safety regulations be postponed, and more educators can use the vaccine.

Walz announced on Monday that teachers will be eligible to participate in the expanded COVID-19 vaccination program. However, so far, the supply of materials is limited, and priority is given to teachers in elementary schools or other in-person teaching. For example, Osseo School assigned 47 doses, Anoka-Hennepin School assigned 80 doses, and Bloomington School assigned 18 doses.

Heidi Jo Servaty, a first-grade teacher at Elm Creek Elementary School in Maple Grove, said she would rather be vaccinated before returning to class on Tuesday. But when she saw the whole classroom, she felt very excited and excited.

Sevati said: "I didn't cry, but I feel okay." "It's amazing to get my team together for the first time."

Families can still choose to let their students continue their distance learning instead of sending them to face-to-face classes. Spokespersons for the Anoka-Hennepin and Bloomington school districts estimate that approximately 30% of elementary school students will continue to study online at home.

School districts have also noticed that more parents leave school instead of sending them on the bus.

Crystal's Kari Swenson was one of the last parents to abandon their children at Sonnesyn Elementary in New Hope on Tuesday.

Her son Avery is 4 years old and a preschooler. He did not participate in distance learning. The morning was his first day in the classroom.

Swenson admitted that she did not choose to teach in person at first, but went on after participating in a video chat with the principal.

Before going in, Avery stopped to put on the "first day" photo in the mask. "He is very excited," Swenson said.

On Tuesday morning, many teachers at Yangshuqiao Primary School helped their students understand the new routine and why certain parts of the school might look different.

According to state guidelines, it is "strongly recommended" that teachers and other staff wear masks and transparent face shields at the same time, and install plexiglass barriers in areas where teachers cannot maintain social distance from students. Employees will be tested for COVID-19 every two weeks.

The meals at Bloomington Elementary School are very popular now, and most students eat in the classroom.

In the kindergarten classrooms, a transparent plastic shower curtain is hung from the ceiling to provide a barrier between students sitting on the same table. In other classrooms, students are assigned responsibilities such as "desk checkers" to help ensure that desks are kept 3 feet away from each other.

Nevertheless, the energy for students to return to the building did not become dull by repeated reminders of the epidemic.

When Ruth Haugstad called the kindergarten students to start a new day, one of the boys writhed in his seat and blurted out: "My mother said we are going to class for five days."

Haugstad smiled and assured him that his mother was correct-the class would be able to learn in person on site every working day.

Erin Golden, the writer behind the scenes, contributed to this story.

Mara Clark 612-673-4440

Anthony Langtry 612-673-4109

©2021 StarTribune. all rights reserved.

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The head of the school in Maryland said at a meeting on Friday that she had received hundreds of emails from parents of school children in Harford County and planned to work with the school system to get the children to return more than once a week.

Karen Salmon stated that students don’t have to be 6 feet away from each other to take them back to school, and emphasized that the key word in the state’s latest guidelines is "as much as possible."

She said: "Actually, this is common sense. We can be 6 feet apart as far as possible, but when we can't do it, we are covering and washing our hands, etc."

Republican Republican Representative Mike Griffith (Del. Mike Griffith), representing Halford and Cecil County, raised a question, and Salmon’s comments were raised at a virtual meeting of the East Coast delegation.

Griffith

According to Harford County Public Schools officials, the state government has issued guidelines to prevent students from returning to face-to-face learning.

Griffith said: "Our director and the board of education have been saying that these indicators prevent them from letting children go back to school." "Since the announcement, they have now moved to the 6-foot rule. The reason for returning to school."

On January 21, Salmon and Governor Larry Hogan

.

It also updated the state’s guidelines for returning to school and removed the COVID-19 transmission threshold, which prompted many regions, including Harford, to switch to full virtual learning when these key indicators surged in November.

Salmon said on Friday: "Sometimes it frustrates us that we let various entities use these indicators to keep our schools closed instead of keeping them open."

Harford principal Sean Burson announced on Monday that the school system will

As part of the blended learning program, the program was supported by the community, but reiterated the need to follow the health requirements in the guidance, including alienation and coverage.

On Wednesday, the school council voted for

Therefore, students can sit together and may be allowed to return twice a week, although Bulson will not be committed to two-day blended learning.

Griffith asked Salmon if he planned to further modify the state guidelines or leave some leeway for students to return to school.

The governor of the state pointed out that when visiting the school that brought students back in the fall, they did not always keep a distance of 6 feet because it was not always feasible.

Salmon said: "When we were working in the Career and Technical Center, they were installing brakes, and the children were installing brakes there." "They were covered up and they were washing their hands. Other mitigating factors are very important and can be maintained."

"Continue to think about our nursery," she continued. "We know that our children will not walk around the fishing rods on either side of them to ensure that the distance between them is 6 feet. This is possible."

Salmon said that in the past two days, she has received more than 400 e-mails about the HCPS program from her parents. She has "plans to work with this particular school system," but did not elaborate on what these plans might be.

Burson said in a text message that as of 2:30 pm on Friday, he had not received any news from Salmon.

He wrote in the text: "We continue to use the country's guidance as a resource to help us return to face-to-face learning as safely as possible," but did not elaborate.

Griffith said the salmon argument is independent. He said he inappropriately used the 6-foot-tall social mediation guidelines to prevent children from dropping out of school, and the governor's statement opened their eyes.

He said: "According to Dr. Salmon's speech today, I don't see that there is no reason not to allow children to return to school for a week." "At some point, the responsibility lies with the director and the board of education."