As schools continue the beginning of the academic year with many governors insisting on in-person classroom education despite the risk of the spread of the coronavirus, schools are reporting the toll of the pandemic on their populations.
Twenty-eight-year-old Demetria “Demi” Bannister, a third-grade teacher at Windsor Elementary School in Columbia, South Carolina died Monday of coronavirus after being diagnosed the previous Friday.
Bannister had spent the previous week at the school with other teachers and administrators as the school prepared for the first day of classes.
In Tennessee, state authorities reported more than 750 students and staff had tested positive for the coronavirus during the first weeks of school, with about half of districts reporting data.