By Shelby Brooks
As teachers return for term three without masks, one local principal is advocating for his staff to be considered front line workers in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
Berwick Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek believes teachers should be considered frontline workers and be eligible for a Pfizer vaccine if they wish.
“I know my staff would all feel better if they had the opportunity to be vaccinated,” he said.
“That’s been an ongoing concern for the last 15 months, teachers at my school and colleagues that I speak to have always felt we should be prioritised for vaccination.”
He said the nature of a classroom setting should be enough to see teachers on the list.
“The bottom line is we work in small rooms with 20-30 kids in a classroom for five to six hours a day and you aren’t wearing masks in there and if someone has got it, and children can get it, as we know, it can just spread like wildfire,” Mr Grossek said.
Minister for Health Martin Foley announced on Wednesday 7 July that masks would no longer be required at schools for students and staff as restrictions eased in metropolitan Melbourne.
“A lot of the authorities are saying it’s low risk, but it still is a risk,” Mr Grossek said.
“It would make a lot of teachers feel a lot better if they were priority vaccinated and we should be now. Once again we’ve got no cases so it’s a golden opportunity to capitalise on that.
“If we all got vaccinated we’d all feel better and we wouldn’t have to wait until some school got closed down again.”
Mr Grossek said teachers should have been on the list from the beginning of the rollout.
“A few of the staff have been vaccinated, including myself, but most of them haven’t been vaccinated,” he said.
“We do know that in any point in time, as we’ve just seen in Sydney and a few months ago in Melbourne, things can change rapidly and the Delta strain which is the one we are all concerned about can flare up at a rapid rate very quickly.
“The fact that we haven’t got any cases at the moment doesn’t in any way, diminish people’s concerns. My opinion is, yes, teachers should be getting priority vaccinations of course that hasn’t been the case and it’s disappointing that it isn’t.”
On Facebook, the Gazette asked “Should teachers be considered frontline workers for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout?” to gauge the community’s opinion.
A few people said no, teachers should not be considered frontline workers in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, with most saying it should be an individual’s choice.
The Gazette did not suggest that teachers should not be given a choice and instead just asked if teachers should be categorised as a frontline worker in the rollout scheme.
Kristina Dodevski said teachers shouldn’t be considered frontline workers.
“If teachers are, so are supermarket workers, and I’m in construction, and we didn’t stop during any of the lockdowns. Does that make all those industries front line workers?” she said.
Emma Woodman also said no.
“Frontline workers are every single person that worked away from home through 2020. Teachers hid safe and sound at home. Working behind a computer screen,” she said.
“The supermarket employees, the rubbish collectors, the early childhood staff, the hospital/aged care staff yes. Not the sooky teachers that campaigned their union to ‘protect’ them and neglected our children for the majority of the year.”
Lots of people did answer yes, saying that teachers should be listed as frontline workers in the vaccine rollout.
Bronwyn Mepstead said, “Absolutely, especially if they live with someone who is compromised.”
Matthew Carey was more pessimistic.
“Why bother considering it now? Should been mandated from the start,” he said.
Jacquie Venditti said, “absolutely, if they want it.”
Vebica Evoonz agreed to part of the idea.
“For the original COVID variants no, as the stats and science didn’t support it. But for Delta variant yes as it is more transmissible and may potentially harm more children if teachers give it to the students,” she said.
And so did Kym Daniels.
“If yes, then so should supermarket workers!” she said.
