When classes were abruptly moved online last spring in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, Texas high school teacher Aletha Williams was ready. An award-winning veteran educator and tech expert, she thought teaching online a few hours a day would be no problem, easier than her regular long days in the classroom. She quickly realized she was wrong.

“I’ve cried at night,” Williams says. “I have friends who are crying at night because it is wearing and tearing at us and I don’t think that anybody is really looking at what is happening to the mental health of us teachers. And I don’t think they’re really thinking of us teachers as being essential workers.”

Williams teaches 10th and 11th grade chemistry for the Katy Independent School District in southeast Texas. According to the CDC, Harris County, where her school district is located, has the highest rates of COVID-19 in the state. Currently, Texas has the third highest rates of the virus in the country.