Return or resign: Texas teacher says schools issue reopening ultimatum
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By Dan Wright

The coming months will mark the 18th time that I have begun a school year. It promises to be a year like no other, but not for the reasons that we would generally presume. The joy and anticipation of meeting new students and getting off to a fresh start in the adventure of learning are lacking. The cloud of a deadly pandemic hangs over us, and it's the first time teachers and support staff have received ultimatums to return to school or lose their jobs and livelihood. For some, the threat is greater than for others. I fall into the former category.

COVID-19 has hit my family and friends in ways perhaps unlike the majority have experienced, though all of us have been touched in some way. I personally have lost family members to the pandemic, and currently, an entire branch of my family and extended family now struggle with the illness, including a previously healthy 38-year-old nephew who is on a ventilator. The reality of the pandemic could not be more clear nor more serious.

As a teacher in Texas, and as a labor leader among teachers, I have pored over the guidelines offered by the Texas Education Agency and the legalese of accompanying documents searching for hope that I might find a way to convince my school district that the time is not right to reopen schools. We must expect that a large number of students will arrive on the first day infected with COVID-19.

My thoughts race back to earlier in the year when Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a person holding immense power in the state, appeared on a Fox News program and suggested that lives must be sacrificed in order to preserve the economy and the way of life people have come to expect as Americans. His words reached me with shock and disbelief. "Surely, things will not go this far," I thought. However, I was wrong.

In the past weeks, the determination to reopen schools was underscored by President Donald Trump and...

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