- We're here to take a moment
to remember a wonderful person, a Mrs Byrd.
- In June of last year, Kimberly Chavez Byrd,
a first-grade teacher at Hayden-Winkelman School District
in Gila County, Arizona, died from the coronavirus.
- You know, I know right now,
she's up there listening to us and watching us,
and just proud that you guys are back to school.
43% of my staff had COVID.
It hit families.
It just ran like a wildfire, you know, through our community.
- We love you.
- Her death set off a national discussion
on whether schools should remain closed or reopen
in the midst of the pandemic.
In this small rural community,
the debate was much more personal.
- You'll see it right here.
Going to Ms Byrd's room, which is sad.
- Ms Byrd was teaching a summer school class
with fellow teachers Jena Martinez
and and Angela Skillings.
- This is like a lifetime of teaching and --
-They decided to teach from the school,
where they had better access to the Internet.
- Three teachers sharing a room,
spread out, social distancing, PPE.
One teacher brings it in, and the other two get sick,
and of course, you know, Kim, on that Saturday night,
she goes into the urgent care and she never came out.
- The death of a beloved first-grade teacher
is shaking the nation today.
- 38 years.
To lose somebody after that long,
it's like losing a parent or a sibling.
We had 35 kinder, first, and second-grade students.
The kids were virtual.
We had decided we would teach in the same classroom together,
feeling -- knowing that we were already
told we'd be safe if we took all the precautions.
- We got sick.
To say who had it first, you can't even go there.
And then we got word.
It was just devastating.
- That was our first experience as a district,
and for myself, my first experience
knowing somebody who contracted the virus.
- So, joining me now, the teachers who shared
that classroom with Kimberly Byrd,
Jena Martinez and Angela Skillings.
- What happened to us and the fact
that we became state and national, world news,
the word started getting out, teachers started speaking up,
administrators started speaking up.
- I cannot lose another teacher, staff member.
- It started with us just telling our story,
and then towards the end, it got into the,
"What do you think about schools opening and how do you feel?"
- My main thing is if we can't stay safe,
how are students gonna stay safe?
- It really, like, solidified the argument of, like, we need
to keep these teachers safe, because if we go back too early,
we're gonna have more tragedies on our hands.
- Arizona schools halted in-person classes in March 2020.
A push to reopen in the fall was met with protest
and teacher walk-outs.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey eventually stopped the effort
and kept the kids online.
- I think, well, the whole country
is a follow-up story to what happened to Kim,
you know, because how are all school districts
going to recover from this?
I hope that Kim's story, it lets people know
that it was okay for us to say, "Wait a minute,
we need to make some changes before we go back in person.
- When the governor ordered that all schools
were to return to in-person instruction by last March,
the death of their colleague still loomed large.
- One thing we're all aware of is we're all starting together.
But we don't know if we're all gonna end together.
- Grammar rocks! - Go ahead and stop right here.
Here's our stop sign.
I was ready.
When I got here, I was excited.
I prayed all the way here, honestly,
and I was visualizing what was gonna happen,
how it was going to happen,
what I needed to do as far as temperature checks.
I'm going to say that I am comfortable
because I need to carry out with confidence,
but deep down, I can honestly tell you
that it's tugging at my heart.
These kids are very open to what they went through.
- I haven't been on monkey bars in forever.
- When we first talked about this, Ms Skillings and I,
in our numerous interviews after Ms Byrd's passing,
once it moved into these small towns,
we knew that it could pretty much wipe
out these little towns.
- Back in July, 2020, the state of Arizona
was recording over 1,000 cases a day.
Gila County's infection rate was 15%.
For the families in Hayden and Winkelman,
the virus posed a multi-generational threat.
- We're talking about generations of families.
- You just ran me over.
- You know, one person from the family got sick,
it was gonna be 20 other people getting sick, too.
- My older sister Makala. - Makala?
- Yeah, she got coronavirus one time.
- She did? - Mm-hmm.
And then I got sick.
- And you got sick? - Mm-hmm.
- My whole family had coronavirus
except for my little sister.
Well, it all started when my mom went and got tested
and she had COVID, and then my dad,
and then it went to my sister,
and then it went to my other sister.
And then it went to me. - What was it like?
- It was horrible.
- I think you can pretty much talk to anybody here,
and we're going to tell you that there was somebody
that we were close to who got very ill very serious,
you know, and passed away.
- We've been going strong for coming up on, like, a month,
maybe a little bit more than a month,
and I think we've actually proved that staying out
for this long has done some good.
- Most of the teachers at the school
have received the coronavirus vaccine,
and in Gila County, nearly 44% of the population
is fully vaccinated.
As school winds down for the summer,
the memory of Ms Byrd is still strong.
- I still have some of my friends
who she also taught, they always come up and say,
"Your mom was my favorite teacher,"
and it's like, "Yeah, she was my favorite teacher, too."
- So, her presence is here.
You can feel her.
The kids are even like, "She's in our classroom.
We can feel her. WE know she's here."
- Here we go, Cody!
- Now, I just love this right here -- the hope.
The hope.
And now to hear the kids out in the hallway,
you can hear them on the playground,
and just to have that life coming back
is really nice to see.
It's scary, but it's nice to see, so -- -Attaboy!