DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The DeKalb County school district closed several buildings for cleaning due to the coronavirus. It comes less than a week after its teachers were ordered to return to classrooms to teach students remotely.
The shut down of those buildings is adding to the anxiety of teachers who were already nervous about coming back. Some feel the district is unnecessarily putting their health and safety at risk.
"Thousands of educators have died across the country, and there’s no sense in putting us at risk if we don’t need to," said DeKalb County teacher, Christian Zsilavetz.
He told 11Alive he wants DeKalb County schools to reverse its decision to have teachers back in the classroom. Instead of teaching students remotely from his empty classroom, he’s teaching from his car.
"I have chosen to teach from my car in the parking lot, because I’d rather not risk putting myself in that situation at this time," he explained. "We have many students coming and going for MAPs (Measure of Academic Progress) testing and about 100 staff in the building."
Since July, 604 staff members and 158 students have tested positive for COVID, according to the district’s website.
Last week, the district announced a Henderson Middle School supervisor died from the virus.
"Educators throughout DeKalb are extremely concerned because we do not feel like health and safety is being taken as seriously as it could be, and we do not feel like the steps are being put in place to make sure we do return to the building safely," said Lisa Morgan, the Georgia Association of Educators' President.
During a school board meeting Monday, DeKalb’s superintendent said the district is basing it’s return plan on CDC guidelines.
Teachers pushed back, though, saying the district said it would not bring them back unless its COVID positivity rate was below 10% for 14 straight days.
On Feb. 1, the day before teachers were asked to return, the positivity rate was at 11.1%. One week later, the rate was below 10% for the first time.
"If we do not prioritize health and safety, it is quite possible that we could have a student who is tragically lost to this pandemic and we can’t bring that student back," Morgan said.
A date has not been set for students to return to DeKalb classrooms. The district said families will be notified two weeks before they are expected back.