Teachers seek priority COVID vaccinations in Sask. like first responders, grocery employees

As first responders and certain grocery store workers get vaccine prioritization, teachers in Saskatchewan are wondering if they’ll also get a chance to get it.

“It’s really good news to hear that first responders are getting priority treatment for vaccines, no questions about that,” said Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) president Patrick Maze.

“We would have preferred if teachers are on that list too because without having teachers running schools, as soon as you move to Level 4 (of the Safe Schools Plan, which calls for remote learning), then you have parents having to stay at home with their kids in many situations, especially in elementary schools.”

The Government of Saskatchewan announced Monday that first responders, such as police and firefighters, as well as grocery store workers who work at a store with a pharmacy will be added to the priority list.

But, despite calls from educators, teachers haven’t been added yet with teachers needing to wait for their age groups to get the call.

Maze said there have been teachers across the province who have contracted the virus.

“Teachers and schools and school staff and students are all functions of their community,” said Maze. “If it’s in the community, we have to be concerned about what’s going on in the school, even if there doesn’t appear to be as high of transmission in the schools.

“We have to be careful we’re not gambling with school staff and their health.”

Different school divisions made the choice to move to online learning before Easter vacation. Some school divisions have chosen to continue with that while others are planning for a return to classrooms.

Maze brought up a situation in Moose Jaw where he was alerted by a teacher on March 15 about their concerns over the number of people getting sick at their school. The division didn’t move to online learning until the end of the month.

“That 14-day lag is a huge concern when we know that if we’re more proactive, instead of being reactive, and can shut things down a little earlier and prevent the spread, then everyone’s going to be a bit safer,” Maze said.

“The problem is the approach in each community is wait and see and when it gets here, then we’ll deal with it.

“That’s a really poor response to dealing with a highly contagious variant of a virus that’s already caused a global pandemic.”

He said one thing that would help ease teachers’ nerves was if rapid testing was done for students.

“Teachers and school staff would feel a heck of a lot safer knowing that we can at least pinpoint students who are asymptomatic, seeming not to show any symptoms but are testing positive with the variant or the virus,” said Maze.

But for now, Maze said the union will continue to push to government to give teachers priority vaccination status.

“We’re kind of hoping now that government has shifted on their initial stance of age groups being the priority, now younger people and not just the elderly who are getting sick with the variants, if you want to keep schools open, then school staff need to get vaccinated early,” Maze said.