Some teachers have already died of COVID-19 this school year

As schools reopen, the Washington Post reports that at least six teachers across several states have died of COVID-19 since early August. The Post also looks at Florida, which has a high coronavirus positivity rate among children, and where half of the state’s K-12 students returned to their classrooms in recent weeks. The State has the story of the youngest reported teacher death, Demetria “Demi” Bannister, a 28-year-old third-grade teacher. And the president of the American Federation of Teachers tells the Associated Press that schools in certain areas of the country should not hold in-person classes. The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner interviews Washington’s secretary of state, Kim Wyman, about the advantages of voting by mail and her concerns for the upcoming election. Bloomberg details a recent report that found that between 1970 and 2016, animal populations around the world fell by 68% on average. And on the 19th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the LA Times describes the recently completed “Tower of Voices” – a massive wind chime that is part of the Flight 93 National Memorial.