During an online meeting on Thursday evening, parents and teachers from the Rockyview School District and surrounding areas discussed ways to address elected officials about vaccine mandates. 

There was a discussion of serving notices of liabilities to superintendents and trustees, including Greg Luterbach and other RVS trustees, however, it was underlined that after seeking legal advice educators would not go down that route. However, several teachers and parents debated the December deadline in place for teachers to declare their vaccination status and what could be done to avoid doing so.

According to the Calgary Board of education, workers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 17th, 2021. The Calgary Catholic School Board has also mandated that staff be fully vaccinated. Staff have several options when it comes to vaccination declaration:

  • I'm fully vaccinated.
  • I will be fully vaccinated
  • I'm partially vaccinated, but I will participate in semi-weekly proof of testing. 
  • I would like to speak to a member of human services with leave request medical or religious exemption accommodations, to discuss partial or late immunization.

According to the speakers, the deadline for vaccine declaration is December 1st, 2021. The discussions surrounding the deadline focused on how and if it is possible to continue working without declaring and if one can ignore it and simply have the employer 'chase them' for an answer. Although educators who are not vaccinated can provide negative rapid test results twice a week, according to speakers, they believe that paying out of pocket for said tests is unfairly targeting them. Parents and teachers at the meeting felt that it is not appropriate, possibly illegal for an employer to ask about the medical status of an employee.

A woman who identified herself as a Rockyview teacher said that she has tried contacting school trustees multiple times but never received an answer, but she claimed that there are board members that support teachers not declaring vaccination status, though no specific names were given.

Attendees did say they are planning to attend the November 25th RVS Board Meeting and though they will not be allowed to speak, they still plan to make their presence known, though it was unclear whether they were in favour of protesting. 

Written by Anna Ferensowicz