Vanessa Abrahamson Blog: More teachers will be vaccinated to restore normality

As many schools across the country remain closed to in-person classes, some have begun vaccinating educators.

While students, parents, and educators have all had to contend with the uncertainty surrounding pandemic learning — finding childcare, securing internet access for virtual learning, adjusting to socially distanced classrooms — the pandemic has shed an even sharper light on systemic differences.

In Tennessee, officials announced last month that school and childcare workers would be eligible for the vaccine after it was given to healthcare workers and residents and staff at long-term care facilities. And according to the Tennessee Department of Health and Human Services websitea number of counties have entered this phase – students are able to return to classrooms and their parents are back to work.

“We’re very excited that educators are getting access to the vaccine sooner rather than later,” said Beth Brown, president of the Tennessee Education Association. “We know this will be a crucial part of getting life back to normal.”

Seventh-grade social studies teacher Joe Crabtree, who, like many others during the pandemic, has not seen his family in a year, teaches at Liberty Bell Middle School in Johnson City, Tennessee, which plans to move to a hybrid curriculum Monday to return.

PHOTO: Ms. Nilo Ashraf, a health teacher, works at a distance learning school with 7th and 8th grade students from an empty classroom at McCormack Middle School in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston on September 21, 2020. — Ms Nilo Ashraf, a health teacher, works at a distance learning school with 7th and 8th grade students from an empty classroom at McCormack Middle School in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston on September 21, 2020.

Boston Globe via Getty Images, FILE

Crabtree told ABC News he received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week.

“It felt like I could just breathe for the first time in nine months,” he said. “I know I can still come [COVID-19]. But I have a much smaller chance of getting it now.”

Crabtree said he hopes to achieve a greater sense of normalcy during the school year.

“I’m realistic. I’m a middle school teacher — germs are everywhere,” Crabtree said. “I don’t want to take the risk of revealing this to my family. And with so many people here, we had to choose between our career and our family.”

Teachers in Utah, Virginia and Connecticut have been told their turn is next and could start vaccination or registering for appointments in the next week. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced Friday that teachers would be eligible beginning Monday.

“We encourage districts to prioritize these teachers and frontline staff based on age and comorbidities,” added Cox.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam tweeted on Friday, “that 11 health districts will begin vaccinating people in Group 1B beginning the week of Jan. 11,” also noting that this includes teachers.

PHOTO: A dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is administered December 16, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado. — A dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is administered December 16, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado.

Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images, FILE

Teachers in Oregon and Colorado are expecting vaccines next month. In Cherry Creek, Colorado, they were greeted by a handful of school nurses last week. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has asked local health officials across the state to prepare for February 28 administration to teachers and other frontline workers.

“I think we’ve treated teachers as frontline workers at many moments over the past few months and I think it would be a grave mistake and a disservice to their engagement not to include them and actually prioritize them as we move forward.” , Connecticut State Senator Will Haskell said in a phone interview with ABC News. “I’ve spoken to many teachers who are really excited, primarily because they are naturally concerned about their own health and safety and because they are genuinely committed to continuing to serve their students.”

Realistically, amid the tense debate over whether full return-to-school is safe, it cannot happen without doing more to keep teachers safe.

“I think no one wants to be back, face-to-face instruction, more than educators,” said John Larson, president of the Oregon Education Association, the statewide teachers’ union. “They’ve dedicated their lives to that – it just has to be safe. And the vaccine would go a long way in making people feel safe at work.”

While leaders in other states may feel pressured to follow suit, the question remains whether other school employees will be vaccinated anytime soon.

Ever since Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced that educators would be among the next group to receive vaccines and that schools should try to reopen by February 15, Larson has been monitoring what was once an organized, statewide plan which was broken down into a different plan for each of the state’s 195 school districts.

Larson said he hadn’t heard anything to support the state’s timeline to get teachers vaccinated in time to return to class. Instead, he said he heard a mixed bag of dates from different districts, including some who have told him they will be vaccinated in the next few weeks, while others said they might not see a vaccine until July.

“Even if they know what category they will be in and what data they will have, nobody has been told how they will manage it,” he said, adding that some rural counties are at least an hour from the nearest hospital. “We just haven’t seen a plan for how they’re going to distribute the vaccine.”

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