Teacher Safety During The Pandemic

WAAY 31's Grace Campbell spoke with a teacher who doesn't feel safe going back to the classroom this year.

Delta in our area as a low coming up in a few minutes.

>>> and now to the coronavirus virus, teachers are not immune to coronavirus or to being sent into quarantine when a student tests positive for the virus.

And that is contributing to a shortage of teachers now in alabama schools.

The state superintendent of education told us for the first time ever there's a shortage of elementary schoolteachers.

Grace campbell spoke with a teacher who doesn't feel safe going back to the classroom this year.

>> dr. tammy walker's passion is teaching and she has been doing what she lovers for more than 25 years.

But she told me her fiance say cancer survivor and she works with the elderly.

So when the time came to make the decision to go back to a traditional school setting or find another teaching solution like zoom, she decided to go with something new.

>> it was definitely thought-provoking, do i want to put myself in an environment where there would be so many unknown factor so, much interax with so many -- interaction with so many different people.

And even though the schools have tried but putting up plexiglass, i didn't feel like that was a complete answer to what's going on right now.

>> reporter: when schools announced plans to re-open, walker was working at a private school in madison county.

She said she didn't feel the precautions in place would be practical for her students.

>> when have you ever known a student to be sitting in their desk facing forward?

It doesn't happen.

They're everywhere else.

So i'm not sure, i don't even see that as a viable solution.

>> reporter: she now runs educational solutions with dr. tammy walker.

She told me it's like a cater service with a few educators teaching students by zoom.

Walker told me this allows teachers to have a say in what they're comfortable with instead of being fold what they have to do.

>> i was working for someone else and they told me i had to report.

And i had to interact.

And i had to be in a hallway with, you know, 200 other children.

That does not give me a choice.

That gives me exposure.

>> reporter: to make sure everyone is healthy when they provide in-person learn, the teachers wear a mask and check everyone's temperatures before the meeting.