In LISD, teachers have been forced to take leave because they have health conditions that prevent them from going back due to the risk of contracting COVID-19. My school, Vandegrift High School, has already had teachers who have had to take leave until December of this year -- these are teachers that care about their students, teachers who want to make their students excel. Imagine my feeling when at the end of class I was informed by my teacher that she wouldn't be able to continue teaching us, and she had no idea what would happen to our class.

    Students are afforded the luxury to stay at home -- some of us have health issues or concerns about returning back. The district gladly offers us the opportunity to act upon our own best interests. Unfortunately, the same luxury is not offered to teachers.

    These teachers have worked hard to teach us the necessary material so that we could get a 5 on our AP exams, get great grades on midterms, or learn about a subject that could possibly be relevant to our future, and yet our district refuses to respect them enough to allow them to teach virtually.

    In a district where 1 employee in Atkin's elementary school ended up dying from complications of COVID-19 on the 19th of August (1) and as many as 34 employees have tested positive as of August 10th in LISD (2), the fact that the district is putting teachers in a double bind where the only options are to risk their life or to stop teaching is abhorrent and has to be changed.

    For these reasons we request that LISD creates a system that allows teachers to choose to work virtually or physically.

1) https://www.kxan.com/news/education/leander-isd-employee-dies-of-complications-due-to-covid-19/

2) https://www.kvue.com/article/news/investigations/defenders/covid19-schools-central-texas-school-districts-defenders/269-bd6d983d-ec71-406e-bf8c-4288ef7f82ff