After a year of remote and hybrid learning, the parents in the Canton School District were looking forward to a normal school year. However, the new Delta variant of COVID-19 causes some parents to worry about the safety of their children in the school.
The Canton school district is following CDC guidelines and the New York State Education Department to form their reopening plan. The reopening plan highlights the importance of universal mask wearing, physical distancing, hand washing, use of hand sanitizer, and cleaning of highly touched surfaces according to the school district’s website. In addition to these guidelines, the school is not allowing remote instruction unless students are in quarantine since students are expected to attend class every day in person.
The school district also states on the COVID-19 page of their website that “Promoting vaccination can help schools safely return to in-person learning as well as extracurricular activities and sports.” The vaccine is not mandatory for all faculty and staff in the school district.
For some parents, promoting the vaccine is not enough to protect the children in the school district who are unable to receive the vaccine because of their age. Anna Sommer is a parent that started a petition titled “Require Canton Central School Staff to Be Vaccinated.” Sommer presented the petition with its 178 signatures to the Canton School District Board on Sep. 16.
At the meeting, Superintendent Ronald Burke announced that he has spoken with attorneys about mandating a vaccine for all school employees. “School districts do not have the legal authority to mandate vaccines for staff,” stated Burke.
Parents that attended the board meeting in support of the petition left with concerns about their children’s safety. Stephanie Tartakoff is a parent of three elementary school-age children, and a supporter of the petition. “The superintendent basically said that his hands are tied in this situation,” said Tartakoff. “So, I don’t have much confidence that anything will happen unless Governor Hochul mandates it herself.”
On Sep. 2, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced an emergency regulation to reopen all New York State schools safely. The emergency regulation states that all school employees will need to either be vaccinated or tested every week for COVID-19, according to the NY Governor website.
Canton School District is in the process of getting unvaccinated students tested each week. Students will need to provide a consent form to be included in the testing pool.
At the school board meeting, Sommer shared that she recently withdrew her son from kindergarten after learning his teacher is not vaccinated. “I am disappointed, I really thought that the school board would take action,” Sommer said after the meeting.
Although Burke stated that the vaccine cannot be mandatory for employees, Sommer is still looking to emphasize the issue to the school board. “I will email school board members and give updates to the 178 people that signed the petition and suggest that they do the same.”