Jay Weber Show transcript 8-19-21 7:10am
Should MPS teachers be forced to get vaccinated?
I want to put this to the audience.
I joked about it during the 7:30 headlines yesterday, and a listener emailed me to ask do you really think MPS should mandate vaccines for teachers and staff, because if you do, you are being inconsistent. You say you’re against the vaccine mandates.
Oh- I admit I’m being inconsistent.
I joked about forcing MPS teachers into cow stanchions and shooting the vaccination into them, and how it should be a humiliating process for them after even during the spring semester last year- their teachers union kept MPS schools from reopening and insisted it wasn’t safe to go back to class until the teachers were vaccinated.
I was joking about the cow stanchions, of course, but no- I wasn’t joking about how I support vaccine mandates for all MPS teachers now, no.
And again-to be clear-I’m not saying all teachers in all Wisconsin districts need to be under vaccine mandates.
My reaction is specific to MPS teachers and how their bullying META leaders handled school shutdowns last year.
Even after we knew it was safe for kids to go back to school. Even after myriad suburban districts were doing it safely- all last fall and winter-
MPS officials and the teacher’s union who control them insisted it was too dangerous for MPS. They had to do half-assed virtual learning in which- huge numbers of students never even logged on or tuned in.
Then-it was a waste of an -entire! -school year, when, even after the vaccines were available to the teachers who wanted them and -even after teachers had been moved to the front of the line-
Even then! Last spring! This teacher’s union insisted we could not bring the kids back to class. It was still too dangerous. Every single teacher had to be protected- or this was just too dangerous.
That was the MTEA’s pathetic excuse making last school year, which caused our most vulnerable students- urban minority youth- to lose an entire year of schooling.
These teachers’ unions across the country-in the major cities-proved once and for all what uncaring bullies they are.
And so, now? At the start of another school year? If the question is: should all MPS teachers be forced to be vaccinated?
My answer is: hell yes. If, for no other reason, to take away the excuse from them if covid numbers rise in wintertime, and they try to close MPS schools again.
Yes.
That is one reason for a mandatory MPS vaccination rule. So, even if covid numbers rise, there’s no reason the kids can’t be in school: the adults are protected.
But also- my main reason for supporting it is- to make them live up to their own rules and claims, and not let them get away with being the typical shifty hypocrites that they always are.
As in-hey-if you said classrooms weren’t safe until teachers got vaccinated-then dammit-get your teachers vaccinated. You’ve had 8 months to do so.
I don’t know what percentage of MPS teachers are currently vaccinated, but the stat in June was a pathetically low 40 or 45 percent.
And so-after all of that whining and alarmism? And after all the overwrought whining by teachers to the media that they thought they weren’t safe and might die?
After all of that? Only about half of teachers got vaccinated.
No, no. Force it, then.
You don’t get to whine and moan and steal an entire year of learning away from our children and families only to then ‘crap out’...on the vaccines.
No.
So I’m serious: yes, to an mandate for MPS teachers to get vaccinated. Your union leaders spoke for you last year. They made it clear: you weren’t safe in the classroom unless you were vaccinated-and so- it is what it is.
Here’s another point-if the MTEA doesn’t want to be a bunch of hypocrites: the protection from the vaccines works both ways, doesn’t it?
Meaning that-if you really care about the kids-and if the kids that are too young for vaccines are going to be sitting in your classrooms- well then- they should be protected from catching covid from their teacher.
If people under 12 can’t get the vaccine yet-well then-, aren’t they more vulnerable to a covid-infected teacher?
And so-I’d argue that if the MPS and MTEA leaders are really concerned about school safety and put the safety of the kids above all else- as these lying jerks always claim to-
Well then – mandatory vaccinations for teachers just falls in line with their philosophy.
Because- if we can keep just one child from getting covid-
Just one child-
Isn’t it worth it?
Yes. Mandatory vaccines for MPS.
And so far, in typical weasly MPS fashion-the board members are waiting for direction from the unions that bought their board seats for them....and for someone else to blame if the mandate is unpopular.
The head of the Milwaukee teacher’s union tells the j/s that the MTEA has not yet met to take a stance on the issue.
Why not?
Aren’t you concerned about schools reopening with some unvaccinated teachers in them?
Where are the alarm bells and screeching about safety that you were doing in April?
photo credit: Fox 6 News/Milwaukee