With dozens of teachers out sick, Pinellas students say they're left to sit 'doing nothing'

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Parents and the teachers union are saying the substitute teacher shortage in Pinellas County has become a major problem.   

With the COVID-19 delta variant bringing the worst of the pandemic and Pinellas schools backing off on safety measures, the union says the school system is seeing about 200 teachers call in sick a day – and substitutes are reluctant to fill in. 

"Many don’t feel comfortable coming to the classrooms under the conditions," said Nancy Velardi, head of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association.  

Since the beginning of the school year, the Pinellas school district has had around 3,000 positive COVID cases.  

Even before the pandemic, there was already a substitute teacher shortage. To fill the current gap, the district is relying on administrative staff to fill in -- but Matthew McCrary’s mother says it’s not enough.  

"Four of his teachers are not in school and there are over 100 kids being told to go to the auditorium, because there’s no subs for the classrooms," she said.  

Matthew is a senior at Countryside High School. His mom allowed us to speak to him Thursday afternoon and he told us he’s just been sitting, bored for hours, inside the auditorium.  

"We aren’t able to actually learn anything. We aren’t doing anything. Basically, we are pretty much just sitting there doing nothing," Matthew said.  

RELATED: Pinellas school leaders vote against holding special meeting to address mask mandates

Students in a St. Petersburg, Fla. classroom, August 2021 (FOX / file)

FOX 13 requested an interview from the Pinellas school district, but hadn’t heard anything as of Thursday evening.  

The union says they plan to sit down with school leaders in the coming days to talk about the district’s decision not to require masks.  

"Perhaps it might be time to start looking at stronger language to slow the spread of this variant," Velardi added.  

RELATED: Florida hospitals see tenfold jump in rate of kids hospitalized for COVID-19 since school began