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COVID-19 vaccines at a pop-up vaccination clinic in Vernon (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)
Motion Tabled at Wednesday's Meeting

School District 22 tables motion advocating for vaccination requirement in schools

Oct 20, 2021 | 10:16 PM

The Vernon School District will not be advocating for a vaccination requirement for teachers and staff at this time.

During Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting, a motion was put forward by Trustee Robert Lee to write a letter to Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Premier John Horgan to expand the requirement for government employees to get vaccinated to school staff and teachers.

“We are elected as trustees to show leadership, and part of the leadership that we ought to show and demonstrate is firstly in the school is to ensure that students are learning,” said Lee during Wednesday’s meeting. “But incumbent of that and inherent before we get there, is a safe working environment for our children and for our staff.”

Lee stated that he wants to do everything possible to ensure a safe environment for students to learn in, and said the best way to protect kids from COVID-19 is to have staff and teachers vaccinated.

He also noted that over a dozen schools in the district are elementary schools, where kids are too young to be vaccinated and should be surrounded by adults who are doing their part to protect them from the virus.

Following some discussion, Trustee Lori Mindnich proposed amending the motion to have the wording of the letter changed from requiring ‘staff and visitors in School District 22’ to ‘staff and visitors in all school districts’ to show proof of vaccination when accessing schools, as there was concern that teachers opposing the requirement would leave and go to other school districts should it only be applied locally.

Lee and other board members also voiced their disappointment with the government not creating a regulation themselves as they had with health care, but instead leave it up to school districts to come up with their own plans.

Though this progress was made, Board Chair Gen Acton did note that a template with a six-point plan from a B.C. Public School Employer’s Association (BCPSEA) Advisory Group is to be released Friday. Acton told the board that she would suggest they go slow and wait for that information from BCPSEA to come out before moving forward with any plan.

After hearing that more information would be coming down, the motion was tabled. Lee was the only opposing vote in that decision.

Acton told Vernon Matters that once the information from BCPSEA is available, it will be reviewed by the board and used in the future should they wish to continue with calling on the province for a vaccine mandate.

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