Washington schools boss ‘strongly encouraging’ Inslee to mandate shots for teachers

(The Center Square) – Washington’s top schools boss requests that Gov. Jay Inslee order vaccinations for K-12 teachers before schools reopen this fall.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal said as much in a letter sent to the governor on Thursday. Reykdal wrote he was “strongly encouraging” Inslee to issue a proclamation before teacher union negotiations conclude.

“With the continued increase in cases of COVID-19 across our state due to the highly contagious Delta variant, students losing precious time learning in-person with their educators and peers because of quarantine or, potentially, school building closures is a real threat,” Reykdal wrote.

Reykdal suggested to the governor that personal or philosophical exemptions be excluded from the order and that violations should result in termination.

The Washington Education Association, which represents some 9,000 teachers in the state, has remained neutral on the matter. It has reiterated that it will likely be subject to ongoing collective bargaining if an order is given. It is unclear how many K-12 teachers are vaccinated statewide.

“If the governor determines a vaccine mandate is necessary, WEA members will be subject to that order,” Julie Popper, a spokesperson with the Washington Education Association, said in a statement on Friday.

KING 5 News reports that Seattle Public Schools quietly mandated vaccinations ahead of the school year starting in mid-September for all non-union staff. It includes medical exemptions or “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Weekly infection rates in Washington have been on the rise since the state reopened. In June, weekly case rates averaged 3,603. By July, they rose to 5,160. Over the first week of August, case rates averaged 3,484 over a 7-day span. Those figures put Washington on track to rival April’s weekly case average of 8,925 if infections continue to rise, the state Department of Health (DOH) reports. The state’s all-time high for weekly cases rates remains at 14,742 from January 2021, more than four times last week’s rate.

COVID hospitalizations are also on the rise statewide. In June, hospitals added 997 new COVID patients to their beds, the DOH reports. Last July saw 1,450 more COVID patients admitted for emergency care. The first week of August saw hospitalizations rise by 610.

Inslee announced on Monday that all state employees would have to roll up their sleeves for shots by Oct. 18. That order did not include K-12 teachers, an issue concerning public health officials.

Tara Lee, a spokesperson for Inslee’s office, said the governor has no intention of making any further announcements this week as he continues to explore ways to boost vaccination rates. Inslee, Lee said, has the power to do so.

Scholars like Prof. Hugh Spitzer of the University of Washington’s School of Law agree.

“Individuals, while we all have a lot of rights, and personal rights, we don’t have the right to go whack somebody on their head,” Spitzer said. “If somebody is a carrier of infectious disease and they walk by someone and breathe on them, it’s pretty much the equivalent of hitting on them on the head with a baseball bat.”

Both House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, and Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, condemned Inslee’s approach earlier this week, saying it was unlikely to yield results.

“The governor should show humility, listen to those who have concerns about the vaccine, and look to provide other options,” Wilcox and Braun both said in a joint statement.

Vaccination rates remain high across the board in Washington relative to the rest of the nation but have continued to slow before and after the $2 million vaccine lottery. In July, the DOH reports that 298,600 new shots were administered statewide, 52% less than the 633,539 doses administered in June.

Around 76.4% of people ages 12 and older are at least partially vaccinated, while 78.3% of all adults have been jabbed one or more times, according to data from the CDC’s COVID Tracker. Those numbers are higher for seniors, 93.1% of whom have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

For perspective, 2.63 million people in Washington are unvaccinated out of more than 7.7 million people statewide.

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