Perspective | Let’s give North Carolina teachers time to grieve their loved ones

Tragedy can bring out the best in North Carolinians. 

We all witnessed an incredible outpouring of both collective empathy and aid for those affected by Hurricane Helene, and as Western North Carolina has continued to rebuild over the past six months. As a former public school educator, I immediately thought of the teachers. I knew that families would need them more than ever. And I thought about how our state could support them as they served as vital sources of strength for their communities. 

We always look to our teachers and school leaders for security and wisdom to help children and parents alike pull through difficult times. Teachers, principals, and school staff have been out there fighting for their neighbors since day one, and they continue to help our children cope as Western North Carolina finds a new sense of normalcy.

I also recognized that those public servants would be suffering themselves. And as North Carolinians, I knew we would have their backs, too. 

My father, who had been the guiding light of my life, died suddenly when I was a North Carolina state employee — at the same time we were working to get questions answered for our schools in the earliest days of COVID. I have the unfortunate life experience to know that those who serve our state and whom many are relying on, would also simultaneously be contending with losses of their own loved ones. 

When my father died suddenly, I was shocked to find out the state did not have bereavement leave set aside for us. But I was “lucky” — I used accrued sick leave and vacation time to plan my father’s funeral, and to do my best to contend with the paralyzing early grief, before going back to work. 

I promised then that I would do everything in my power to make sure our state did better by those who were working to pull our communities through crises. 

To this day, however, our Western North Carolina public school teachers and staff, and those in the rest of the state, still have no guaranteed paid time off when a loved one dies. How can we expect them to be the community leaders we need them to be when they don’t have time to take care of themselves? 

The vast majority of North Carolina’s workforce of 5 million people already have access to bereavement leave. And that now includes state government employees —  except for our teachers. 

In a 2020 survey across the state, over 90% of employers reported that they provide bereavement leave to their employees, most between three and five days. And last year when Hurricane Helene hit, policy change allowed for most state employees to receive, for the first time ever, 40 hours of paid bereavement leave when a family member dies, and eight hours to attend the funeral of a colleague. However, the 131,000 public school teachers and staff who directly serve and impact our children daily, still do not have any bereavement leave set aside. They were not included in this policy.

That means for North Carolina’s public school employees, there is no safety net when they lose a loved one. More often than not, educators are expected to use whatever sick or personal days they have accumulated. And if they don’t happen to have any? They take unpaid time off — a luxury too many of our educators simply cannot afford.

Luckily, there is growing bipartisan consensus to do right by our educators. Lawmakers from both parties are seeing the need to pass bereavement leave in the coming weeks to right this wrong. 

Rep. Donna White, R-Johnston, a registered nurse, has been a champion of making sure we help those in Western North Carolina and beyond.

“Our state is doing everything it can to ensure our communities in Western North Carolina recover,” White told me. “That includes getting our policies right when it comes to the suffering that has occurred. I see bereavement leave — which most of our state employees already have— as an important step toward showing Western North Carolina that we’re fighting for them.”

She’s signed on as a primary sponsor of HB810 with Rep. Zack Hawkins, D-Durham, a former public school teacher who has lost both his son and his mother, and Rep. Tricia Cotham, R-Mecklenburg, also a former public school teacher. This bipartisan legislation would finally give public school teachers and staff bereavement leave, alongside all state employees.

Grief doesn’t disappear after a couple days. It disrupts. It lingers. And when teachers are denied the basic right to take time off, it erodes the compassion and humanity that our education system should be built on.

Let’s stop forcing educators to choose between grief and their paycheck. It’s time for lawmakers to recognize that bereavement leave isn’t a luxury; it’s a basic human right.

North Carolina’s educators take care of us. It’s time for us to take care of them.