Randi Weingarten appeared on “Meet the Press” and endorsed mandatory vaccinations for teachers.
She said on Sunday that she wants the union to support mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for teachers. Currently, the AFT (and the NEA) favor vaccination being a voluntary choice.
Randi said:
“Since 1850 we’ve dealt with vaccines in schools, it’s not a new thing to have vaccines in schools. And I think that, on a personal matter, as a matter of personal conscience, I think that we need to be working with our employers – not opposing them – on vaccine mandates.” — NBC’s Meet the Press
This should not even be a story. Of course, teachers, hospital workers, and all essential personnel should be vaccinated. The virus will not be conquered until almost everyone is vaccinated against it.
How can parents send their children to school without the secure knowledge that the child’s teacher is vaccinated.
Mandatory vaccination is nothing unusual, as Randi said. I recall as a child having to present evidence that I was vaccinated for a variety of contagious diseases, most less serious than COVID.
When will the NEA step up and join with Randi in doing the right thing for themselves and their students?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good morning Diane and everyone,
As a teacher, I am concerned that students will not be vaccinated and will also be unmasked in schools. No matter who you are, if you are unvaccinated, you should be wearing a mask. And make an appointment to get yourself vaccinated. My husband and I (both teachers) are both vaccinated and we wear masks in public indoor places – the grocery store, the hair salon, shops, etc. I don’t understand the ranting and raving against wearing masks. It’s not like you are being asked to cut your arms and legs off. It’s a simple step you can take to protect yourself and others. We also tell our service providers that we are vaccinated but choose to wear a mask to protect others. Most people I talk to seem happy with that. But if students can’t or won’t get vaccinated, they should be required to wear masks especially now that we are going to have all students fully back in schools. If students and staff are not vaccinated, it should be known to all so that we, the vaccinated, can take steps (if we would like to) to protect ourselves. This may mean distancing or not being in close space with unvaccinated people. I will also continue to open my doors and windows in my classroom.
Yes. yes. yes.
She leaves no doubt that, in lockstep with Biden and Wall Street, it’s Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, “There is no doubt: Schools must be open. In-person. Five days a week.”
YEP!
Which, incidentally, was Trump’s position a year ago, which had everyone’s hair on fire here…..
I can remember waiting in a line with my mother at my elementary school that was the site for distributing the polio vaccine. Because of our due diligence, we eradicated polio in this country. There was no discussion of “personal liberty.” We did it for ourselves, our neighbors and the country. The only way we can survive is to start swimming in the same direction.
Why do we NOT have widespread outbreaks of measles, mumps, rubella, polio and other major diseases???? Because everyone is vaccinated against these!!! Some people won’t get vaccinated because they don’t “trust” the vaccine. Well, do you get up in the morning and get in your car? You could get in an accident and die. Do you cross the street? That’s risky too. Do you go to work in a high-rise building? A tragedy could happen and the building could collapse. Life is full of risks. Nothing is certain. Life is always on the edge of death. We put things in our bodies everyday that could make us sick. But we still eat. We breathe the polluted air. We know that people who are vaccinated have fewer symptoms and do not usually get very ill and die from covid. Are there exceptions? Of course. The only thing we can do is go by what is really happening in the majority of cases and the vaccine is working.
“The vaccine is working” Iceland (93% of the population 16 years of age or older vaccinated) is experiencing its largest wave of Covid-19 yet. Getting hit by lightning is rare— Delta Variant breakthrough is not.
Hello Richard,
Yes, you can still get covid if you are vaccinated but you will be less likely to suffer serious symptoms and/or die from it. If you are looking for something with a 100% guarantee, look to death (and taxes 🙂 ).
But Richard what are their raw numbers? Per capita illness? Simply saying “largest outbreak yet” means nothing? If they had 1 case and went to 2, just an example, that’s a 100% increase, but a tiny fraction of the population. It’s a way to lie with statistics.
People vote with their feet, if they can; America has forced its people to choose between their safety and keeping their job, so millions are fearfully sending their Vivaccinated kids back. Yet, failing to acknowledge this fact, Weingarten states; “We are in far better shape today than we were last September, e vaccine has been a game changer.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/schools-start-in-person-pandemic-masks/2021/08/09/29e7fb6c-f8b4-11eb-9c0e-97e29906a970_story.html
Retired, now occasional substitute, have the luxury of no t going back now, waiting until the dust settles. I hope my fears and those of this commenter to your previous post are proven wrong.
