11/20/20

News Feature: Mental Health of Teachers

665 Words

For the first time in nearly eight months, Cassie Hettleman walked up to Kent Middle School

eager to see her coworkers and set up her classroom, only to be greeted by hateful signs plastered

all over the building. As one of the last schools to reopen in its district, a group of dissatisfied

parents has been especially vocal regarding their frustrations with Kent’s in-person instruction

plan.

“When I saw the signs, my heart just sank,” Hettleman, a math teacher, said. “I feel like it’s been

a long road for a lot of us to get to the place where we feel safe coming back, and that just took

the wind out of my sails.”

Along with many other schools across the nation, Kent Middle School (Kent) in Kentfield,

California closed down due to the threat of COVID-19. This drastic shift to virtual education put

teachers under enormous amounts of stress. According to a survey conducted back in March by

the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, the five most-mentioned feelings among teachers

were “anxious, fearful, worried, overwhelmed and sad.”

Jennifer Green, an associate professor at Boston University and child clinical psychologist, said

educators are currently most concerned for their students’ mental health as well as their ability to

effectively teach through distance learning.

“Right now [teachers are] being asked to change how they're teaching, to support students in new

ways, to use new platforms to deliver material to students who are struggling…” Green said,

“[It’s] extremely challenging in the context that they're being asked to do it in.”

Kent’s student activities director, Melissa Stephens, said she had to recreate and “revolutionize”

her curriculum to ensure her students remained engaged.

“With Zoom—it’s hard, man I’m exhausted—you’ve got to sing and dance all day long because

there’s not that natural energy that is in a classroom setting when you’re in there together kind of

feeding off each other,” Stephens said.

With California slowly reopening its schools and businesses, Kent transitioned from distance

learning to a hybrid model with eight-person cohorts. However, some of the students’ parents

have been pushing for the school to reopen more fully. This contention in the community is what

led to the sign incident on Monday morning; according to Stephens, one read, “Our children are

not your bargaining chip.”

“It gets me just so upset because it’s like, as if we would ever, like we would never use children

as bargaining chips, so that piece of it—all that negativity,” Stephens said. “[The parents are] a

small group, but they’re a loud group; that’s been super stressful.”
Hettleman said the extensive process of virtual meetings to figure out how to deal with all the

issues of reopening during the pandemic has been the most stressful time of her life.

“I just felt really scared about being back in a classroom, ” Hettleman said, “I think I’d never

really experienced that kind of feeling where I felt I might need to give up my job that I love,

that I’ve been doing for 28 years, just to protect my health.”

According to Gil Noam, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, it’s

crucial for teachers to find support in their coworkers and administration during stressful times.

“I'm really talking to a lot of teachers… and it just struck me the themes of isolation, loneliness,

even if the students come into the building the teachers are saying, ‘Look, we can't give the

young kid a hug,’” Noam said. “A lot of [reducing stress] has to do with really being in

relationships with people and to not allow for too much isolation that becomes toxic.”

As Kent’s students trickle into the doors for the first time this semester, Hettleman said she hopes

to feel more connected to her students and that everyone will stay healthy.

“I just hope that I feel that same joy that I feel when I’m around my students and that magic that

happens in the classroom,” she said. “I hope I get that back.”

###
SOURCE LIST

Unofficial:

Cassie Hettleman, 51 (San Rafael, California)

cassiemccord@yahoo.com +1 (415) 250-7770

Melissa Stephens, 52 (Greenbrae, California)

mstephens@kentfieldschools.org (415) 254-7422

Grant Althouse, 40 (San Rafael, California)

galthouse@kentfieldschools.org (650) 862-0773

Allison Malloy, 35 (Carmel, Indiana)

amalloy@ccs.k12.in.us

Matthew Malloy, 36 (Carmel, Indiana)

mmalloy@ccs.k12.in.us

Official:

Jennifer Green, 42 (Boston, Massachusetts)

jggreen@bu.edu (617) 820-8953

Gil Noam, 70 (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

gilnoam@mcclean.harvard.edu (617) 792-6677

EdSurge:

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-04-07-teachers-are-anxious-and-overwhelmed-they-need-s

el-now-more-than-ever

Reagan Smiley, 18 (Carmel, IN)

Reagan Smiley, a freshman at Purdue University, will travel to Captiva Island in Florida to spend

Thanksgiving with her long-distance boyfriend and his family. She said there will be around 12

people in total.

“It will be very very nice and very much appreciated because long distance is quite difficult so

anytime when we can see each other is really nice,” Smiley said. I’m excited.”

However, she said a lot of her boyfriends’ family members are from different colleges across the

country so she’s worried about the risk of COVID-19.

College students all across the U.S. typically leave campus and return home to their families for

Thanksgiving Break, but with the pandemic, travelling poses the risk of disease transmission.

According to AAA Travel, travel is expected to fall at least 10% for this holiday, which is the

largest drop since the Great Recession.

Reagan Smiley, a freshman at Purdue University, will travel to Captiva Island in Florida to spend

Thanksgiving with her long-distance boyfriend and his family. Although she’s excited to see her

boyfriend for the first time in months, Smiley said she’s really concerned about spreading

COVID-19.

“[His family has] all been socially distancing and we’re all getting testing and we can’t go if we

get COVID-19,” Smiley said. “I’m quite worried but I’m taking like the most precautions

because I’m a very cautious person already so I’ll be very careful.

I just wanted to send you a HUGE thank you for such an incredible quarter.

As

I am going to Florida with my boyfriend and his family. 5 days. I think 12 people

Fammily members coming from all different states because a lot of them are from Indiana, all of

his siblings.

They’ve all been socially distancing and we’re all getting testing and we can’t go if we get

COVID-19 and we’re staying gi wthin the house and not going out and interacting with anyone

else we’re trying obea scovid safe as physically possible

Just to like be with people again because it’s been months since I’ve seen him. And Florida is

cool.

I’m quite worried but again I’m taking like the most precautions because I’m a very cautious

person already so I’ll be very careful.

No we’re finishing our semester at home online

“I’ll probably take naother COVID test just to make sure i don’t have it after and I’ll probably

still be distancing from people cuz I don’t want to come in contact with

“It will be very vry nice and very much appreciated because long distance is quite difficult so

anytime when we can see each other is very nice, and I’m excited.”

On