This teacher showed 15 million people how educators really feel about flu season

While the flu outbreak has caused deaths and concern around the nation, and even has overwhelmed a Columbus hospital, a Muscogee County elementary school class produced a funny way to show the precautions some folks take to stay healthy.

Friday, after a student in Eric Crouch’s fifth-grade class at Double Churches Elementary School started not feeling well, everyone started sanitizing and washing their hands.

Then they decided, Crouch said, “we would look on the humorous side of things and try to bring a smile by exaggerating the extent we will go to to avoid the flu.”

So they made a video titled “Teachers collecting papers during flu season,” showing Crouch wearing a gas mask and gloves — and slathering on a ridiculous amount of hand sanitizer — to receive his students’ assignments.

One day after he posted it on Facebook, the video had 1.3 million views. As of Thursday afternoon, it had nearly 15 million.

“Every teacher has felt the stress of having to take something from a student who came back sick,” Crouch told the Ledger-Enqurier in an email. “Really everyone understands that you really don’t want to touch anything that has been touch by someone who is sick. So I wore gloves and used sanitizer to be funny. The kids pushed me to make a video but add the mask. The rest is history.”

This story was originally published February 15, 2018 at 2:58 PM with the headline "This teacher showed 15 million people how educators really feel about flu season."