[Keilar:] There are a lot of questions right now about whether children should go back to classrooms this fall. What is the plan and what is the risk to them, to their teachers and their families? A source close to the White House Coronavirus Task Force tells CNN that while there are no hard and fast rules, if a particular community has had a five-day sustained increase in community spread, they probably should not be opening schools until they pass through the basic gating criteria of a 14-day downward trajectory. That guidance has not changed. But in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos offered little reassurance about how teachers and students would be protected.
[Dana Bash, Cnn Anchor:] You are asking students to go back. So why do you not have guidance on what a school should do just weeks before you want those schools to reopen and what happens if it faces an outbreak?
[Betsy Devos, Education Secretary:] You know, there's really good examples that have been utilized in the private sector and elsewhere, also with frontline workers and hospitals. And all of that data and all of that information and all of those examples can be referenced by school leaders who have
[Bash:] I'm not hearing from the Department of Education. Do you have a plan for what students and what schools should do?
[Devos:] So, schools should do what's right on the ground at that time for their students and for their situation.
[Keilar:] Now, Arizona is one of the states that has been seeing a surge in coronavirus cases infections across Arizona, topping 122,000, even as schools there try to figure out what to do this fall. Teacher Kimberley Byrd died of the coronavirus just a few weeks ago after sharing a classroom with two other teachers as they taught summer school online in a small rural community in Arizona. All three teachers wore masks and gloves. They used hand sanitizer. They socially distanced. But they all still got sick with the virus in June. Pamela Gonzalez is the principal of Leonor Hambly K-8, where Kimberly Byrd taught, and she's joining us now. And, Pamela, I'm so sorry for you and your entire school community as well as Kimberly's family. This is a terrible loss. I know this is a teacher who has been an integral part of your community. Tell us what this means to your school and your community to lose her.
[Pamela Gonzalez, Principal Of School Where Three Teachers Got Covid:] Well, you know, it's been thank you, first of all, and it's been very hard. Kim was a master teacher. She went above and beyond for her students. She offered words of wisdom from her years of experience to her colleagues. She was a woman of strong faith and very proud of her family. And her passing is mourned by many who had the privilege of knowing her. And it has sparked concern in our teaching, in our education staff of how things will look in the fall when we move forward after this, keeping ourselves and our students safe.
[Keilar:] And, of course, it has. Because tell us they were wearing masks and gloves and being careful and you just had three teachers in one room and this is what happened, right? Tell us about that and tell us about what you are hearing now from other teachers and maybe parents about reopening and how this gives them pause.
[Gonzalez:] Yes. We were we are a small school in Arizona, and after the closure in from March to May, we offered a two-week virtual summer school program for our K-8 students. And I had ten teachers that worked during those two weeks to teach summer school. They taught on campus but they were the only ones in the classrooms. Kim and two of her colleagues, Ms. Skillings and Mrs. Martinez, and since that, worked together and they chose that to support each other, you know, to do this new way of virtual teaching that was different than in person. So that's what they they worked together in their classroom. Like you said, they wore masks, they used hand sanitizer, washed the hands frequently, social distanced and they were still one week into summer school after the fourth day, that weekend Miss Byrd fell ill. She was admitted to the hospital on a Saturday. She was on a ventilator by that next day. And then on Monday, after that, we had every all staff on campus tested and two more of our teachers, which happened to be the two teaching in that classroom together with her, became positive for COVID. So, you know, since then, we have the teachers, of course, have impacted the community. We are a small close-knit community. Miss Byrd was such a you know, a beautiful person, a caring teacher. So it really impacted her students, the families in the community, fellow educators. And so it's been really hard and it's been really concerning moving forward, you know? Seeing the cases in Arizona increasing instead of decreasing, it's really concerning talking about opening up again for in-person schooling.
[Keilar:] Certainly. It's raising concerns as it should in your community. And we are hearing from the World Health Organization that they don't know much about how kids transmit coronavirus. And listen to what Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told CNN about this yesterday.
[Devos:] There is nothing in the data that would suggest that kids being back in school is dangerous to them. And, in fact, it's more a matter of their health and well-being that they be back in school.
[Keilar:] So, she says there's nothing in the data, but at the same time, the World Health Organization is essentially saying there is a lack of data, right, about how this works. And you have now experienced the loss of a teacher. So in the face of this lack of data, you know, what do you say when it comes to your concerns about reopening?
[Gonzalez:] Well, I first of all, I would like to say that myself along with a lot of my colleagues, we too want to our students. We want them to be back in schools. We want we haven't seen them since March but we want to do that when it is safe, you know? It's our responsibility to keep them safe. And I think it's our responsibility to and our duty to, you know, listen to the health experts, to look at the data that shows, you know, when there is an increase of cases instead of a decrease, to follow areas, like Arizona, who is a hotspot right now, and to know that this just is not the right time. We can educate. We can educate virtually where it is safer. It is not ideal and it is not our first choice but we are our district, for example, has taken measures to this summer to work with in professional development and training for us to be able to offer a better quality virtual online instruction. In the meantime, where we know that would be the safest to do. So that's what I would say to that.
[Keilar:] Yes. No, look, the reality has hit hard there where you are and you are balancing all of these priorities. You clearly care so much about your teachers and your kids. And, again, we are very sorry about Mrs. Byrd but we certainly appreciate you coming on to talk about what you are dealing with, mourning her and just trying to get things back to some semblance of normal. Thank you so much, Pamela.
[Gonzalez:] Thank you.
[Keilar:] We have some breaking news. Just after NBA players arrived in the Orlando bubble to restart their season, one of the league's biggest stars revealed he tested positive for coronavirus. Plus, positive cases among people who crowded into a July 4th lake party in Michigan. And some issues in the first 48 hours of Disney World's reopening, including the consequence if you do not wear a mask.