AP: SC teachers want virtual school again after COVID-19 spike

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)– With new COVID-19 cases reaching record levels in South Carolina, a teachers group is asking districts to go back to all-virtual teaching until this second spike in the virus can be flattened. The plea was given more emotional weight over the weekend after the death of 50-year-old third-grade teacher Staci Blakely. Her family asked Lexington School District 1 to publicly announce her death from COVID-19 to remind people how serious the disease can be.

At least four school districts in South Carolina have returned to all-virtual learning, including 12,000 students in the Orangeburg County School District. Nearly a quarter of the state’s districts are teaching in person every day.