School counselors were on hand at Walter Hill Elementary School in Rutherford County as students and staff learned Thursday of the latest COVID-19 death to hit the school system: a 49-year-old custodian, who started a new job at the elementary school in September.
The employee, Angela Dawn Crook, is one of three Rutherford County public school employees who died in October as a result of complications from COVID-19. Two other Rutherford County school employees - 51-year-old assistant football coach Garry Mooney and 46-year-old teacher Angela Baker Morton - died earlier this month.
They are among the 27 Tennessee public school employee deaths as a result of COVID-19 since the 2021-22 academic year began, according to an ongoing Tennessee Lookout tally.
It's a toll that steadily climbed as the school year got underway. In August, seven Tennessee public school employees died after contracting COVID-19. Fourteen employees died in September. So far in October, the Lookout has confirmed the deaths of five more public school employees.
Public acknowledgment of the deaths of educators from COVID-19 is limited, and the Tennessee Department of Education does not keep track of such deaths.
The news of the Rutherford County deaths was shared on Facebook and Twitter by Rutherford County Schools officials and confirmed by a spokesman.
In Hamilton County, Sale Creek Middle/High School Principal LeAnn Welch earlier this month confirmed to the Chattanooga Times Free Press the death of 48-year-old math teacher Todd Wood, who passed away after being hospitalized for a month with COVID-19. And in Warren County, school Superintendent Grant Swallows announced the death of John Upchurch, a 48-year-old math teacher who also ran his own CrossFit Gym.
The state Department of Education does not keep track of COVID-19 deaths of school employees, according to spokesperson Brian Blackley.
The Tennessee Education Association, the union representing teachers, is typically alerted when TEA members pass away but has no way of knowing the causes for every death nor do they routinely receive word on the deaths of public school employees who are not TEA members.
And many of the state's school districts have declined to confirm the deaths, citing privacy considerations.
The Lookout has confirmed public school employee deaths through colleagues, family members, pastors and media reports since early September.
Among the recent deaths: a 65-year-old elementary teacher in Lawrence County, a 42-year-old Knox County bus driver, three Clarksville-Montgomery School District teachers who died in one three-week period and a 44-year-old Washington County educational assistant. The deaths range - in age - from the 81-year-old Clarksville bus driver who died on Sept. 9 to the 31-year-old second-grade teacher in Shelby County who died on Aug. 16.
The 27 public school employee deaths do not include private school employee deaths or non-school employees who nevertheless worked in the public schools, such as the death of Teresa Miller, 55, a Wilson County sheriff's deputy assigned to a Mount Juliet elementary school. Miller's death from COVID-19 complications on Sept. 30 was announced by Wilson County Sheriff Robert Bryan.