Video: County Teacher Who Was Sent Home Due To COVID Exposure: "This Is Very Traumatic. There Has To Be A Better Way"

  • Thursday, August 13, 2020
A Hamilton County Schools teacher who was sent home along with her students on Thursday has made a remarkable video.

McKinzie Conkel said there was a person in her classroom for three hours who then got a positive result from a previous coronavirus test. She declined to say whether it was a staff member or a student.

Ms.
Conkel said, "This is very traumatic. I am worried about going home and exposing my loved ones.

She said when she and her students return to the classroom after the quarantine period "we will be constantly worrying about getting exposed again."

The teacher said in the emotional video, "There has to be a better way to protect our staff and students  - whether it is requiring negative COVID tests or taking temperature checks."

She said she made the video "because I feel the need to share to prepare others for the fact that this is not a media hoax. This is a reality" that she said has already taken the lives of many in the community.

Ms. Conkel said, "I love my job, but it should not be this way. We have not been trained. We do not know how to properly handle this - even though we might have had a 30-minute professional development talk on this. That's not proper training.

"This is a scary environment to be putting teachers, students and staff in - a large group of people in one building."

She later took the link to the video down, saying she had been overwhelmed with response. 

 

Breaking News
Latest Hamilton County Arrest Report
  • 7/4/2025

Here is the latest Hamilton County arrest report. (If your case is dismissed, just email us your name and date we ran it and we will promptly take off. Email to news@chattanoogan.com ) ARMOUR,JOHNNY ... more

BlueCross Ending Operation Of Subsidiary With Loss Of 150 Jobs
  • 7/3/2025

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is ending the operation of a subsidiary with the loss of 150 jobs. A state-required WARN notice said, "BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Inc. has filed an ... more

Latest Hamilton County Arrest Report
  • 7/3/2025

Here is the latest Hamilton County arrest report. (If your case is dismissed, just email us your name and date we ran it and we will promptly take off. Email to news@chattanoogan.com ) BALL,JARED ... more