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Teacher pulls double duty
As if being a middle school science teacher wasn't challenging enough, Marc Mosca has another job dealing with life and death. On weekends, he works as a respiratory therapist at White Plains Hospital.
NEW YORK - Marc Mosca is busy Monday through Friday teaching from home. He is a seventh-grade science teacher at Albert Leonard Middle School in New Rochelle.
"Trying to keep the kids engaged," he said. "Trying to be supportive of the kids and families that are having a hard time."
As if that wasn't challenging enough, Marc has another job dealing with life and death. The 43-year-old is also a respiratory therapist and has been for 18 years. On weekends, he works with ventilator patients at White Plains Hospital.
"When the breathing tube is put in, it's us and the doctor," he said. "Make sure the ventilator is working and doing its thing."
He said the job has been "exhausting" and "emotionally draining." Marc has worked every weekend since the coronavirus pandemic hit, putting his own health at risk on the front line.
"For some of us, we have to be here. It's our full-time job. It's not for him," Lyn Harper, his hospital supervisor, said. "So the fact that he's doing it on a per-diem basis when he doesn't have to is amazing."
Marc said that in good times and bad, "We got to be there for the kids and the patients."
Marc's other boss, New Rochelle School Superintendent Laura Feijoo, knows the danger first-hand. She contracted COVID-19 and quarantined for two weeks.
Is Marc going above and beyond?
"Absolutely—way above and beyond," she said. "It speaks to the kind of person he is."
Harper added, "I wish there were more people like Marc in the world."
"Just be kind to people around you," Marc said. "Everybody's going through a lot."