3 Broward educators with COVID die within 2 days as school year nears

Authored by local10.com and submitted by dakandy
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Two Broward County teachers and an educational assistant died within 36 hours this week after contracting COVID-19, according to the teachers’ union.

Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco previously said that four educators had died, but the union issued a correction Friday afternoon, saying the fourth person she had referenced “was a female Broward County Public Schools graduate with close ties to the school district through her job.”

Another teacher’s assistant is hospitalized with the virus, Fusco told ABC News.

It comes as teachers from Florida’s second-largest public school district returned to campuses this week to prepare for the first day of classes next Wednesday.

”We have three schools that have to talk about one of their colleagues that passed,” Fusco said.

One teacher and one educational assistant who died were from Dillard Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale, School Board Chair Rosalind Osgood confirmed. They were ages 48 and 49. Another 48-year-old teacher was from Pinewood Elementary in North Lauderdale.

Their names have not been released, but they were all women.

None of the three were vaccinated, according to Fusco. One who “was on the road to getting vaccinated” but wasn’t yet cleared by her doctor to get the shot. She “was really looking forward to getting it in the next couple weeks,” the union president said.

Fusco said none of those educators had been back in school buildings since the end of last year.

“We have no further information on any of the deaths. We grieve their losses along with their families and the school communities they left behind,” the union said in a statement.

Osgood says it’s likely there are other teachers battling the virus that the district hasn’t yet been made aware of.

“On Tuesday the district was contacted by different families to inform us that individuals had passed away with COVID,” Osgood said. “I’m certain that there are probably others and that their families have not contacted the district at this point.

“Just in natural numerics, we know that there’s probably more than four individuals that’s been impacted by COVID in some type of way,” she added.

Broward’s public school district is battling the state over the face mask mandate the school board voted 8-1 to keep in place earlier this week.

That goes against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ orders against such mask mandates, and the state’s education commissioner has threatened to withhold Broward School Board salaries. The district has a 5 p.m. deadline Friday to reply to the state about its plans.

Broward County is leading the nation in new COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to federal data.

“Our numbers are horrible,” Broward Mayor Steve Geller said of the coronavirus surge in the county.

ALSO SEE: Fauci tells Local 10 he’s ‘concerned about all of Florida’

Balls_of_Adamanthium on August 13rd, 2021 at 13:51 UTC »

Where I teach, currently 5 colleagues are out, admins aren’t disclosing any info, only that they’re out for at least the next 10-14 days (Jeez I wonder what that might be). 1 more has decided to take another job; showed up yesterday with a huge ass box, grabbed his personal shit and peaced out. Masks are optional and parents have their pitchforks ready to unleash hell if the district make them mandatory. Oh and kids are coming back next week. Just fucking lovely.

Zander826 on August 13rd, 2021 at 12:26 UTC »

Just wait all insurance (health and life) companies will require the vaccine. Or sky high premiums. Kinda like what they did for cigarettes

dakandy on August 13rd, 2021 at 12:17 UTC »

“Within a 24-hour span, we had an assistant teacher pass away, a teacher at her school pass away, an elementary teacher pass away, and another teacher at a high school,”

So it's actually with 24 hours.