Perspective: Is Colorado ready to keep teachers safe?»

There really is no feeling like the feeling of a classroom alive with the energy of learning. Usually, in the spring, my classroom is filled with this energy. Whether students are observing crawdads or serving friends in a fraction cafe, it is moments like these, in our classrooms, that educators are missing this year. Even my colleagues who are teaching in-person are missing those moments.

So, when I started reading headlines like, “Schools Were

Set to Reopen. Then the Teachers’ Union Stepped In” in the New York Times, I felt frustrated that people didn’t have a better understanding of just how lax the safety measures are in Colorado schools right now. When I heard Gov. Jared Polis speak on national television, boasting that many Colorado schools have been open safely for most of the year, I decided to correct the narrative. Right now, teachers are carrying the burden of deaths of our students’ parents, grandparents, aunties, and uncles. We miss being able to see them, talk with them and support them through this difficult time. Teachers want our schools and our classrooms to reopen. But we want them to reopen safely.

The “Data and Policy to Guide Opening Schools Safely”, claims COVID-19 doesn’t spread in schools, but this report contains an important caveat: when adequate safety precautions are in place. In fact, the report mentions a large-scale outbreak in Israel and goes on to explain that overcrowded classrooms without proper social distancing contributed to that outbreak. To prevent this, the authors propose strong safety measures in schools: strict adherence to face mask use, “increasing physical distance by densifying classrooms”, expanded testing, and increased air ventilation.

Although we are all used to reading about these suggested safety policies by now, the truth is these commonplace measures are not present in our schools. Here is a direct quote from the Denver Public School’s Health and Safety Plan stating that, “3-foot distance will be maintained, plus the guidance on face coverings. If 3-foot distancing can occur classes can be normal size, up to cohort limit of 35 students.” Additionally, high and middle school educators are able to be exposed to up to 136 in-person students each day. There are classrooms in Denver right now with 20, 25, and 30 students in them. There are teachers who have to choose between maintaining 3 feet of physical distance or using their whiteboard to teach children. There are teachers who have been exposed to COVID and are told that because they wore a KN95 mask, they are not permitted to quarantine. There are also teachers who discover they have had exposure to COVID-19 through the grapevine, informed by peers rather than official contract tracing measures.

These are not unique stories. These are the stories of hundreds of educators in Denver Public Schools.

We cannot prioritize reopening businesses and restaurants and gyms and indoor shopping and schools. It is not possible. We have to control community spread, and we all have to make some sacrifices based on what we value most. If we value schools most, we might not be able to roll back indoor dining restrictions as Gov. Polis has done over the past month. If we want classrooms open, we might have to do as this new report suggests, and limit the indoor sports practices and games that are occurring for high schoolers across the state. If we want our schools to be the centers of our community, as they have been for so much of our nation’s history, we have to prioritize making them the safest places in our communities. Our schools, where our children go to grow, develop, and learn about what it means to be a member of a community, should have the strongest safety guidelines in our state, not the weakest. Teachers are ready to return to our classrooms. Are we, as a community, willing to support them to do so?