B.C.'s largest school district won't mandate COVID-19 vaccines for staff

Vancouver -

The elected board for the largest school district in B.C. has decided it will not mandate COVID-19 vaccines for teachers and support staff.

Surrey school board vice-chair Terry Allen said trustees were told by Fraser Health that because of the region’s high vaccination rate, the mandate isn’t necessary.

“We followed health direction all along as far as K-12 for masks and so on, and we follow health now. And if health doesn’t believe it’s a necessary requirement, then that really is the basis of our decision,” said Allen.

Surrey’s parent advisory council wanted the mandate, and is disappointed the school board won’t act.

“We were hoping this decision went the other way,” said Surrey DPAC member Rani Senghera. “We were also I think hoping that this decision came from the ministry instead of letting school boards decide.”

Surrey Teachers Association president Matt Westphal said teachers would have supported the mandate.

“We are not surprised that the school district has decided not to order a vaccine mandate, and this is precisely the problem with how the Ministry of Education has passed the buck onto school districts,” said Westphal.

Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside said any province-wide school vaccine mandate would have to come from Dr. Bonnie Henry.

“Absent a public health order in this regard, boards of education, as employers of employees who work in our school system, make the decisions about what to do with respect to policies for their workforce,” said Whiteside.

Surrey's school board decided a mandate could do more harm than good.

“If we had five per cent of our staff not vaccinated and the mandate was in place, that would be 600 staff that wouldn’t be available for the Surrey school system. So the impact on the classroom would be huge,” said Allen.

Senghera said while she knows there could be a staffing crunch, she also believes "children’s safety should come first at this point, especially when we are all doing our part to keep them safe.”

New Westminster’s school board has also decided against a vaccine mandate for teachers and support staff. The president of Vancouver’s district parent advisory council Gord Lau said it’s a worrying trend.

“The reason we are seeing these decisions made by districts is because the province has abdicated their responsibility to make that mandate and provide resources to other districts to support that mandate,” said Lau, who hopes Vancouver’s board bucks the trend and requires vaccination at school.

It’s expected other B.C. school districts will announce their decisions on school vaccine mandates in the coming days.