WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — After Lexington School District Two transitioned to five days of face-to-face learning last Wednesday, dozens of teachers called out of work in protest.
"Returning to five day, face-to-face this past Wednesday was really what sort of pushed us to a point where we felt we needed to take more drastic action," said a Lexington Two high school teacher that wants to remain anonymous.
They explained that many teachers think it’s unsafe and too soon to move to five days in-person because of the level of COVID-19 activity in Lexington County.
"Most of our concerns are at the high school level," they added. "We’ve got a substantial portion of students that are in the hallways incorrectly wearing masks. With bringing everybody back five days, the big concern is social distancing, we’re just not able to do it. Our class sizes with everybody there, it’s impossible."
They said their schools' class sizes are as large as 32 students, which makes it tough to space out.
Lexington Two told News19 in a statement, “we follow guidelines given by a number of sources on spacing to the greatest extent possible. We have given some of our teachers who have requested it new classroom spaces.”
Last Wednesday, over 20 staff members at Brookland-Cayce High School called out, according to the district. On Friday the district said about 20 called out again at BC and another 20 or so called out at Airport High School.
SC For Ed, a teacher advocacy group pushing for districts to be virtual until safe, told News19 that, “teachers are scared to go back to school for a variety of reasons, but most substantial is the number of students in our classes and the inability to create true social distance.”
"We all want to be at a spot where we can come back five days face-to-face. Nobody’s arguing that that’s not where we want to be in an ideal scenario, but we’re just not in an ideal scenario," said the teacher.
Lexington Two said their superintendent has met one-on-one with some teachers to discuss their concerns on reopening and "fully expect discussions with employees and families to continue, as will our daily evaluations of school data, and we will make any adjustments as needed.”
They also said about 15 staff members at the high schools called out Monday but they were able to find substitutes.