For many around the country, the new school year has already begun. And many districts are pushing through with in-person schooling, even though we are in the midst of another COVID-19 spike, with new cases around the country rising to their highest point since January. With large swathes of the population still unvaccinated, including 50 million children nationwide under the age of 12, with vaccine and mask mandates having become another contentious subject of culture war hysteria, and with the more contagious Delta variant spreading like wildfire, school districts around the country appear to be on yet another collision course with COVID spikes that will lead to panicked returns to remote learning after a large amount of students, teachers, staff, and parents get infected. This week, we talk with Casey Scully, a former elementary-school teacher and current high-school math interventionist in Charleston, South Carolina. We discuss the path that led Casey to become an educator, how she has navigated the past year and a half, and what she and her coworkers are currently experiencing with schools reopening.

Additional links/info below...

• Casey's Twitter page
• Dan Levin, The New York Times, "The U.S. Reaches a Daily Average of 100,000 Covid Hospitalizations for the First Time Since the Winter Peak"
• Tina Hesman Saey, ScienceNews, "Schools Are Reopening. COVID-19 Is Still Here. What Does That Mean for Kids?"
• Jeff Amy, AP News, "Schools Reopen with Masks Optional in Many US Classrooms"
• AP News, "COVID: S. Carolina School District Back to Virtual Classes"
• The New York Times, "Tracking Coronavirus in South Carolina: Latest Map and Case Count"

Permanent links below...

• Working People Patreon page
• Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show!
• Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page
• The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Jules Taylor, "Working People Theme Song"
• Jules Taylor, "Carolina King"