“I’m worried I’m going to be taking care of teachers passing out from heat exhaustion as much as I am about them coming down with symptoms of Covid,” she said.
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In July, Amy Westmoreland resigned as an elementary school nurse in the Paulding County School District in Dallas, Ga., because of its decision to make masks optional, while requiring that she tend to both healthy and symptomatic students in a small clinic room.
“How could I do my job protecting children if I were to have been infected and made them or their family sick?” she said. “I would not be able to live with myself.”
This month, widely shared photos showed students without masks in packed hallways in the district’s North Paulding High School, and nine students and staff members tested positive for the virus, prompting the school to shift classes online.
“It’s truly my worst fear that I knew would probably happen,” Ms. Westmoreland said.
In some districts that are not planning to teach in-person classes, nurses are out of work for the time being. The Palm Beach County Health Care District in Florida furloughed about 140 school nurses and health technicians this month, after the county school district decided to teach online until further notice.
But some other large districts set to teach only online are continuing to provide health care. As the school nurse administrator for Columbus City Schools, Kate King is responsible for the health of 50,000 students and 10,000 staff members in Ohio’s largest district.
Aided by more than 100 nurses, she has created immunization plans and developed online platforms for connecting with families so students, especially those with chronic illnesses like asthma and diabetes, can remain healthy while learning remotely.
