A teacher’s statement of intent

Dear everyone at the Little Rock School District, Arkansas Department of Education, State Board of Education, and Governor’s Mansion who should be concerned:

I’ve answered every one of the numerous requests for feedback and surveys that has been sent. My wife and I are longtime LRSD teachers and parents of LRSD students at elementary and middle levels. We’re not outside observers. We should know what’s going on in our district, but we’re lost on how classrooms are actually expected to function in August.

I’ve also read the “Ready for Learning” document three times, taking notes, and have yet to find a single line that addresses any of the concerns that I have shared through the various feedback forums. A less optimistic person might begin to think that all of these surveys and forms and focus groups and FAQs are just for show, and that no one is really listening.

But my fellow teachers and I are optimists. It’s the only way the good ones can last in this gig.

And make no mistake, I plan to last. I love what I do, and I’ll still be doing this work long after all of you have moved on from your current titles. I care deeply for my students and their futures, and am absolutely willing to die to protect them in a school shooting, tornado, or some other rare and unexpected tragedy.

However, I’m not willing to choke to death on a ventilator for someone else’s day care. Chronic lifelong health problems hold no appeal, either. Nor will I send my own children into a life-threatening situation just because online learning isn’t ideal. I agree that it’s not ideal, but I don’t agree that it poses more danger to my children’s development than covid-19.

You’ve offered a false choice to parents. You’re comparing the slapdash “virtual AMI (alternative methods of instruction)” that you implemented in the spring with a nostalgia for regular “face-to-face” school. Even if we went back into the buildings, school will not be “like normal.”

I expect most teachers will be hiding behind several layers of whatever barrier material they can scrape together, giving instructions through bullhorns and gestures. Zoom sessions will seem like warm hugs compared to the hazmat teaching that will occur if we go back now.

Throughout the “Ready for Learning” plan, the phrasing “where social distancing may not be possible,” is used repeatedly, implying that social distancing will be possible in most instances.

How? There has been no effort to limit class sizes in order to social distance, and for me to keep kids six feet apart in my room would only allow space for six or seven kids, tops.

If at long last you do have any sense of decency, you must admit this truth to the public. Parents cannot make informed autonomous decisions if you don’t give them truthful and complete information.

The current wording of the document implies that social distancing will mostly occur except in a few isolated places where “not feasible.” Based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which are what the Arkansas Department of Health points to, it’s not going to be feasible anywhere!

Also, the plan states that LRSD will follow Arkansas Department of Health guidance that says cloth face coverings are effective at limiting exposure to covid-19. But the only way for an individual to limit his/her exposure to the virus is by using a surgical-quality respirator, such as the N95 or better, and properly fitted. Per ADH and CDC, cloth face coverings do not qualify as actual personal protection equipment.

So no plans have been made to provide effective PPE to staff members, even though you continually use that phrasing at press conferences.

Your document also spends much time describing the deep cleaning of surfaces. Of course surface cleaning is important, especially around little ones living a gross stage of life. But the latest reports from scientists and doctors seem to suggest that the main threat is shared airspace.

Yet I see no recognition of the threat of airborne transmission. No mention of money or effort toward addressing air filtration, negative flow, etc. To say that I have concerns with this vague “plan” would be quite the understatement.

We are simply not ready to go back, no matter how much the governor wishes the problem away.

I find it amazing that so much of our “leadership” has bemoaned the negatives of virtual instruction while giving no voice to any of the positives. Yet I’m bombarded with TV and Internet ads for online schools, including Connections Academy, wholeheartedly endorsed by Mr. Key, the SBE, and the governor.

Why isn’t that school also dangerous for kids’ development? Shouldn’t it be shut down immediately for the way it mistreats the disadvantaged? If not, why can’t the state force them to share their secrets to success? Wasn’t that the original point of charter schools?

The truth is that we can do online education well, and we’ll most likely be forced to within a few weeks of “opening” anyway. But whether you come to your senses now or wait until we reach some “unacceptable” number of infections and deaths, eventually you are going to have to start listening to actual experts about how best to do it. (Those are the teachers, by the way.)

Moreover, and this will be the hardest part for you, you’re going to have to listen with the intent of solving, rather than negating, our concerns.

At the core of teaching is an ethos of deep caring and creative problem solving. All of the good ones share this. If you would give us the tools and space to innovate, then trust us to do what we do best, you would be blown away at the talent you have working for you.

Instead, you put people who have never sailed in charge of navigation, and now we’re all headed for the rocks at full speed. My family will not be embarking on such a voyage.

The thought of losing my job with the LRSD is saddening, but I’ve been sad before and survived it; the thought of being poor and losing our house is gut-wrenching, but I was poor for most of my life, and we have survived that, too.

The thought of losing one of my children, or my children growing up without their parent(s), from something so easily avoidable is something I will not voluntarily do to another generation of my family. My father died before I knew him, from something avoidable, something that the politicians of the time also didn’t take seriously as a public health crisis.

I know firsthand what is faced in a single-parent household, no matter how hard the remaining parent tries to fill the gap. I also know firsthand how my grandparents never recovered from losing their only child.

“Mask-to-mask” instruction isn’t worth such costs, not for anyone, even if only a few. I will not expose my family to such threats flippantly in order to satisfy a political whim. Nor will I endorse other families sending their children into such danger.

By the very act of standing in my classroom door, I would be telling my students and their parents: “See, I’m here; it’s safe … come on in.” This I will not do. Besides a deep need to protect my own family, I cannot be complicit in the infections and deaths that will result from returning too soon.

I am not resigning. I need and want my job. I stand with my friends and fellows in the Little Rock Education Association and endorse the phased-opening approach that they have put forth. I’ll be logged in, Ready for Teaching, on whatever day we finally start, and my students will not suffer because of me. But I won’t be in a crowded classroom without true PPE.

Furthermore, I must be able to supervise my own children while they attend virtually. That can’t be a privilege only for the affluent. These challenges are solvable, and these requests are reasonable.

I am—we are—more than Fulltime Equivalent codes for your employment matrix. As I said, I’m willing to keep repeating my concerns, whether anyone is listening or not.

But I hope you will hear me, because I’m not really asking for you to recognize my humanity and value. I am demanding it.

With full sincerity, and optimism for your better natures,

Jacob W. Morris, teacher and alumnus, Little Rock Central High School