New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘It was like a collective sigh of relief among the teachers’
NEW HAVEN — Kristina Crivellone, a 38-year-old first-grade teacher at Troup School, has had some pretty anxiety-filled moments during the coronavirus pandemic.
First her father got the COVID-19 virus in April, experiencing serious health issues — while her mother was being treated for cancer. At one point, they worried he might die.
Then her mother tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, though she never showed symptoms.
Then Crivellone was asked to resume in-person teaching at Troup as of Jan. 19, walking into a classroom full of kids each morning even though she hasn’t been vaccinated, herself.
Now — finally — she can breathe a little easier.
As of Monday, she and thousands of other Connecticut teachers are eligible to be vaccinated — along with more than 600,000 Connecticut residents between the ages of 55 and 64. They all join more than 480,000 residents age 65 and older who already were eligible.
When Crivellone, a native of Chicago who now lives in East Haven, spoke about it to the New Haven Board of Education last week, “I used the word ‘elated,’” she said.
When Gov. Ned Lamont made the announcement last week that teachers were to be made a priority, “It was like a collective sigh of
relief among the teachers,” Crivellone said.
“As a teacher, we don’t go into this profession because we’re not caretakers. It’s just the opposite,” she said. “We’re maximum caretakers.”
But they wanted and needed protection.
“Knowing that I’m going to have significantly increased odds that it’s not going to affect me or anyone I’m close with is really” a valuable thing to know, Crivellone said. “I feel very lucky that they’re seeing the importance of teachers and ... vaccination.
“We have been calling for this decision,” said Crivellone, who is in her fourth year teaching at Troup after three years working as a long-term substitute teacher in Westport, Stratford and Hamden. “We have been hoping for this decision.
“We want to be in the building,” she said. “I don’t know any teachers that don’t want to be in the building. The remote learning took away a lot of the opportunity for the most joyous parts of our jobs.
“One of my coworkers has MS. ... She has reason to be afraid,” Crivellone said. “But she wants to
be back in the building.”
As of Monday, Crivellone said she expected to be vaccinated in Troup’s school-based health clinic this week. If for some reason the school-based clinic doesn’t get a share of vaccines within the next couple of days, Troup employees have the opportunity to be vaccinated on Thursday at the clinic at
Wilbur Cross High School, and Crivellone will get her vaccination then, she said.
Prior to last week’s announcement, however, after months of teaching remotely in the New Haven Public Schools system, “we were losing our ability to be in control of our exposure by not being vaccinated and having to be in the building with our children,” she said.
“Why did we go through the months and months of virtual teaching and then go back in without being vaccinated?” Crivellone asked.
After a few weeks of in-person teaching, “The feelings of anger faded, but that doesn’t mean the anxiety faded,” she said. “My fear was not about myself. I’m 38. I’m in pretty good health,” although “I have high blood pressure.”
But primarily, “my concerns were about, ‘What if I carry the virus to someone else’” who is even more vulnerable, Crivellone said.
Since resuming in-person teaching, “I had to stop hanging around with a friend” because the friend is a Type I diabetic, Crivellone said.
“Her tendency is, when she gets sick, she gets really sick.”
Not that Crivellone was teaching to an entirely full classroom.
Until last week, she had seven children physically in class. Now she has eight.
Initially, upon returning to in-person learning, the parents of 17 kids in her class kept their children home, she said.