HOUSTON – Former Houston Independent School District teacher, Meghan Hokom, said it was a difficult decision but one she was forced to make.
Hokom proffered her resignation earlier this month after learning she would be required to teach face-to-face in the classroom. As a recent heart transplant survivor Hokom has a suppressed immune system -- making it difficult to fight off infection and disease like the coronavirus. Just this past fall she was sidelined by an upper respiratory viral infection.
"The virus was really messing with the balance of my medication, which could put my heart at risk," Hokom recalled. "So I had to stay in the hospital until we could reconfigure a healthy balance."
Hokom has worked with the Houston Independent School District since 2016 and as a special education math teacher at West Briar Middle School for the past year. She said she was hopeful she could return to the classroom but when COVID numbers started to spike and she sought information on protocols to return to school, Hokom said she rarely -- if ever -- heard the conversation focus on the safety of educators.
"I was begging for the conversation of, 'What about the adults in the school?' Children don't go to school in a vacuum," Hokom said. "'What are you going to do to protect us?'"
Without enough info and a deadline to sign her new contract looming she reluctantly decided to resign. Hokom believes it was the best choice for her family and her health.
"I've already lived through a life and death situation," she said. "I don't want to have to be put back in that situation again."
Hokom said she considers herself privileged to be able to resign because she knows other faculty don’t have that ability. She said she did not have an option to teach online even after HISD announced its return plan because she is the only teacher at West Briar who teaches her particular class and it must be taught face-to-face.
