Alberta teachers support mandatory vaccination policy for educational staff

EDMONTON – Alberta teachers say they’re in support of implementing a mandatory vaccination policy for all school staff.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association says the provincial government should make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for teachers and other educational staff.

And if the government won’t, the ATA says individual school boards should look at creating policies for their areas.

RELATED: Parents frustrated over lack of information about school outbreaks

“The best way to support student safety at a time when so many students cannot be vaccinated is to ensure that the adults around them are vaccinated. We cannot mandate vaccination for our members so we are making it clear that we believe those who can—like the Government of Alberta or individual school boards—should,” said ATA President Jason Schilling.

The ATA says any policies should be created to be temporary and reviewable and that reasonable accommodation is made available for people who don’t want to get vaccinated.

Schilling says the association won’t be backing any challenges to vaccine mandates, should the government or boards decide to put them in.

“School boards will have to ensure that employee privacy is respected as much as possible and personal information will have to be stored securely, but this is an area where a balancing of rights and responsibilities is warranted,” he said.

RELATED: 21 Calgary schools have at least one COVID-19 case: student advocacy group

Parents have been frustrated lately with a lack of information on COVID-19 outbreaks in schools.

12 total outbreaks at Edmonton Public Schools, with 573 known COVID cases this school year to date.

It's part of EPSB's public dashboard – they're collecting info from families as they are not being notified by AHS.

link: https://t.co/uQzI5bzlcU#yeg #yyc #ableg #covid19ab pic.twitter.com/DesvIOnQ86

— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) September 28, 2021

In Edmonton, there are 12 outbreaks at schools. A student advocacy group says there are at least 21 Calgary schools with one COVID-19 case or more.

The Calgary Board of Education says it is also advocating for mandatory vaccines for all people who work in the education sector.

“In the meantime, we continue to engage with Alberta Education and provincial health authorities for government direction on vaccination. Our current focus is on promoting vaccination to all eligible employees. The CBE has repeatedly encouraged all eligible employees to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the Calgary Catholic School District says while it supports vaccination as a way to protect against COVID-19, it won’t be introducing any mandates.

“Vaccination, together with rapid testing, can help us further protect our students and staff. CCSD has received a supply of rapid testing kits that are available as an option for every CCSD staff member to test themselves weekly until Christmas. We are hopeful that the government of Alberta will continue to provide rapid testing kits and other resources and support to school districts,” the district said.

“All of the vaccination clinics that are hosted at our schools are organized directly by Alberta Health Services. AHS nurses reach out to our schools and principals directly to set up or cancel a clinic. As such, we are not tracking vaccination clinics in our schools. We will continue to support Alberta Health Services in making vaccines and vaccine clinics as accessible as possible to our students and staff.”