FEA Supports Vaccine Mandate for Fairfax County Public Schools
The following press release was sent to local media on Thursday, Aug. 19 from FEA.
Media Contact: Kimberly Adams, FEA President, president@fairfaxea.org
FEA Supports Vaccine Mandate for Fairfax County Public Schools
More than 175,000 students are preparing to return to the classroom this Monday, Aug. 23 in Fairfax County Public Schools, and thousands of school employees are doing all they can to ensure the health and safety of students in the face of an ongoing pandemic.
To help FCPS students stay healthy as COVID-19's delta variant affects our community, Fairfax Education Association (FEA) is in full support of universal masking for all people entering Fairfax County Public School buildings, regardless of vaccination status.
Wearing masks is necessary to keep our students and school employees safe and multiple studies have shown is in an effective measure in preventing the spread of COVID-19. FEA is calling on its thousands of members to take this seriously and mask up at work and in your community.
Fairfax Education Association is also supporting a vaccine mandate for all FCPS employees. FEA supports the weekly testing of school employees who are not able to be vaccinated. Our union continues to follow the science and we encourage our members to get vaccinated immediately.
"The main goal of all of this is to protect the health and safety of all students and staff, and our community in general," said FEA President Kimberly Adams.
So far, FCPS officials have not committed to a vaccine mandate, unlike several other school districts in Northern Virginia.
FEA believes a vaccine mandate would help protect the most vulnerable students — those who may be immunocompromised and the thousands of students under the age of 12 who are not yet eligible for a vaccination against COVID-19.
"The National Education Association (NEA) and Virginia Education Association (VEA) have voiced support for mandatory vaccination of school employees across the nation and our Commonwealth," Adams said. "The FEA has supported vaccination for all those who are eligible, and we look forward to young students being eligible in the coming weeks. We believe that vaccination refusal for medical, religious, or personal reasons is acceptable and that weekly testing should be required for all who remain unvaccinated."
FEA is in agreement with the COVID-19 mitigation measures in place in local public schools, including universal masking, contact tracing, social distancing and improvements to ventilation systems. Requiring a vaccine for all teachers and other employees of FCPS would be a highly-effective addition to this multi-faceted approach to the health, safety and well-being of our community.