RageAgainstTheEdu-Meddlers
July 21, 2020 at 6:33 pm
“All this planning and related angst will be for naught by October when most schools are forced back to remote instruction for all. Widespread student absenteeism, teacher/sub shortages, unmanageable disciplinary issues, and of course infections, quarantining, illness, and in some cases deaths. What counsellor wants to have a sit down with a class of 25 first graders to explain that their teacher’s death was not their fault?”
Dr. Walensky has repeatedly said that breakthrough infections are extremely rare. But the agency does not tally national figures on breakthrough infections that don’t result in hospitalization or death, and, in any event, its numbers lag by a few weeks. The exact incidence of these infections, as well as their outcomes, is unknown.
Hello Retired Teacher,
I often think that the 2 biggest problems facing humanity right now are covid and climate change. To solve both problems it will take working together as a WORLD community. It will take cooperation, compassion and putting some of our own interests and desires aside. It will take sacrifice of comforts, money and our own energy. It will take looking at ourselves and our dark sides – our greed, egotism, apathy, just to name a few. Never in the history of humanity have we had to work together as an entire world to solve problems that could literally destroy us and other species. Will we be able to do it?
We are not going to be able to enjoy any level of personal freedom without meeting our personal responsibility and sometimes sacrifice. When our soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, did they stop and think, “Dude, this ain’t my country.” They knew that unless we stopped Hitler here, we would be fighting him on our own shores. This is foresight, and it seems to be lacking, particularly on the right now.
Was surprised she got this one wrong to start…
This is a no-brainer, especially in elementary schools. School staff HAVE to be vaccinated!
We need emergency vaccine authorization for students ages 5 to 11 ASAP starting with the eleven year olds and working down each year.
Governor Newsom (the same guv that the Orange County anti-maskers want to toss out) just announced mandated vaccinations or a weekly Covid test for all teachers in California. https://abc30.com/vaccine-mandate-for-teachers-california-school-vaccinate-requirement/10944163/
Good for Newsom!
It’s about freaking time. And what about mandatory N95 masks for all students?
and what about procuring and providing masks for all who are inside our schools
what about mandatory vaccinations for secondary school students? who knows if masks protect against delta variant, apparently there’s been no research on that question. I can’t believe 30 kids are about to be crammed into closed classrooms, with no information if their parents are vaccinated. school districts seem blind deaf and dumb to the risks to children in these congregate settings.
“school districts seem blind deaf and dumb to the risks to children in these congregate settings.”
It’s not the districts, it’s the adminimals who make the decisions. Will they be held accountable? Hell, no they won’t.
In most states that are opposed to masks and vaccinations, there are state laws or governor’s executive orders that bar any public safety measures. In some districts, a minority of anti-vaxxers pressure school officials to accept high risks.
And that all means squat. Far too many involved, damn near all, with the teaching and learning process are compliant, GAGA Good German implementers of malicious malpractices that harm the most innocent in society.
What you say only points to their ethical weaknesses in putting their selfish selves over doing right by, providing justice for the children they are in charge of.
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Comte-Sponville [my additions]
Hear here Duane. Stop making sense. Once one paints
themselve into a corner of debt, they become a victim
of circumstances. Lead by example, goes out the window.
What goes around comes around, is off the radar.
While showing the kids how you confront wrong,
is a lesson in itself, take no responsibilty for the
lesson, blame somebody else.
If down the road, when the kids become “adults”,and
they return the favor (your leadership style),get out
the ole blame gun and fire away…
Reblogged this on What's Gneiss for Education and commented:
Her announcement would have had more impact had she said this in the first place.
Will the NEA step up? Probably not. They’re busy with something else, “NEA President Becky Pringle convened a panel of experts to explore how extended learning can create equity and help students learn and… to identify evidence-based policies and practices that rethink school in ways that can transform learning opportunities for students and teachers alike,” which, to me sounds like a KIPP advertisement. Call me cynical.
Hey Cynical,
You got that one right!
Recommended reading for those who crave more perspective on the national unions’ back to school “safely” push: Facebook groups “Teachers Against Dying,” and Educators rank and file safety committee.
