Quarantine Vaccine
Starting on March 31, the COVID-19 vaccine is available for everyone in Indiana who is 16 and older. This Q&A addresses concerns about the vaccine and its affect on ZCS students and staff.
1. How has ZCS been making their COVID-19 related decisions? Coffman: We have a specific COVID task force that [encompasses] several of our school administrators, Dr. Robison, Kris Devereaux, myself, and other key members of our administrative team… This also includes individuals whose background is immunology, whose background is in public health. We are constantly monitoring the metrics of the county [cases per 100,000 and positivity rate], keeping track of our number of quarantined individuals and how many students and staff are positive. We talk about these numbers with the local health department to determine what we think is in everyone’s best interest moving forward.
2. How is ZCS handling the vaccine situation? Coffman: We’re trying to keep our ear to the ground and making sure we’re informing our employees and our community as quickly as possible. Yesterday [March 2] morning, I saw a press release at about 8:50 with the
Why I GoT THE VACCINE 4 news
Harbinger staff member, Elizabeth Rexing, sat down with Rebecca Coffman, ZCS Assistant Superintendent of Operations on March 3 and also interviewed Claire Haughton, Health Educator and Public Information Officer for the Boone County Health Department, on March 2. *Quotes have been edited for clarity, but not content. change in [vaccine] eligibility opening to 55 and older. So immediately, we pulled up all our employee data and pulled everyone’s birthday. Anyone who was in that 55-60 range, who hadn’t been eligible in the last few weeks, received a text message [on how to register]. On the very far end of the campus, we have our employee campus and we have had an employee clinic since 2009. Ascension St. Vincent is our health partner and they have submitted the appropriate forms and paperwork to say that we would be ready and able to accept any vaccines because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine doesn’t require the ultra-low cold storage. So we’ve submitted that we could accept a vaccine allotment for distribution.
Sarah Ludwig
English teacher, vaccinated March 5 at Meijer, Pfizer “Being able to get the vaccine means more to me than I think I can put into words. After I scheduled my appointment, I was feeling very emotional! All good emotions: relief, excitement, and gratitude. I choose to get vaccinated to protect myself and those around me.”
3. Can ZCS make the vaccine mandatory? Coffman: There are mandatory vaccines that are required to be enrolled in a public school and that [are] set by state law. So in order for something to be mandatory, it would need to go through that process. To my knowledge, those conversations aren’t happening because I think there is still a lot to be accomplished before we start talking about students and children receiving the vaccine at different ages... There’ll be a lot of new information that comes forward before there’s ever a conversation for a requirement for the vaccine. Haughton: It’s a possibility. Schools do have the right to mandate certain vaccinations. We’ll also have to focus on making sure the English teacher Sarah Ludwig receives her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Photo submitted by Ludwig
