Parents, Opposition call for mandatory vaccinations for P.E.I. school staff

As thousands of unvaccinated Island children prepare to return to school in less than three weeks, some parents are calling for stricter measures to protect their kids, with a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic underway across the country involving the highly-contagious delta variant.

"I really hope that teachers have taken their responsibilities with our children — especially knowing they cannot be vaccinated — I hope they're taking their responsibilities seriously as educators ... doing their part to be vaccinated," said Meredith MacDonald.

She said her family has taken every precaution it can to protect her two sons, aged five and seven. Now she said it's up to the education system, and she said a mandatory vaccination policy for school staff should be in place.

The P.E.I. government has yet to release it's back-to-school plan, which it says will be made public Monday.

No plans for mandatory policy

When CBC asked the Department of Education and Lifelong Learning if it was considering any vaccination policies for school staff, that request was forwarded to the Public Schools Branch.

Both the Public Schools Branch and the French Language School Board told CBC they had no plans to implement a mandatory vaccination policy.

"It's disappointing — just because kids are at risk, and they can't be vaccinated," said MacDonald.

CBC agreed to allow another parent to express her views without using her name, to prevent any possible repercussions involving her six-year-old child.

That parent said with some colleges and universities in Canada mandating vaccines for staff and students, the same protections should be in place for children who can't be vaccinated.

"I don't really think it's unreasonable, especially for teachers who are working with such young children, or even the older children, because some of them might be immunocompromised," she said.

"It's just our children are spending so much of their day with these people, it just makes sense to have them be vaccinated."

'My child doesn't have the option to be vaccinated'

According to the latest statistics, just over 75 per cent of eligible Islanders aged 12 and up have received two doses of vaccine.

But both parents told CBC if their child is in a classroom with a teacher who is not vaccinated, families should be told.

"I would probably put in a request to the school to have her transferred to a class with a vaccinated teacher, and just hope that they understood the reasoning and allowed that," the second parent said.

"If not, I guess I would have to find a way to make home schooling work, because I'm not willing to have her life be risked because her teacher refused to get a vaccine.

"My worry is that my child doesn't have the option to be vaccinated right now as they are too young," the parent said. "I would just feel a lot more comfortable with a teacher who is vaccinated as they are less likely to catch COVID-19, which means a reduced risk to the children."

This week, the Ontario government announced it will develop a "vaccination status disclosure policy" for education workers.

Those not vaccinated against COVID-19 will also be required to undergo frequent rapid antigen testing.

It's not clear if P.E.I.'s school boards are tracking, or intend to track, vaccination status of staff. Questions to the Public Schools Branch on that topic did not receive an answer.

We have an obligation to keep our community safe.— Peter Bevan-Baker, Official Opposition leader

"I think that's maybe something for the school to address more specifically," Dr. Heather Morrison said when asked whether parents should be able to find out if their child's teacher is vaccinated.

"The way we can really protect those who are not vaccinated is to make sure everyone around them is fully vaccinated," Morrison said when asked about parents' concerns.

But Morrison said before considering any mandatory vaccination policy, the province is focusing on "making sure that there's good access, support and education" around vaccines.

Delta 'tearing through' unvaccinated, says Opposition

"We have a large cohort of unvaccinated children returning to school this fall. We know that the new variants are tearing through this group as they have no immunity for the COVID virus," P.E.I.'s Official Opposition said in a written statement provided to CBC.

Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker told CBC disclosing to parents whether a teacher is vaccinated could raise privacy concerns. 

He said the solution — what government should be doing — is implementing a mandatory vaccination policy, not just for school staff but also for front-line health-care workers.

"We have an obligation to keep our community safe, and we've done that extraordinarily well for 18 months here," said Bevan-Baker. 

"Government has made some very sound decisions along the way, and I think the sound decision at this point is to mandate vaccinations for those front-line workers."

Disclosing vaccine status may or may not run against privacy law

Under P.E.I.'s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the disclosure of someone's personal health information is presumed to be an unreasonable invasion of privacy.

But Maria MacDonald, an adjudicator with the office of P.E.I.'s Information and Privacy Commissioner, said that presumption is not absolute and there are circumstances under which such disclosure could be allowed.

"For example, one of the considerations listed in the [Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act] is whether the disclosure is likely to promote public health and safety," MacDonald said.

"So we can't say disclosure of vaccine status would always be an unreasonable invasion of someone's privacy."

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