From Teachers Against Dying: “AFT president Randi Weingarten went to New Mexico as part of the campaign to promote school reopenings on Thursday. The article she links to on Twitter that cites her states the “AFT provided 65 grants across the nation, totaling $5 million and affecting 20 million students, to help districts reopen, Weingarten said.” AFT is literally spending millions to promote school re-openings as pediatric COVID hospitalizations explode.”
https://rrobserver.com/union-rr-schools-are-safe/
If schools open without any modifications of social distancing, no mandated masks, clever ways to reduce numbers of students at one time smaller and constant cleaning, the virus will continue to spread to both students and staff.
Florida, for example, has not used any of its CARES Act money to keep students and staff safe. Why?
From what I have been reading and watching (YouTube), the vaccine will not stop the Delta Variant but may improve your immune function to survive if infected by the Delta Variant.
For that reason, if I was still teaching, I’d be wearing a hazmat suit in the classroom even if all of the students wore masks.
And I have had both Moderna jabs.
Well, I’m going in for one more year.
I always wanted a hazmat suit, even before the pandemic.
Who woulda thunk it’d be the latest fashion?
Pax vobiscum, John!
Thanks. You, too!
It’s called a rule of thumb cause many use the other
one as a gastric cork…
“If the vaccinated can spread the virus,
that means the vaccinated can catch the virus,
that means it’s not a vaccine.”
“If I need to wear a mask for yours to work
and if I need to take a Vaccine for yours to work
then why is it that when I use my brain
yours still doesn’t work?”
If you have not yet read about this brave Florida superintendent…. it’s worth a watch:
https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/florida-public-school-district-responds-to-threat-of-potential-loss-of-funding-118358597871
Diane
The mRNA injection is not a vaccine.
It does not work like the old fashioned polio and small pox vaccines you and I grew up with.
According to Moderna’s own website the mRNA injection is an “operating system.”
It is unapproved by the FDA and it is a 24 month experiment.
The mRNA injection is causing thousands of fatalities and injuries throughout our country which are currently reported on the CDC VAERS website.
Safe, effective, proven and affordable anti-virals for Covid including Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine are being suppressed by unaccountable profit-driven elites whose greed and corruption know no bounds. Our media has been captured. We are not in good hands.
Please listen to the medical professionals who are trying to warn us.
If you are open i will send you more details on the dangers this novel technology poses from credentialed frontline physicians and virologists who are alarmed and whose voices are being systematically suppressed on this issue.
We need to protect people, including our kids, our teachers and support staff from this dangerous takeover of our health and our bodies.
Sincerely Sharleen Leahey Public School Support Staff member 1996-present NJEA member / LAT & Support Staff AR Somerset County, New Jersey
On Wed, Aug 11, 2021 at 9:02 AM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” Randi Weingarten appeared on “Meet the Press” and > endorsed mandatory vaccinations for teachers. She said on Sunday that she > wants the union to support mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for teachers. > Currently, the AFT (and the NEA) currently favor v” >
What do you do when your local union (MFT) will not fight for basic COVID safety protocols? I’m thrilled the AFT president supports vaccination mandates, but the NEA and NYSUT sit on the fence and don’t offer any concrete support to worried New York State teachers. When my school opens there will be no masks, no vaccination mandate, no testing of unvaccinated personnel, no social distancing, no additional hand washing, etc. Teachers need more support locally. Thank you.
That’s what people don’t understand – that the situation in schools is so different depending on the state and district. Pictures of large clean, classrooms with plexiglass and masked students…. in one town. But for others it’s business as usual – if the community doesn’t believe in the science. I am sorry that this is what you are facing in your school.
My spouse is is returning to a Northbay classroom today. View the New York Times simulation: Why Opening Windows Is a Key to Reopening Schools…
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/how-an-open-window-can-make-a-classroom-safer-from-covid-19/
But.today’s headline “Anyone who smells smoke should stay inside with windows and doors closed until it subsides.”
https://www.ktvu.com/news/wildfire-smoke-prompts-air-quality-advisory-for-thursday
& students & teachers returning to Chicago Public Schools will be assured of thoroughly cleaned schools, anti-Covid friendly this year, because CPS has extended the Aramark cleaning contract.
Because they’d done such a WONDERFUL job of cleaning schools pre-pandemic.
(Read the Chicago papers–Tribune & 🌞-Times
past articles about the filth, the rats, the far-too-few cleaning employees buying their own cleaning supplies, etc., ad nauseum.)
Just.NO.