Why some LAUSD teachers quit amid pandemic challenges

Last year took a heavy toll on educators who had to pivot to teaching via video, sometimes with their own kids at home. Many of them watched hard-won education gains disappear into black boxes on Zoom. Those experiences led many of them to quit the profession.

“Saying goodbye to teaching was the hardest goodbye I've ever had to make,” former high school teacher Emma Gallagher says. “There's guilt tied up in it. It's like, if I'm not my best in the classroom, there are 180 faces staring up at me. And I know their stories, I know what they're going through. I know how they need support, and if I can't provide that, I know exactly how it affects them.”