Protests in front of RVS regarding vaccine mandates and declarations

Parents and teachers who met last Thursday online and vowed to make their concerns heard with regards to vaccine declarations and mandates, made good on their promise and gathered in front of RVS.

One of the attendees of the protest, Rebecca Reaville, who identified herself as a local bus driver said that she has no intention of getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

"I don't feel that it's appropriate to be made to choose whether or not I want to put something in my body. We would like to bring awareness to the cause of stopping the vaccine mandates," Reaville said. "We would like to get Rockyview to understand the stance because it also affects teachers and parents."

During last week's online meeting on Thursday, parents and teachers debated on what can be done with regards to the looming deadline of vaccine declarations on December 1st, 2021.

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 Rockyview Schools COVID-19 Hazard Reduction Administrative procedure, employees must, "Provide Human Resources proof of immunization via a secure, online form in Atrieve by December 1, 2021. Employees who do not provide proof of immunization in Atrieve by December 1, 2021, will be required to indicate in Atrieve that they will be participating in semi-weekly proof of negative COVID-19 testing as of January 3, 2022."

However, for Reaville, she plans to serve her employer with a Notice of Liability.

"I will be presenting my employer with [a] notice of liability first, in [the] hopes that they could make a conscious decision to realize that if they go through with these mandates and lose even 10 bus drivers, you're looking at potentially 300 students that can't get to school."