Teachers threatened by anti-vax associations for vaccinations at schools

Teachers’ union ANPE, has reported that teaching staff at schools that are participating in the pilot program for the vaccination of children aged between 5 and 11 years old are receiving threats from anti-vaccine groups in the same way that health personnel did before.

The union has revealed that two associations opposed to Covid vaccinations and the use of masks have sent intimidating letters to the centres accusing them of committing serious crimes and threatening the management staff with legal action.

The trade unio has declared these practices of pressure and intimidation as being completely unacceptable and demands that the Educational Administration take all necessary measures to protect the management staff and all the teachers who are involved in the program.

"The same motivation that led us to oppose vaccination in schools is what now leads us to reject these threats in a blunt and forceful way, and our main objective is to defend and protect the teaching staff, students, and the entire educational community. It is not admissible that teachers are targeted to be coerced by trying to instill fear about the vaccinations,” said Pedro Crespo, president of ANPE Canarias.

ANPE reminds that it is the only union that was against the pilot vaccination program in schools launched by the Ministry of Education, although for very different reasons than the anti-scientific arguments put forward by the denial and anti-vaccine groups.

They have maintained from the outset that it should not be teachers who assume the bureaucratic burden of managing authorizations with families and organizing vaccinations and, in addition, has warned that vaccinating in schools during school hours is not the most convenient to facilitate the presence of parents or legal guardians who wish to accompany the students, nor to guarantee the required confidentiality of those who do not want to get the vaccine.

For this reason, it defends that the most appropriate thing is that the vaccination of children between 5 and 12 years of age be carried out in health facilities or in spaces specifically enabled for it.

In the meantime, the letters received by teachers have been handed over to the police as part of an official denuncia against the anti-vax associations.