Teacher set to retire now faces pandemic challenge

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    Amy Anderson (KCTV) — Pandemic or not, school is about to start for thousands of metro students.

“I’ll be starting my 33rd year this year,” teacher Anna Griesbach said.

There are few things Griesbach loves more than being with, as she calls them, “her kids.”

“I love the kids,” Griesbach said. “I love interacting with them. It’s a passion. I didn’t teach for one year and I was miserable!”

Griesbach has taught everything from sixth grade through twelfth and has spent more than 30 years of career with Kansas City Public Schools.

She was ready to retire and had certainly earned it when the pandemic hit, but rather than riding off into the sunset, Griesbach announced she was staying.

“it just didn’t seem right. It didn’t sit right with me, I guess, without being totally sappy … in my heart and my being … to just leave my kids that way,” she said.

But Griesbach, like so many other teachers, will stand before a new batch of students with much more than just first-day jitters.

“I’m worried! I have a partner who has some health conditions. They’re stable right now, but it’s just all that, I mean, how are they going to keep the kids safe? Their family safe? And the staff safe nationwide in general?” Griesbach said.

And her biggest fear of all?

“I don’t want to be in a building where I have to sit with my kids and say, ‘well we’re sorry.’ I’ll just throw a name out here. Johnny passed. I mean, is that how do you decide what kid might be the guinea pig?” Griesbach said.

Griesbach isn’t alone in her fears.

A June survey by the American Federation of Teachers showed 76% of teachers say COVID-19 has had a major impact on their lives — whether from a family member losing a job or having hours scaled back, to a loved one being high risk.

COVID-19 hits teachers lives just like everyone else.

While 86% of K-12 teachers say distance learning hasn’t worked as well as in-person.

The survey found the vast majority of teachers would prefer a hybrid model for going back to school, and nearly 30% would prefer to teach by distance alone.

And what Griesbach and so many teachers are concerned over is sending children into the unknown.

“I feel like teachers and kids right now are the social experiment to say well if schools can get through it, then we can open up more and it’s just. It makes me very nervous,” Griesbach said.

And while it may frazzle her nerves, COVID-19 doesn’t hold a candle to this teacher’s dedication.

“You make a commitment to something. You see it through, and I don’t want to use the word duty but it is,” Griesbach said.

Kansas City Public Schools will start back on Sept. 8 with 100% of student going back virtually to begin with.

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