Covid 2020

"This is Alberto's sister.  Please text me back, I'm trying to help him, he can't get online."  It was 7:50 in the morning on the first day of school.  And, I knew that Alberto's sister was only in high school and was probably trying to get online for her own classes, too.

Virtual teaching officially began.  By the second day, the students had learned to mute their teachers, leaving them speaking voicelessly to entire classes.  The kids even muted each other.  They took over teachers' Power Points, tearing through them at record pace.  I knew I shouldn't laugh, but I couldn't help it.  

"Ms. Wagner, I can't get in, I don't know my password...." Bway Paw exclaimed in a message.  I started emailing teachers, begging them to give me sign-in information for their pages.  Some refused.  Others simply didn't answer at all.

"Hey, can I call you on TEAMS in a minute, it won't take long."  Mr. Warner asked.  I logged on to the call.

"A bunch of your students are missing, I don't know where they are....Rosa, David, Agnieszka..."  

I was glad that he cared.  

"I got a hold of David's dad and he said that David's mother picked him up for visitation and never returned....."  he continued.  

I gasped. Where is he?  Where the fuck is David?  Is he safe?

"I don't know what is going on with Agnieszka's dad...."  Mr. Warner continued explaining.

"Yeah...he's difficult.  All last spring he just kept saying that he didn't know the kids still had to attend school.  We told him a million times that they did, that they attend online, but he would just say the same thing whenever we could actually get ahold of him....let me request an interpreter, he needs to come pick up her Chromebook....." I responded. 

I found an old contact for Rosa's stepfather and discovered that she had moved.  I checked out her new school and it was a lot better than ours.  I was happy for her, but I'll miss her.  I hope she gets to see snow this year.  

"Ms. Wagner?"  Angel asked into the phone.

"Yes!  Angel, how are you??!!"  I responded, thrilled to hear from him.

"I can't get in, I can't get into my classes!"  he answered.  I could hear his mom in the background, speaking in what seemed like an agitated tone, in Spanish.  I was pissed.  I had been asking and asking for passwords and was being refused.  Angel had missed days of instruction.  He was one of multiple ESOL kids from the same class that could not enter the online classroom and we were being completely stonewalled.  I tried as best as I could to get him online and ended up asking to speak to his mom.  

"I don't speak so much English...."  she said awkwardly into the phone.  

"It's okay, I speak Spanish...." I answered.

It was like a volcano erupted.  She was furious.  She hadn't received a single message from any of Angel's teachers, yet received succinct log-in information on the first day from her other children's teachers.   

"Look,"  I said in Spanish.

"You are right.  This is ridiculous and I'm angry, too.  It's not right.  This is going to be resolved today."  Thankfully, I was able to keep my promise.  

"The WIDA remote screener will be our virtual tool for assessing English language proficiency for incoming students.  You will call the families, tell them to drive to the Center and pick up the student part of the test at 10:00am on Tuesdays, you will schedule a time to call back and screen the child virtually, use whatever the family wants you to use Zoom, What's app, FaceTime, whatever, just put it on your phone, screen the child, call them back to review the results, do all the paperwork, figure out some way to virtually upload it even though we want the forms handwritten.....blah blah blah blah blah blah blah....."  

Yeah, no problem.  Easy fucking peezy.  

The only part I was excited about was that I saw one of my new students to be screened was Prem's little brother.  Prem is such a cool kid that I was excited to receive a new family member.  I called, and his sister facilitated the screener, via FaceTime.

Ku was not having it.   

He repeatedly ran away, crying.  He flopped face down on the couch and tossed the phone away.  When he saw my face on the screen, he screamed.  I finished the screener, feeling horrible.  A message popped up on my computer.

"I could hear you testing my brother...."

"OMG, I am so sorry, Prem.  I totally terrorized him."  I answered.

"It's okay." he responded, then dropped out.

"Hey Ms. Wagner.....can we go live?" 

I thought the message was sweet.  I hadn't received my teaching schedule yet and had been communicating with my students via various messaging platforms, but not on a live video.  I set up the link and sent it out.  I waited a minute and suddenly saw little Alberto pop up on the screen, seated at a little desk in his bedroom.

"Hi Ms. Wagner."  he said, the same little enigmatic smile on his face that he always wears.

"Hi Alberto!  It is so good to see you!  How are you??"

"Well you know, my mom, she stopped hitting...yeah, she doesn't do that anymore.  And my dad?  Well, we don't like him anymore.  That woman with the baby I told you about?  They were not just friends.  And my mom, well, she got us a new dad, but we call him by his name.  Not 'dad'.  And, my mom's going to have a baby!  Its a boy!  I am so excited!"

I smiled broadly into my laptop.

"I am so happy for you, Alberto."  I said, really meaning it even though it was an unusual story.

"I am so glad things are going well."