By Jerry Bellune
JerryBellune@yahoo.com
The fear-mongering began over the summer.
Health and education experts told the media that covid-19 fears would compel teachers to resign or retire en masse.
They would be terrified that they would be infected if they returned to their classrooms. 
A national Education Week analysis now shows that the predicted wave has not happened.
Teachers are tougher, less fearful and more dedicated than they had been given credit for.

This is not the 1st time the experts have been wrong during the pandemic.
The Chronicle put this question to the county's 5 school districts:
Has your district lost any staff or faculty out of fear of covid-19?
To date, only 8 of hundreds of county teachers have reportedly left, giving covid-19 as the reason.
District 4 in Gastron and Swansea has lost none, Lisa Ingram reported.
District 3 in Batesburg-Leesville has lost 1, Mackenzie Taylor said.
District 2 in the Cayce-West Columbia Area has lost 5 employees, Dawn Kujawa said.
District 5 in Chapin and Irmo does not require employees to state a reason for their resignation, said Katrina Goggins. 
"To the extent they choose to provide a reason, the district is not at liberty to release that information, because it may contain information of a personal nature where the public disclosure would constitute unreasonable invasion of personal privacy as set forth in S.C. Code Section 30-4-40(a)(2)." 
District 1 in Lexington, Gilbert and Pelion, the biggest district in the county, lost 2, Mary Beth Hill said.
Were any suspected of resigning but would not admit their fear?
"I don’t know," Hill said. "They have the opportunity to put any reason they want to on their paperwork. 
"These are the only 2 who indicated they were making this decision based on covid-19."
We welcome teachers' and parents' comments about this at JerryBellune@yahoo.com