Exhausted Teachers Battle New COVID-19 Surge As They Return to Schools

  • This month, schools returned to in-person classes as the Delta variant surges across the US.
  • Insider spoke to five teachers who described feeling “broken” by the demands of last year.
  • Some teachers said they often worked until 2 a.m. and considered quitting to work in a restaurant. 

Arriving back at school, teacher Eleana Valencia-Knight describes a “fog” over her head — an anxiety that one of her students or coworkers will catch COVID-19.  

Valencia-Knight, an elementary school teacher from Florida, told Insider that she and most of her coworkers felt “broken” by the start of the summer break in June, and fears that the new academic year will bring more chaos. 

“This emotional rollercoaster that we’ve been through and that we’re still going through is not going to end,” she said. “Teachers are going to break again.”

In the 10 days after her school reopened on

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