JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Savannah Ridgley was a biology and anatomy teacher at Raines High School until this school year.
Ridgley resigned from her teaching position in August because of her safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
She spoke to Action News Jax on Friday.
“COVID is serious. It’s killing a bunch of people every day. We have more and more people testing positive,” she said.
Ridgley now works as a tutor and an online teacher.
“I don’t regret it,” said Ridgley. “It’s sad, and I miss it. I miss my colleagues. I miss my students.”
She tells Action News Jax she applied to teach virtually through the district’s online platforms, Duval HomeRoom and DVIA. But she tells us she was not selected.
Citing rises in local cases and instances where some Duval county schools have had to go virtual after an outbreak, she feels she made the right choice.
“I didn’t feel like there were enough precautions taken to make sure that everybody would be safe,” said Ridgley.
Though DCPS provided schools throughout the district with sanitizers and personal protective equipment, Ridgley says she didn’t feel safe returning to in-person teaching at a brick and mortar school during the pandemic.
She tells us at least one of her loved ones isconsidered high-risk.
“Ultimately, it wasn’t worth it to me to risk my safety, risk my students' safety or to risk my partner’s safety,” she said.
Action News Jax reached out to our local counties asking how many teachers have resigned this year due to COVID-19.
Duval and St. Johns school districts are processing our requests.
Clay County’s School District tells us 42 teachers have resigned from August through October of 2020, with three citing medical reasons.
By comparison, 26 Clay County teachers resigned in the same time-frame last year. Three cited medical reasons in that year as well.
We’ll be sure to update you when we receive new numbers on teacher resignations from other local counties.