With the reopening schools debate raging across the country, there is a lot at stake—for students, parents, and educators. On one hand, remote learning may be insufficient to meet the needs of many students, and even a great teacher can’t compensate for Internet connectivity issues or help students who may be suffering from child abuse, neglect, hunger, or who have serious behavioral issues that are easier to address through in-person schooling. And then there are the economic considerations, as many parents who want to return to the workforce lack alternative child care arrangements.
On the other hand, COVID-19 has already killed more than 170,000 people in the United States, and hundreds of new cases have been linked to 2020-21 school reopenings and extracurriculars. Hundreds of teachers and other school-based employees (paraprofessionals, administrators, facilities staff, etc.) have already died of COVID-19, including 79 in New York City alone (as of June 22). Hundreds of thousands of other U.S. teachers are at risk of serious illness if infected because of their age (65+) or because of preexisting conditions such as diabetes, COPD, heart disease, asthma, and having a high BMI or a compromised immune system.
The rest of the world has shown that when the virus is contained, schools can successfully reopen, but the United States has failed to contain its outbreaks. Newly reported cases of COVID-19 are down from their July peak, but the nation still tallies 40,000+ new infections each day, and only a handful of states are on track for a safe reopening.
The terrible reality of reopening schools in the U.S. is that, inevitably, teachers, administrators, and other school staff will get sick—students, too—and some might die. In the last two weeks of July, 97,000 children were infected with COVID-19, and many schools that reopened for the 2020-21 school year have already closed down again, either temporarily or indefinitely, after new cases were reported among students and staff. We’ve already lost so many essential educators—how many more will we lose before the pandemic is over?
Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd 
Milca Hernandez 
Marilyn Howard 
Nacoma Montez James 
Brian R. Miller
Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd, 61, Elementary School Teacher, Arizona – Over the summer, three teachers in rural Arizona shared a classroom together while teaching summer school. Despite their precautions, all three teachers came down with COVID-19, and Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd died on June 26. Byrd was a wife, mother, and grandmother who loved fishing and the outdoors. She taught generations of families over a nearly 40-year career. In her classroom, she emphasized kindness and respect, and was known for her passion, discipline, and patience. Three weeks after her death, Byrd’s brother Roy Chavez also died of COVID-19.
Milca Hernandez, 55, Educator for Special Needs Children, New Jersey – Milca Hernandez wanted to be a teacher from a young age, and at the age of 9, she had her first pupils—her younger brother and cousin whom she helped prepare for kindergarten. As an educator, she worked with disabled and intellectually challenged students and was such a gifted and dedicated teacher that she was twice named her school’s Teacher of the Year. Mother to three daughters and grandmother to six sons, Hernandez was also an ordained minister who taught Sunday school and went on missions with her church. Her death has left a “tremendous void” for the community of Trenton, New Jersey.
Marilyn Howard, 53, School Nurse, New York – It is likely that Marilyn Howard caught COVID-19 from a fellow nurse at the Spring Street Community School in Brooklyn shortly before Mayor de Blasio ordered schools to shut down due to the pandemic. Howard emigrated from Guyana with her parents at age 14 and helped care for her four younger brothers before going to college at 35 and earning her Master’s degree. Hundreds turned out on Zoom to mark Nine-Night, a Caribbean wake tradition, in tribute to Howard who was a doting aunt to eight nieces and nephews. To honor Howard’s spirit, her brothers hope to start a foundation to help aspiring nurses in the U.S. and West Indies.
Nacoma Montez James, 42, Teacher and Assistant Football Coach, Mississippi – On August 6, middle school teacher and assistant high school football coach Nacoma James died of suspected COVID-19, just one day after students returned to schools in his Mississippi district after they closed in March. James had attended high school football practices over the summer before his symptoms first appeared. Coach James was a dedicated coach who helped the Lafayette High School Commodores win a state championship in 2016. The husband and father was known for his “mischievous, big smile”, jolly personality, and “bowtie charm”.
