Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new order requiring teachers and employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing was welcomed by many Orange County educators and parents as a necessary tool in protecting students – and lambasted by others as government overreach.
“I am thrilled that he is mandating this for school personnel because they are in a public place and I am worried about their health, as well as the health of the kids who are too young to be vaccinated,” said Kimberley Harvie, a Laguna Hills mom of an incoming second-grader at Oxford Preparatory Academy in Mission Viejo.
“Thrilled” was a common adjective used by many Wednesday when asked about the new order, believed to be the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccination mandate for school employees. With the Delta variant spreading quickly and driving up the number of children who test positive, parents worry about the risk their kids might face by returning to in-class school.
“Requiring vaccines and masks should really be a low threshold for school to mandate and meet. It’s the literal bare minimum, and it won’t stop the spread completely,” said Lyndsey Lefebvre, a La Habra resident who has a son entering La Sonora High School, a mostly indoor campus where she said students don’t have the same opportunities to be outdoors as they do on other campuses.
Teachers like Krissy Brownell agreed. A Los Alamitos mom of four and a teacher at Westminster High, Brownell said the new mandate offers some peace of mind.
“I am relieved at the mandate. I was terrified to think I was sending my children into a classroom with unvaccinated students and teachers. This takes a tiny weight off of my shoulders,” she said.
“All the teachers I am friends with believe in science and are vaccinated. There are a handful of teachers at my school site that are unvaccinated and proud of it, which honestly makes me nervous to sit at a staff meeting.”
But parents like Stacy Day, a parent at Capistrano Unified School District, said she worried this would be the next stepping stone toward mandating COVID-19 vaccines for students once the vaccinations receive final approval by federal authorities.
“I think this is an overreach on so many levels. It’s still an experimental vaccine. And weekly testing for what? False positives?” said Day, who pulled her four children from Capistrano Unified schools last year because she wanted to offer them more consistency and was concerned over mandatory face mask rules
David Melendez, a father of two at Orange Unified, said it makes no sense to have only unvaccinated school staff tested weekly.
“We’re told that vaccinated people spread the virus also,” Melendez said. “If we’re going to test, test (everyone)… That would give us a better picture of what’s going on.”
And Lynn Groff, a parent with an incoming freshman at Pacifica High in Garden Grove, called Newsom’s move “political.”
“With all the (federal COVID money) and teachers union contributions, they should be building those employees a wheeled Plexiglas rolling bubble cart to teach and interact from if they’re so afraid of the virus,” said Groff, who also opposes mandating face masks on campuses and is spearheading an anti-mask rally Friday afternoon near the Garden Grove Unified district office.
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California’s largest teacher unions came out in favor of Newsom’s plan, saying it will help ensure the safety of staff as well as students.
“Educators want to be in classrooms with their students. And the best way to make sure that happens is for everyone who is medically eligible to be vaccinated, with robust testing and multi-tiered safety measures,” said E. Toby Boyd, president of the California Teachers Association, which reported that nearly 90 % of educators have already been vaccinated.
In Orange County, Angie Cencak, president of the Fullerton Secondary Teachers Organization, said she’s pleased with Newsom’s announcement. “It will give us some peace of mind going forward.”
Grant Schuster, president of the Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association, said his union was already in talks with Anaheim Union looking at the possibility of doing something similar in the district.
“We were eager to look at something to encourage teachers to be vaccinated but also allow those who are concerned about the emergency use authorization, and who want to wait, to be tested on a regular basis,” Schuster said.
“It’s really important for schools to focus on the safety of our children as they’re the last ones left to be vaccinated. And this step would be part of that process,” Schuster said.
Details about how the new mandate will play out were unclear on Wednesday.
Last spring, the Orange County Department of Education helped coordinate a push to get teachers vaccinated. Christine Olmstead, an associate superintendent, said similar discussions will soon be taking place with officials from the county’s 28 public school districts, as well as private schools and all charter schools.
Officials from several school Orange County school districts, including Laguna Beach Unified, Irvine Unified and Tustin Unified, said details of the vaccine rules will have to be ironed out.
Some, like Santa Ana Unified School District, said they are looking to offer the weekly COVID-19 tests on campuses to reduce disruption for teachers employees and students.
Gina Clayton-Tarvin, a School Board member at Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach and a teacher in Cerritos, said Newsom’s mandate offers staff a choice.
“We need to have schools open, and in person, and the only way we can do it and protect the children is to…get the vaccines or be tested regularly,” she said.
School employees must be vaccinated or begin the weekly testing by Oct. 15.