As Manheim Township reopens amid COVID-19, students are able to choose how they would like to go back to school. They are given resources to deal with the new challenges that come with doing so in a pandemic. Township’s teachers, however, have been left with minimal options and added challenges to an already complicated job.

Before school started, the Manheim Township school board held a virtual meeting to vote on a plan to reopen the high school while trying to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak. The school explained the in-person and at-home options for students. These plans were created to give students and their families a variety of options that they could choose based on their own circumstances, and to lessen the amount of people in the school at once.

After the plan was proposed and the meeting opened for discussion, many teachers joined and stated their concerns with the plan. One teacher told the board about the situation he would be forced into if the school reopened, saying that he would isolate himself from his family. He explained that he couldn’t risk getting his family sick. A dozen teachers joined the zoom and each one of them told the school board to not go through with the plan, explaining their concerns for themselves and others.  Two teachers emotionally explained their situation with a high risk child who they couldn’t risk exposing to coronavirus. The proposed plan made them choose to take an unpaid leave or severely endanger their childs’ life. 

As teachers expressed their concerns about the risk of  bringing coronavirus home to their families, the safety of letting students come back to school, and the strain that a hybrid model would put on them, the school board watched. Yet they voted on a plan that left teachers’ concerns greatly unanswered. These teachers deserve more consideration than they were given.

Teachers have always had a risky and stressful job, even without the unprecedented challenge of a pandemic. They are being expected to not only teach students but also prepare for the possibility of a school shooting or another tragedy; but the coronavirus pandemic adds another layer of risk and strain to a teacher’s workload. They are now expected to come into their jobs, clean between classes, teach both remote and in-person students, all while knowing they might bring a deadly virus home to their family or be affected by it themselves. The teachers that talked during the board meeting expressed all of these concerns. Older teachers are even more at risk, while also struggling more with new technology needed for the school boards reopening plan. And if these teachers are high risk or have other reasons that working in-person is unsafe, they can only take unpaid leave or quit their job. 

Some may argue that it is reasonable to expect teachers to assume the risk and strain of the new plan. They chose their job knowing there would be risks and that it would be time consuming and stressful. Some may even say that the teachers should go along with the plan because they are being paid to do this job, and need to deal with everything that comes with it; but this assertion overlooks the fact that the school board could have done better for teachers who aren’t being forced into this position for lack of better options. To provide teachers with a work-from-home option would be admittedly complicated. But the school could have worked with teachers who have situations where they need that option and figured out a plan. Also, starting completely online would have kept teachers safer while reducing the stress of juggling the hybrid plan. Teachers deserve to have concerns addressed, and it doesn’t seem they were.

Students were provided with ample viable options under the school board’s plan, and should be grateful for that. But teachers are people, and they should be provided with the same concern, the same choices and the same care as students. The school board did not focus nearly enough on the people who are most affected by their plan, and it has caused teachers to have to quit, to endanger their families, and to face immense amounts of pressure. Teachers need their voices not to just be heard, but listened to and considered.