COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — Under a proposal from Tennessee's House Education Chairman Mark White, teachers would be included in phase one of the vaccine distribution. This would place them in the same phase as healthcare workers and other first responders.
White believes teachers and students need to get back to in-person learning as soon as it's safe considering the "learning loss" many students have faced.
Meghan Seay, the school health supervisor for Collierville Schools, said she is excited about this proposal explaining it would be great for protecting teachers.
"Our teachers really are frontline workers," Seay said. "We want to make sure they are staying safe. They are exposed to a lot of different people any given day."
White said since for the past nine months students across the state have not been getting a full education from strictly online or a hybrid model. He said if teachers can get the vaccine earlier then in-person learning for all districts could potentially start again as early as Summer 2021.
"I think it’s really damaging our students right now and so we are going to have to get our schools moving sooner rather than later," White said.
He hopes this will make teachers more comfortable with returning to in-person instruction. White said the back and forth with quarantine has not been beneficial.
"It’s the teachers who are having to go out on quarantine right now that’s really disrupting our ability to stay in school," White said.
Seay believes when teachers get vaccinated it will definitely make them feel less at risk.
"I think this is going to be another added layer of protection and it’s going to really make our staff feel better, make our parents feel better, make our kids feel better," Seay said.
Even when teachers get vaccinated, Collierville Schools said it will not be letting up on masking and social distancing. Seay said the district will encourage teachers to take the vaccine, but will not make it mandatory.
"We're certainly not going to be lessening any of the procedures we have put into place to keep our faculty and our students safe," Seay said.
If this proposal passes, healthcare workers and first responders will still remain the first priority in the initial phase of the vaccine.