Taking a step that just two have locally, and few have nationally, St. Louis Public Schools now has a vaccine mandate for all faculty and staff.
The Ferguson-Florissant School District also has a vaccine mandate as students return for the 2021-22 school year. The SLPS mandate was approved a day after the FDA granted the Pfizer vaccine full, non-emergency approval.
SLPS staff members must be vaccinated by mid-October or face unpaid leave. Employees may file for religious or medical exemptions.
Superintendent Kelvin Adams said the district “lost two teachers who had not been vaccinated” in the first week alone, and that the first case of an SLPS student contracting the COVID-19 was identified this Tuesday.
While there are no other school staff vaccine mandates in St. Louis or St. Louis County, other districts have offered other incentives. Normandy, for example, is offering a $750 bonus to teachers who get inoculated.
St. Louis, along with several large local employers, has already mandated vaccination for all of its employees.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is in pursuit of the 2022 Republican nomination for Senate, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against mask mandates in schools. He filed the lawsuit in Columbia, naming that public school district and its school board and superintendent. All districts with mask mandates are targets, including St. Louis Public Schools, which will now be adding a vaccine mandate.
A recent Duke University study showed that masks in schools make a significant dent in the transmission of the coronavirus.
On Aug. 21, AFT Local 420—the union representing SLPS teachers—announced that it would also be supporting a vaccine mandate among teachers.
“We are at a specific point in time in the pandemic with pediatric outbreaks and newly announced federal vaccine approval that the union’s leadership believes it is time for a strong response,” spokesperson Byron Clemens said. In the latest wave of COVID-19, children represent about 12-15% of cases nationwide, and 3-4% of hospitalizations.
According to George Sells, SLPS director of Communications, the district has been moving in the direction of a vaccine mandate for teachers for some time now. A recent survey of staff by the district concluded that 86% of staff was vaccinated. Sells said that the numbers were “unreliable” because not all staff members responded to the survey.
“The numbers are premature, and not very predictable,” Sells said. “But we’re seeing encouraging signs.”
Teens have the lowest vaccination rate of any eligible group in the state, and children under 12 are still ineligible for vaccination. There is no vaccine mandate for SLPS students, most of whom are below the age of eligibility.
Adams, the day that the vaccine was fully approved, put an item on the St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education agenda in order to ask the board to mandate vaccinations for all teachers.
There are currently significant disparities in vaccination by school building, according to Adams.
“We have school buildings [staff populations] that are as high as 90% vaccinated, and some that are as low as 50% vaccinated,” he said.
According to board member Donna Summers, the district is also short 132 teachers. The impact is compounded by the high rate at which people are becoming ill and dying of this virus.
Board member Antoinette Cousins said the vaccine mandate was necessary because, “‘we are losing people in droves, especially in the city, due to this pandemic. We have to take this seriously.”
“We believe the vaccination policy…will give kids and families assurance that we’re doing everything in our power to protect students,” Adams said.
Teens have the lowest vaccination rate of any eligible group in the state, and children under 12 are still ineligible for vaccination. There is no vaccine mandate for SLPS students, most of whom are below the age of eligibility.
The full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine is the first full licensing of a vaccine by the agency, which had given emergency approval to the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson vaccines months prior. Unlike an emergency clearance, a full approval lasts indefinitely, unless an unexpected side effect of the vaccine develops. The vaccine remains free to all United States residents.
