ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A teacher who has COVID-19 shared her story with the St. Johns County School District Tuesday.
It came as fellow educators, along with parents, spoke at a board meeting. They said more needs to be done to make sure the disease doesn’t spread through schools.
Daisy Butler is a St. Johns County teacher who called in to the school board during Tuesday's meeting.
This is what she told them:
“You’ll have to excuse me if I get a little emotional. I have COVID. I teach for the county. I’m on day 10 and, finally, on Day 10 I feel a little normal, but I got COVID from a child at camp who’s 9 years old. It took four weeks of work at camp and 40 kids to be exposed and then contract it. A 9-year-old tested positive.
We did all of the CDC requirements. We did the temperatures in the parking lot. We wore a mask, mind you, in a 100 degree heat index. We had three isolated classrooms. One outside. One was a park and one was inside a classroom.
I had a group of 10 kids. I was the only adult with 10 kids, and the groups never mixed. We ate lunch on the floor, 6 feet apart. We sanitized at least five times a day. Those guidelines don’t work.
I am healthy. I exercise. I eat well. And to all those comments about people not being healthy getting it, it is not true.
We followed all the guidelines. Every one of them. We disinfected with big giant cans of industrial spray. My co-workers stood 6 to 8 feet apart in a circle when we did morning meetings.
My point is kids can get it. It happened. It happened to me. He didn’t show any symptoms. The other part is parents aren’t always truthful.
My parents and husband are awaiting test results. My parents are 80. That’s my point and I just wanted to share my story.
Thank you.”
Butler told First Coast News she got very sick, but she is improving. She is not angry, and she is not blaming anyone. She just wants to warn the school district. Butler does not want to reveal the name of the camp. She says it did nothing wrong.