Essential educators

Teachers want to go back to in-classroom teaching. They know how important it is for students to be taught in person and not through a computer screen. Teaching in a classroom is much easier and much more rewarding for teachers than virtual learning. But teachers understand how dangerous the Covid virus is, and they want to return safely to the classroom. Teachers who want to be Covid vaccinated are concerned about the safety of their students, their co-workers, their families, and themselves.

Solano County Health has taken the position that Covid vaccines will be given only to staff of schools that are already open or commit to an opening date regardless of safety concerns such as what color tier the County is in, number of students in the classroom affecting safe social distancing, younger students not being required to wear masks, inadequate classroom ventilation, inadequate testing/tracing, etc. This approach seems less like a method for prioritizing vaccinations and more like a method to reopen schools no matter what. This quid pro quo leaves the impression that if teachers want to be vaccinated, they can’t raise concerns about classroom safety conditions.

All educators are essential workers. They should have been in Phase 1A, Tier 2, but they were placed in Phase 1B, Tier 1. This phase/tier needs to be immediately expanded so that teachers and school staff are eligible for and have access to vaccinations now. Solano County Health should facilitate making vaccines available to educators now and stop laying on conditions to silence concerns that would make reopening schools safer.

— Terry Rogers/Vallejo