Maryland Lawmakers Push For Teacher Vaccine Mandate. Silence from Montg. Co. Board of Ed, Deputy Super. McKnight, and MCEA

 From reporter Rachel Baye, at WYPR 88.1 Baltimore. Full story here.

With school set to start in just a few weeks and COVID-19 cases on the rise, some state lawmakers are calling for a vaccine mandate for Maryland’s teachers.

Last year, dominant strains of COVID-19 posed the greatest health risk to adults, while children were less likely to face severe illness or hospitalization. Still, students attended school remotely, largely to protect the adults around them.

But now, “the game has changed,” Del. Stephanie Smith, a Democrat and chair of the Baltimore City House delegation, said during a legislative briefing Wednesday.

And:

Other state lawmakers made similar comments during Wednesday’s briefing.

However, organizations representing teachers and school superintendents did not voice explicit support for a mandate.

“We support the districts having that conversation — to have proof of vaccination and if you're not vaccinated, to have frequent testing,” said Cheryl Bost, president of the Maryland State Education Association. “We are open to that — having those discussions at our local levels.”

The Baltimore Teachers Union has not yet polled members on the question of a vaccine mandate, so it does not yet have a position, said President Diamonté Brown.

And from the local school superintendents’ perspective, any vaccine mandate should be statewide.

“I think there's pretty general agreement among at least the superintendents that we would like to see this be a state initiative,” said Harford County Public Schools Superintendent Sean Bulson, who spoke Wednesday on behalf of the Public School Superintendents’ Association of Maryland.

However, he said, some local districts are taking up the issue, which he said is a “difficult subject.”