Brian R. Miller, 52, Educator at the Rehabilitation Services Administration, Virginia – Brian R. Miller was born with defective retinas and was one of the first blind students to attend public school in California alongside sighted students. He graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in political science and earned his master’s and a PHD in history at the University of Iowa. He worked at the Department of Education’s Rehabilitation Services Administration where he helped students with disabilities. He spoke four languages fluently and traveled the world, hoping to visit 100 countries before he died. He made it to 65.
Kimarlee Nguyen 
Marie Pino 
Elias Ramirez 
Dez-Ann Romain 
Marny Xiong
Kimarlee Nguyen, 33, Writer and Teacher, New York – Kimarlee Nguyen was a first-generation American whose parents had fled Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime, and she was able to connect with her first-generation students in a way that many other teachers couldn’t. Nguyen taught English at Brooklyn Latin, an academically rigorous public high school, and as she mentored her students, her own writing career was just beginning to flourish. She wrote short stories and was working on a novel about a Cambodian-American family living in Cambridge, MA. Nguyen was also selected for numerous writing fellowships and residencies, including the Center for Fiction’s 2018 Emerging Writer Fellows and in the Kundiman’s first Mentorship Lab for emerging writers.
Marie Pino, 67, Navajo Nation Educator, New Mexico – Marie Pino’s son Marcus, basketball coach at the Alamo Navajo Community School, died in April of COVID-19 at age 42. Only weeks later, Marie Pino died as well, making two more lives lost in the Navajo Nation’s devastating outbreak. As a child, Pino was sent to a boarding school established to assimilate Indigenous children, and when she became an educator, she devoted her life to the belief that Native American children should have the option of attending public schools in their communities. Over her more than 40-year career on the Alamo Navajo reservation, Pino taught her students in English and Diné Bizaad, a Navajo language, and she was passionate about their future. Only weeks after her death, Marie Pino’s husband, Ira Pino Sr., also died of COVID-19.
Elias Ramirez, 47, Dean of Students, Florida – Elias Ramirez taught at Miller Middle School in Putnam County, Florida, before becoming the school’s dean of students. Ramirez was born in New York and served honorably in the United States Army before getting his Masters Degree at the American College of Education in Indianapolis. He settled in Palatka, Florida, and had been with the Putnam County School System for 11 years. His school described him as an educator who “had high expectations for all of our students, prioritized relationships, and fiercely cheered all of our students on towards academics, positive behavior and sports.” Ramirez was a father and grandfather, and his son Elias hopes to positively impact people in the same way his dad did.
Dez-Ann Romain, 36, Brooklyn Principal, New York – Dez-Ann Romain was principal of the Brooklyn Democracy Academy, a transfer high school for students 16 and older who had struggled at traditional high schools. She was the first New York City public school employee known to have died from COVID-19, and she passed away just one week after NYC schools closed. She was known for her vibrancy, tough-love approach, and for making time for one-on-one talks with students and staff. Her own experiences as a low-income Caribbean migrant to Queens helped her connect with students who faced many of the same struggles she had in her teenage years.
Marny Xiong, 31, School Board Chair, Minnesota – In January, Marny Xiong was elected as chair of the school board in St. Paul, Minnesota, and she negotiated an end to a teacher’s strike shortly before the pandemic closed down schools across the country. Xiong was born in the U.S., one of eight children of Hmong refugees, and her political activism began when she was a teenager. She previously worked for an anti-hunger organization and with TakeAction Minnesota and was known as a social justice champion who wanted to strengthen ties between Asian-Americans and other people of color. She had many dreams for where her advocacy on behalf of Hmongs and other people of color could take her.
More Educator Memorials and Tributes:
- UFT Honors (United Federation of Teachers)
- Educators We’ve Lost to the Coronavirus (Education Weekly)
- Educators Coronavirus Memorial (Legacy.com)
- Tributes to Our Lost Heroes (NYC Department of Education)