Middletown BOE May Prohibit Teachers Discussing COVID-19 Vaccine

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The Middletown Board of Education is considering adopting policy that will prohibit teachers in that school district from discussing coronavirus vaccines or vaccine status with their students.

Board member Jackie Tobacco said she came up with the language with fellow board member Frank Capone and the school district's attorney, Bruce Padula.

This is meant to prohibit teachers from influencing their students in any way to be vaccinated or not for COVID-19, now that the Pfizer and Moderna shots are approved for those older than 12. It would also prevent a teacher from knowing or discussing a student's COVID-19 vaccination status.

"We are not going to allow staff to encourage or discuss vaccines with our students," said board president Joan Minnuies at the Wednesday night board meeting. "We will put on the web page where vaccines are available if people want them, but we do not want them discussed with our students."

The policy is already written, and the board will vote on this at its meeting Tuesday. This is what the board will vote on (page 2, section 3).

This is exactly the language the BOE will vote on next Tuesday night:

"The board believes strongly in proliferating an environment conducive to accelerated learning with a commitment to the mental health and social emotional learning of our students. To that end, there will be no tolerance for any harassment, intimidation, or bullying of, or retaliation against any individual in relation to their medical decisions regarding face masks and/or vaccines. The Board recognizes that vaccination decisions are the discretion of parents and their health care providers. As such, staff shall not discuss COVID-19 vaccination status, nor encourage or discourage vaccination at school, during extracurricular activities or at school-sponsored or sanctioned events on or off school premises. Notwithstanding, nothing in this resolution shall prohibit a school nurse or administrator from performing their duties and communicating with parents or appropriate State authorities."

According to Tobacco, at recent teacher trainings led by the New Jersey Education Association (the state teachers' union), the union is "training teachers on how to influence their students on vaccination."

Tobacco said the board added the language because:

"It is a little bit reactionary in response to what happened last week, where the NJEA had teacher trainings, training teachers on how to influence students on vaccination. I was the recipient of multiple texts from teachers in our district who disclosed in these teacher trainings ... I have screenshots from what went on."

"As a board, we have decided we would prefer there be no discussion of vaccination, whether pro or against," said Tobacco.

Patch sent two emails to NJEA spokeswoman Dawn Hiltner, asking if this is what the union is instructing teachers, and she did not reply.

At the meeting, board member Deborah Wright said she wanted to make sure this would not prevent a science or health teacher from teaching students the history of vaccines or how they were developed, such as the polio vaccine.

"It is possible that in one of the health classes, they may talk about vaccines in general — how they came out about, how they were developed, what they are supposed to do," she said. "So is that going to prohibit us in a learning standard?"

Board attorney Padula said this resolution does not affect that.

Tobacco stressed this only applies to coronavirus vaccines, not all vaccines in general, and that it would not prohibit a teacher from talking about vaccine development as a scientific topic.

"This policy carves out COVID-19 vaccinations, not vaccinations in general as a health topic," said Tobacco.

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