Malkara School parents call for mandated COVID vaccines for education workers

Alexandra Gillespie, whose son Ruairi attends the specialist school, is among parents calling for a vaccine mandate on school staff.

Dr Gillespie penned her concerns in an open letter to Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry, alongside eleven other parents.

"From my phone discussions with the Principal at Malkara Allison Chapman she has strongly recommended, requested and made opportunities for staff to be vaccinated whilst working at Malkara," the letter reads.

"However, these efforts have not succeed [sic] leaving our already vulnerable and immune compromised children exposed to contracting COVID-19 at school."

Malkara School, which caters to 73 children aged four to twelve, was listed as a close contact exposure site this week for times on September 7 and 8.

Families and staff have been sent into isolation as a result, though the school has not been added as a public site of transmission.

Dr Gillespie said she felt a vaccine mandate could have prevented this exposure.

"I understand there are high rates of vaccination in the ACT, and I'm sure ... staff, teachers are moving to be vaccinated," she said.

"But I think we need to ... have some assurances in this setting, that everyone there is vaccinated."

"If people can't be vaccinated, or they don't want to divulge that information, then they need to be moved to other duties. As parents, we need to have an assurance that the people in this setting are vaccinated," Dr Gillespie said.

The close nature of contact necessary at schools for children with special needs highlighted the necessity of safeguards against the virus, she said.

"Ruairi can't feed himself, he can't change himself, he can't toilet ... himself, so he's relying on care stuff at the school for all of those things. So that's very close personal contact," Dr Gillespie said.

An Education Directorate spokesperson said they couldn't comment on the personal details of the case at Malkara School.

They said the ACT government focus has been on ensuring workers in high risk settings could get vaccinated.

"We are confident that most teachers want to get vaccinated to protect their students, their colleagues, their families and themselves."

"Staff in ACT specialist schools were offered priority access to Pfizer vaccinations (under phase 1b) from March 2021," they said.

"ACT Health has also been running in-reach vaccination programs for specialist school students (12 years and over), staff and families to make it as easy as possible to get vaccinated."

They also said precautions such as "mask wearing, personal hygiene, using outdoor spaces and an increased cleaning regime" were being implemented in specialist schools.

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Mandated vaccinations for aged care staff came into effect in the ACT on Friday, with Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith citing that about 50 of 3000 workers were unvaccinated.

Asked on Friday about whether the ACT would reconsider further vaccine mandates Chief Minister Andrew Barr said: "We've certainly been doing that in some industry sectors, in some areas of government and we'll continue to look at those issues."

"One of the principles around mandating is of course, you've got to give people the opportunity to get back vaccinated," Mr Barr, said referring to increased Pfizer supplies.

He said vaccine hesitancy wasn't a major issue in the territory and that take-up had been good.

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