Masked third-graders work on computers at Tibbals Elementary School in Murphy, Texas, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/LM Otero) Teachers and students across Texas return to the classroom next month, and for the most part things will be back to normal — or at least the way they were pre-pandemic. Classes will be conducted in person and many districts have already ditched pandemic-era health and safety policies. But with coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations trending upward again across the state, some educators have concerns about how safe it will be to return to in-person learning this fall. Ovidia Molina is the president of the Texas State Teachers Association. She said Gov. Greg Abbott's order in May barring schools from issuing their own mask mandates, is effectively the state prohibiting schools from keeping their staff, students and community safe from the coronavirus.