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Teacher deaths raise alarms as new school year begins

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I just pulled out a few parts from the article. Teaching probably is the lowest paid, most dangerous occupation around at the moment.


O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — Teachers in at least three states have died after bouts with the coronavirus since the dawn of the new school year, and a teachers' union leader worries that the return to in-person classes will have a deadly impact across the U.S. if proper precautions aren't taken.
AshLee DeMarinis was just 34 when she died Sunday after three weeks in the hospital. She taught social skills and special education at John Evans Middle School in Potosi, Missouri, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southwest of St. Louis.
A third-grade teacher died Monday in South Carolina, and two other educators died recently in Mississippi. It's unclear how many teachers in the U.S. have become ill with COVID-19 since the new school year began, but Mississippi alone has reported 604 cases among school teachers and staff.

The early phase of the pandemic claimed the lives of dozens of teachers. The New York City Department of Education alone lost 31 teachers among 75 employees whose deaths were blamed on the coronavirus.

In Oxford, Mississippi, 42-year-old Nacoma James taught at a middle school and helped coach high school football. He died Aug. 6 during the first week of classes, but was self-quarantining when teachers and students returned to the classroom, said Lafayette County School District Superintendent Adam Pugh.

In South Carolina, Demetria “Demi” Bannister, 28, died three days after being diagnosed with COVID-19, her school district said in a news release Wednesday. Bannister taught third grade in Columbia.

The district said Bannister was at Windsor Elementary School on Aug. 28 for a teacher work day, before classes resumed.
In Potosi, in-person classes started Aug. 24. DeMarinis was already hospitalized by then but had been in the school preparing for the year a couple of weeks earlier, her sister, Jennifer Heissenbuttel said.
 
I just pulled out a few parts from the article. Teaching probably is the lowest paid, most dangerous occupation around at the moment.


O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — Teachers in at least three states have died after bouts with the coronavirus since the dawn of the new school year, and a teachers' union leader worries that the return to in-person classes will have a deadly impact across the U.S. if proper precautions aren't taken.
AshLee DeMarinis was just 34 when she died Sunday after three weeks in the hospital. She taught social skills and special education at John Evans Middle School in Potosi, Missouri, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southwest of St. Louis.
A third-grade teacher died Monday in South Carolina, and two other educators died recently in Mississippi. It's unclear how many teachers in the U.S. have become ill with COVID-19 since the new school year began, but Mississippi alone has reported 604 cases among school teachers and staff.

The early phase of the pandemic claimed the lives of dozens of teachers. The New York City Department of Education alone lost 31 teachers among 75 employees whose deaths were blamed on the coronavirus.

In Oxford, Mississippi, 42-year-old Nacoma James taught at a middle school and helped coach high school football. He died Aug. 6 during the first week of classes, but was self-quarantining when teachers and students returned to the classroom, said Lafayette County School District Superintendent Adam Pugh.

In South Carolina, Demetria “Demi” Bannister, 28, died three days after being diagnosed with COVID-19, her school district said in a news release Wednesday. Bannister taught third grade in Columbia.

The district said Bannister was at Windsor Elementary School on Aug. 28 for a teacher work day, before classes resumed.
In Potosi, in-person classes started Aug. 24. DeMarinis was already hospitalized by then but had been in the school preparing for the year a couple of weeks earlier, her sister, Jennifer Heissenbuttel said.
Wait wait. So which of these people got COVID while actually working as a teacher? Because what I’m reading is that at least 2-3 of them got it before classes resumed.
 

TrainedRage

Banned
Yeah its been a crazy start to the year so far. No kids in our school until after Sep 20. Even then its like 1/3 of the entire school. We are not only exposed to the kids, but potentially huge families and it goes both ways. They gave us 3 cloth masks and a few rubber gloves as PPE. All the curriculums are being changed to include anti racist and inclusive methods. Its fucked honestly. And they pay us shit. Good benefits etc but shit pay. Especially now.
 
Yeah its been a crazy start to the year so far. No kids in our school until after Sep 20. Even then its like 1/3 of the entire school. We are not only exposed to the kids, but potentially huge families and it goes both ways. They gave us 3 cloth masks and a few rubber gloves as PPE. All the curriculums are being changed to include anti racist and inclusive methods. Its fucked honestly. And they pay us shit. Good benefits etc but shit pay. Especially now.
Order yourself a few N95 or KN95 masks. They will probably take some time to ship, but you can get them. Wear those and a face shield if you’re worried. That level of mask is actually protective vs just preventing spread. The fact school district have not been able to get that stuff after six months is a failure of the districts themselves, to be honest.
 
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frostyxc

Member
So you're saying there are some job openings...
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Malakhov

Banned
5th graders and up are required to wear masks in school when not in their classrooms here as well as all teachers and personnel. They even wear face shields...
 
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Joe T.

Member
The news up here in Quebec has been fearmongering full throttle about schools and teachers for weeks, using unions and organized protests to do it. They apparently classify an "outbreak" as 2 or more linked cases and out of the 70+ schools that have Wuhan virus cases only two of them are considered outbreaks. One of them was a teacher passing it on to a student, the news story of course buried that at the end of their reporting.

Like Cunth Cunth touched on, often times when the news here brings teachers on to speak about their fears of getting infected I noticed they're usually obese and the interview never dares broach the topic. If this pandemic won't be that push they needed to lose a few pounds then what will?
 

Jonsoncao

Banned
Overweight? If so, you have a higher chance of dying.
Much higher.

Obese (weak heart/fat clogged artery/immune response)+male (much more ACE2 which is the entry receptor) is a deadly combo.

Though obese people are less likely to have cytokine storm than healthy people when being exposed to SARS-Cov-2.
 
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Belgorim

Member
I am a teacher in Sweden, since the pandemic began we have had like 1 death in the profession and not even that one can be clearly linked to the kids.

It does not seem to be a big deal. The rates of infection seem to be even lower than the average person among the teachers working with realy young kids (probably because of highly trained immune system or something?)
 

epicnemesis

Member
What a ridiculous article.

This just in, your colleague who hasn’t been to the office since March also got covid, doesn’t mean the office had anything to do with it.
 

Leopold

Member
I’m to lazy to post the link but look at the data that just came out of Sweden. Opening schools doesn’t spread Covid.

Sure, in Israel we had 2k students positive and 10x that in self-isolation during the first week. It depends on dozens of factors.
 
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