On September 3, the Central High School Bobcats went about their regular Friday Night Lights football business, soundly defeating the Sevier County Golden Bears 35-13. Festivities included a celebration of the class of 1971 and the 50th anniversary of the “new” school after it moved from the location that is now Gresham Middle School. Good times in Fountain City.
Less than 24 hours later, Knox County Schools announced that Central as well as Austin-East Magnet High School would move to online learning this week due to the spread of Covid-19 and other illnesses causing an excessive shortage of staff with nowhere near enough substitutes to cover for them. So, what was supposed to be a relaxing three-day weekend for both staffs became turn-on-a-dime to be ready for virtual instruction Tuesday morning.
By Sunday night, an insidious email of dubious origin was circulating and being shared on various social media platforms questioning whether teacher absences were legitimately due to illness. It read, partly, as follows:
“On Wednesday night, the Knox County School Board voted against making the kids wear masks in schools. As a result, many of our teachers that were absent on Thursday and Friday were out in the form of a protest. They were not out based on sickness or Covid. Some might have been, but most were not. This is outrageous!”
By Monday, some brave teachers and other staff took to social media to push back. None will be named here, but the consensus is this was not a protest/sick-out, teachers are exhausted, if not out sick themselves they’re out caring for their own sick children, taking unnecessary time off only creates more work to do upon return, and it would really be nice to have their planning periods back. Oh, and they want the proven effective measures put back in place to mitigate the spread of Covid, not just for their sake, but for their students. And they’d like to be valued and for parents to stop sending their sick children to school.
Paula Hancock
Paula Hancock is the newly minted president of the Knox County Education Association. She acknowledged hearing from some of the membership that they’re overwhelmed, feeling overworked, exhausted and exasperated. The association lobbies on behalf of teachers and works with the Board of Education.
“Most of our teachers understand that our First Amendment rights are a little different from the average person,” she said. She was unaware of an intentional, coordinated “protest/sick-out” by teachers and said “teachers are very careful about participating in and doing things of that nature.”
Hancock said the KCEA was very pleased with the board’s decision last week to not charge teachers for days that have to be taken for Covid isolation as well as the return of some level of contract tracing.
“Last year (2020-21) KCS did a really excellent job on all mitigation protocols,” Hancock said, noting that the only system-wide shut down occurred the week before the Christmas holiday break. “Everything that was put into place kept us open, kept us going. We have to make wise choices. We have a teacher code of ethics. We are obligated to make every reasonable effort to protect all students. We’re asking for the help we need to honor that.”
By May of this year, with vaccines available and eventually approved for children ages 12 and up, things were looking up for a “more normal” school experience. But between May and the start of the school year the Delta variant rose, and it’s been hammering schools as no protocols were put in place. Tennessee now has its highest number of active Covid cases since the pandemic began.
Beth Kinnane is the community news editor for KnoxTNToday.com