Seminole County teacher's Facebook rant shows strain teachers are feeling amid pandemic

LAKE MARY, Fla. - “OK, I need a little teacher rant moment,” said Jessica Furiosi in a video posted to her Facebook page.

The three-minute clip has since been viewed nearly 50,000 times. The Lake Mary High School teacher laid it all out.

“I love my students. I love this job. I love everything that I’m doing, but I am done. I am done with the extra kids, with the simultaneously, online, in-person, homework… changing everything,” she explained in the video.

She also talks about how a record number of kids are failing her class and the emails from parents are piling up. Her message is hitting home for a lot of teachers.

“This weekend, I was inundated with individual messages of like, ‘Thank you for putting to words what I’ve been feeling’ and it broke my heart even more. I think so many people connected with it,” she said.

Seminole Education Association President Dan Smith says you can expect to see even more videos like Furiosi’s in the near future.

“It’s very difficult on the teacher who has to deal with the safety of the kids in the classroom while also seeing that the kids on Seminole Connect are getting in their assignments,” Smith said.  

He wants Seminole teachers to get more help in the classroom before they up and leave.

“My immediate concern is that there could be an exodus going on at the end of the semester, in January, a lot of the teachers are very frustrated,” Smith told FOX 35.

FOX 35 reached out to SCPS about these concerns. Spokesperson Michael Lawrence says he knows this has been a difficult year of teaching. He also said: “It's still too early to really tell how things will shake out just yet, but we're hopeful the majority of our teachers understand these are abnormal times and obviously remain committed to the profession.”

“If this is what next year is going to look like, I would have a very hard reason saying 'yes' again. I love teaching, love it, but I can’t do this again,” Furiosi said.

She’s asking parents to be more understanding that teachers are learning how to navigate school during a pandemic as they go.

Smith says he’d like the district to provide additional employees in the classroom when teachers are juggling an in-person class and online class at the same time.