Story by Braden Cantor-Goldner, illustration by Mallika Sunder

In 5th grade, my teacher had a week of science lessons dedicated to verifying the validity of information online. The whole point of these lessons was to teach us that, while we live in a time with ever-increasing access to information, the internet is a tool often misused. It’s a great resource for research, but it’s also home to many fake facts, conspiracy theories, and pseudoscience that are passed off as true. I originally wanted to include a Mark Twain quote in this article that I had seen online; but, within 10 seconds of attempting to verify that he actually said it, I was able to discover he never did. Now more than ever, many people disregard science and believe anything they see on the internet without verification. My personal experience with this involves my school district on the subject of reopening in-person school for the fall semester.

A few weeks ago, I was shown a social media post from a teacher in my school district depicting that the teachers would be forced to go back to in-person meetings the first week of August. That teacher expressed fear and anger at the lack of an online option given the exponentially rising cases of Covid-19 in our state. I was shocked at the blatant neglect the district had for the safety of its staff. This district was a place that I had felt safe in for many years. I learned how important it was to follow science and always search for the most accurate information possible. Now, they themselves were ignoring science. It felt as if they were the ones who needed to take that 5th grade science class. A few hours after I saw that social media post, I got together with some friends and we started a petition to “Save Our Teachers”. Immediately, our petition gained hundreds of signatures from parents, alumni, students, and, most importantly, teachers.

Almost every day after that, the situation escalated. The day after posting the petition, we were contacted by a district representative claiming that we had just “misunderstood” the situation. Knowing not to take everything at face value, we contacted multiple teachers from different schools in our district to verify our interpretation. We obtained official documents detailing the in-person meetings, inspiring us to spread the word as much as possible. I designed a website with my friends and tried to raise awareness through social media. Throughout our campaign, the district twisted facts to try to get us to stop; but, thanks to the very education we learned at their schools, we knew to ask questions and do our research to find the full story.

As time went on, the lack of respect the district had for its own teachers became more apparent. I value all of my educators very highly and to see them treated like they were expendable was horrifying. At one point, the district sent a survey to their teachers with the option to either teach in person or resign. This sparked more outrage, leading to open letters from parents and teachers being spread across our community.

One week after our petition was posted, I attended a district board meeting online. The meeting was held in person with the option to attend virtually. During the public comment portion (which ran for about two hours), I read a shortened version of the open letter my friends and I wrote. Every teacher who spoke at the meeting said they didn’t feel safe going back in person. Many parents also voiced concerns about the lack of safety procedures our district had put in place. Despite masks being mandated in our county, the only people who spoke in support of schools reopening did so without masks. One board member took off their mask whenever they spoke during the meeting and often wore it below their nose when not speaking. This leads me to my main point.

The “debate” to reopen schools is often painted as two-sided when it’s not. We would all like to return to school in person this fall. Those of us who use science, logic, and other school-taught reasoning skills understand why this is unsafe for everyone. Why was the district that educated us so well still this resistant to facts and reasoning? At the end of July, our district finally moved to 100% remote learning for students in the Fall because the county health department stepped in.

When I initially wrote this piece, teachers were still required to return to their classrooms even though it was already deemed unsafe for students to come in person. We continued to write letters and strengthen our argument with even more reasons against forcing teachers to go back. At one point, using knowledge from classes and clubs, my friends and I did research and experiments which led us to believe that the district’s internet couldn’t even handle all teachers doing video lessons from school. A few days before the report date for teachers, the district finally decided to give them an option to work entirely from home at least while students are also remotely learning.

In the end, this experience certainly changed how I view my school district. I used to see it as a safe and supportive place for students and teachers. Now, I’ve lost a lot of this trust. Ultimately, our petition gained over 2,000 signatures, and, even though the district never directly acknowledged our efforts, I think that we played a part in enacting change. There’s still so much uncertainty regarding what will happen in the rest of the year and I hope everyone will keep fighting for our teachers as needed. I know I will.