Two years ago, I wrote my first news story that mentioned COVID-19 after the Fulton County School System shut down after a teacher was diagnosed with the disease caused by the coronavirus. State School Superintendent Richard Woods called Fulton’s closing unique, saying, “At this time, school closures are not recommended for other areas.”
AJC reporters talked to harried Fulton parents who said the sudden closings created havoc with their jobs. Like the rest of the state, however, those parents expected the closings to be temporary, even after Gov. Brian Kemp advised increasingly worried Georgians a week later, “If you feel it is prudent, you should consider closing day cares, schools and school districts as early as tomorrow through the next two weeks.”
Those two weeks turned into two years in which the most common theme became loss. Georgia saw a terrible loss of lives, with about 30,000 confirmed deaths from COVID-19. Health losses linger for the estimated 160,000 to 480,000 Georgians who may have long-haul COVID-19 in which at least one symptom persists.
The pandemic left Georgia students with multiple losses — concerts they never performed, proms they never attended, soccer tournaments they never played, graduation stages they never crossed.
Student learning loss emerged the major concern as school buildings remained shuttered in 2020-2021. While a few students thrived in online classes, most did not. Districts created ambitious plans for accelerated learning this year that were upended by soaring student and staff absences due to the onslaught of the delta and omicron variants.
Teachers experienced their own set of losses, especially after initial gratitude for their overnight shift to remote instruction curdled into rancor over hesitancy by school staffs to return to classrooms without masks. Many educators said they lost all trust that their health mattered to the anti-mask contingent.
At school board meetings in suburban metro districts, parents booed teachers asking for mask mandates to protect immunocompromised family members. Fulton teachers began this school year with threatening emails from some parents warning teachers to join their anti-mask campaign or face lawsuits.
What losses do you feel are the greatest in education? Can those losses be overcome? Or, is there damage — and relationships — that can’t be repaired as a result of the pandemic?
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