KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ While most area school districts plan to begin class after Labor Day, much of it online only, Independence, Mo., is ready to start Monday, with most students in person.
And if teachers don't like it, they can opt out, with no pay.
"I'm afraid to go and afraid to say anything about it," said one Independence elementary school music teacher who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from district leaders. "I'm expected to look parents in the eye and tell them everything is fine and that their students will be fine when I know they are not."
Her fellow teachers will speak out against the district's reopening plan at a protest Saturday.
A few miles to the south, in Lee's Summit, it's some parents who are protesting, and not because their children are heading into classrooms. The district will start Sept. 8, online only until health officials say the coronavirus case count is under control in Jackson County.
Parents, who staged a rally at district offices Wednesday, worry there will be an uptick in child suicides and drug use because their kids have been out of school too long, miss their friends and are depressed.
"We have leaders who don't want to be responsible for COVID spread and they don't want to be responsible for child deaths from suicide. We need our kids back in school," said April Wilkins a member of the parent group Open Our Jackson County Schools.
Parents at the rally shouted, "Zoom is not a classroom" and "Sitting at home is not a way for students to learn."
The worries and accusations are playing out across the Kansas City area and the nation, as some teachers and parents fear the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms and on athletic fields while others fear students will lose out on their education, and mental health, if they must stay home.
Some Independence teachers said that their classrooms are too small to properly social distance and that the district is not requiring high school classrooms to be cleaned between classes.
District officials have told teachers who don't want to be in school that they can take an eight-week or yearlong sabbatical without pay and their jobs would be waiting for them when they return.
"I don't think that offer is feasible for anyone," said one Truman High School teacher who also requested anonymity for fear of district retaliation.
"I am not saying that we don't have some teachers who are nervous," said Superintendent Dale Herl. "But our focus right from the start has always been about safety." He said the online education advocacy group Missourians for Educational Change has already organized one teacher protest, but he said only a handful of his teachers participated.
"You are always nervous about the unknown," he said. "I can assure our families that we have taken every single precaution."
Independence will be one of the first districts in the Kansas City area returning to classrooms since schools went fully online in March due to the pandemic. Center school district starts back Aug. 26 with everyone online. Many districts will start after Labor Day with all students online, and will slowly move to in-person classes if the rate of virus spread slows and local health officials are onboard.
But Independence elementary students will be in school, in person, five days a week. Health experts have said the youngest children are the least likely to become sick from the virus or spread it.
Like most other districts, Independence gave families a choice, and about 30% of middle and high school students opted to go completely online. Most will return on a hybrid schedule to make room for social distancing, with half in person one week while the other half is online, and then the next week the groups switch. Some teachers were tapped to teach fully online.
But a Missouri National Education Association survey of 24,000 educators, most of them classroom teachers, found that only 1.6% believe schools have a "clear plan and the physical space to ensure adequate social distancing." The big push from the group is for schools to delay their start and to begin the year online, said spokesman Mark Jones. And 57% said they are concerned about contracting COVID-19 when they return to classrooms.
"There is a big culture of fear," the Truman High teacher said. "The area's percentage of positive cases is just too high to be returning to school." Jackson County outside of Kansas City has seen 4,828 infections, including 55 deaths. The overall rate of positive cases among those tested was about 8% in Missouri on Thursday. Health officials say anything over 3% is not good.
The anonymous elementary school music teacher said she is "terrified," because she is immune compromised and worried about contracting the virus. But "I can't afford eight weeks or a year without pay. I'm just going to do my best to show up for my kids and hope for the best."
She said she's also worried because Independence school leaders say they won't quarantine whole classrooms when a student tests positive. Anyone who was within 14 feet of that student for more than a few minutes would be informed about possible exposure.
Herl said that this summer, the district had 4,000 students, teachers and staff in schools, "and there was not one incident of transmission." He said about a dozen tested positive for COVID-19 this summer, but all contracted it outside of school.
Patrick Koon, a high school English teacher who taught this summer in Independence, said he's not worried because his largest class will be around 12 students, they all will wear masks and have room to social distance.
"I can't wait to get back into the classroom," Koon said. "From my experience we have a pretty good plan. I think in person has a much more positive impact for students. A lot of the students I serve see school as their safe place."
His views were shared by the Lee' Summit parents who rallied this week against the plan to start the year online only. Blue Valley district parents gave similar pleas to their school board on Wednesday. Shawnee Mission parents are ready to protest on Monday.
In Lee's Summit, more than 100 parents and students held signs saying "Open Our Schools," "Facts not fear" and "Our Kids Belong in School." Over a microphone, they talked about children being depressed after missing out on in-person classes in the spring and being shut away from friends.
"Isolation has been hard on these kids," said Dana Scheidt, who has two children at Lee's Summit North High School. "The kids are scared, they feel lazy, they don't want to get out of bed. We are worried about depression. Our kids are suffering. They are suffering in silence."
"We will see an increase in suicides and drug usage if children don't go back into school," said Dana White, who has one child in the district. "Why are we closing down our schools when everything else is open?"
The district has no time frame for when its students will be allowed back in classrooms, but officials said that it will happen in phases. Students in pre-K through third grade will be the first because health officials have said the youngest children are the least likely to spread the virus. High school students will be the last to return. The board votes on a final back-to-school method Aug. 25.
Given the choice, 79% of parents said they wanted students to have classes in person.
Lola Garrett, who is 10 and in fifth grade, said she wants to return to school because "I want to see my classmates, I want to see my special teachers, I want to see my therapist."
Parents said returning children to in-person classes is a moral decision they believe should be made by parents and not school administrators. Parents, they said, know what is best for their children.
School board member Megan Marshall attended the rally to hear what parents had to say. "I support opening our schools safely," Marshall said. "It is not an 'us versus them' thing. They have valid concerns. But the last thing I want to do is rush into in-person classes and then have to pull right back out. It is like trying to hit a moving target."
