COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican Senator Shane Massey is the latest to join the call to vaccinate teachers against COVID-19.
"We're on the verge of losing this school year," said Sen. Massey, who represents Aiken, Edgefield, Lexington, McCormick & Saluda Counties. "By the virtue of doing that, we could very well lose children for a generation."
Massey introduced a resolution that will require DHEC to allow teachers and support staff to move into Phase 1A and have them fully vaccinated within 30 days. It would require school districts to offer a five-day in-person instruction opportunity two weeks after. The South Carolina Department of Education told News 19 there are 122,876 certified teachers and support staff in the state.
"The districts have surveyed all of their employees and asked them if they would accept the vaccine if it's offered," Massey said. "Roughly 58 percent of the 120,876 said they would. That puts us over a little bit over 70,000 people who would need to be vaccinated. DHEC is receiving a lit bit over 70,000 vaccines a week."
Organizations including SC for ED and The Palmetto State Teachers Association say the request to be prioritized isn't due to fear of the virus but instead staffing issues in the schools.
"The school where I teach had 18 staff absences, and we could only find five substitute teachers, which meant we had 13 classes of students where we didn't have a substitute teacher," said said Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers Association, who teaches in Richland Two. "Either those students got added to another classroom, which makes social distancing harder, or we had ten classes of students report to the auditorium."
Recently, Senator Massey took Twitter to express his concern about prioritizing teachers to get vaccinated. He says hearing superintendent molly spearman talk about the state of academic progress and hearing from frustrated parents prompted the tweet and the resolution.
"I'm not trying to pick a fight with anybody; I'm just trying to get kids back in school," Massey said. "If this is the way to make it happen, then I'm going to do it."