This video story was reported and produced by Dylan Zuccarello.
Some Hillsborough County teachers are reacting to how things have gone so far with the safety measures to keep the student body safe.
With schools now open for more than two months, students and faculty are getting used to the protocols to follow in the classroom. The School District has provided outlines and regulations in order to keep school grounds safe: one-way directional signs, spaced out desks, sanitation stations and informative signs have been put into effect in schools.
The school district also created a contingency plan in case, schools must fully close in the future.
Heather Cleveland, a seventh-grade science teacher, said this is a new learning environment, and it is not easy to adapt to for either teachers or students.
“Getting them to understand why it is important to wear their masks, so there’s that science component of getting them to understand why. We have sanitation stations within the room. We have wipes. We have hand sanitizer. We have disinfectant,” Cleveland said.
School custodians constantly clean common areas, such as door handles, restrooms and table surfaces. A recent laboratory study done by the Environmental Protection Agency said that Lysol disinfectant spray can destroy the virus two minutes after contact.
The school system has also produced instructional videos on fighting the flu and coronavirus.
Even with the many safety and cleaning regulations put in place, cases continue to rise across the Tampa Bay area.
School board officials released a reopening plan for the fall semester however, Tiffany Carr, a history instructor, decided it was not safe to return and it was time to take her teaching skills online.
“I do have two children and one of them is immunocompromised, and I was very concerned about bringing something home to her,” Carr said.
Teaching from home, however, has not proven easy.
“I’m trying just as a teacher to wrap my mind around something that is new for me,” Carr said. “I only meet with my students through Zoom once a week and they are not mandatory. So you know, having to push aside all my creativity of liking to be in a classroom face-to-face to get these kids to really enjoy things” is difficult.
