Essex Tech Teachers Protest To Demand Vaccines For Educators

Teachers at Essex Tech Tuesday morning stood outside along route 62, in front of the school, signs in hand, in sub zero wind chills, to plead with the state to prioritize teachers for COVID vaccines. 37 states in the country are currently vaccinating teachers. Despite the state's push for getting all students back in the classroom, Governor Baker has yet to take the most important step. Making teachers eligible for vaccines.

Essex Tech has been in a hybrid model since the beginning of the school year that has half of all students in the building. In a few weeks, they plan to bring in another ¼ of the student body to have CTE instruction 100% in person for all students. While this change is essential to the quality of education students at a technical high school receive, the state's unwillingness to make teachers eligible for vaccines puts teachers all over the commonwealth at risk.

One student shared that, “I am absolutely dumbfounded that everyone talks a big game about getting kids back in person, and then refuses to do the single most important thing to get it to happen. During the pandemic, everyone claimed to appreciate teachers so much, and yet, now that push comes to shove, the state won’t do the most basic, and effective thing to get school life back to normal quickly. The fact that my shop teachers have to stand out there in the freezing cold, just to get the state to make an effort to protect them enrages me.”

The message sent by the Essex Tech teachers union this morning was clear. The vaccine fight isn’t one that they are willing to lose.