When Miami area schools reopened on August 23, it was expected there would be many cases of COVID among staff and students, despite their best efforts to minimize the risk. What wasn't expected, or at least hoped wouldn't happen, is that things would get this bad this quickly. The nightmare scenario is now what they're dealing with in Ron DeSantis' Florida, where school leaders can have their pay withheld if they issue mask orders, and schools are often forced to remain open.

Source: NBC, Miami

Fifteen staff members in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools District have died from COVID-19 in the past 10 days.

Sonia Diaz, a spokesperson for several unions in the school district, confirmed the number of deaths to NBC 6. Miami-Dade County Public Schools resumed classes on Aug. 23, and it's unknown when the employees contracted COVID-19.

One of them was Abe Coleman, a teacher for more than 30 years.

"It’s a tremendous loss. The number of lives that he impacted are countless. So many young men had the benefit of him intervening in their lives and pointing them in the right direction," said Marcus Bright, with 5000 Role Models of Excellence.

“FIFTEEN staff members in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools District have died from COVID-19 in the past TEN days.”

[emphasis mine because I am yelling]https://t.co/FeCyBJUHAI

— Leta McCollough Seletzky, JD (@LaSeletzky) September 4, 2021

Two Florida teachers from the same school district died in a single week last month from #COVID19. Sara Zevallos-Gonzalez and Tabitha Blair of Indian River County are the latest victims of a reckless reopening strategy. https://t.co/WZEihFxK7F

— Sheila_Brehm (@brehm_sheila) September 2, 2021