Opinion: Teachers are more than Covid data points

Julie Davis, 49, was an inspirational third grade teacher, a “mother to everyone,” who attended her students’ extracurriculars and donated to children in need. About three weeks after a student at her North Carolina school tested positive for Covid-19, Davis fell ill. This mother and grandmother died certain, her brother said, that she caught the virus at school (an assessment the superintendent said was unproven). One week after Davis’s death, her school system shifted to virtual instruction because of rampant Covid-19 infections in the schools and community.

Julie Davis, 49, was an inspirational third grade teacher, a “mother to everyone,” who attended her students’ extracurriculars and donated to children in need. About three weeks after a student at her North Carolina school tested positive for Covid-19, Davis fell ill. This mother and grandmother died certain, her brother said, that she caught the virus at school (an assessment the superintendent said was unproven). One week after Davis’s death, her school system shifted to virtual instruction because of rampant Covid-19 infections in the schools and community.