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Date: 11/9/2021
BELCHERTOWN – After significant public outcry and a petition to recall two of its members, the Belchertown School Committee approved the first reading of a policy that recommends students to be vaccinated or take weekly COVID-19 tests to participate in extracurricular activities.
To begin the discussion, committee member Amy Wilson-LaMothe brought forward an amendment to the original policy that would allow unvaccinated students to take a COVID-19 test to participate in school.
“In addition to the part with the vaccination policy requiring students who are eligible for a fully FDA approved vaccine I added, ‘Any student who is not able to be vaccinated due to medical, religious or caregiver consent issues must enroll in mandatory weekly COVID safety check testing through Belchertown Public Schools,’” she said.
LaMothe said her main concern in bringing forward the amendment is older students whose parents do not want them to get vaccinated.
“My concern is for the 16- and 17-year-old children who want to be vaccinated and continue with extracurricular activities, but their parents will not consent to this. Because of this I do not want those students to suffer on missing out on what they want to do because they cannot be vaccinated,” she said.
By adding the testing option, LaMothe said she hoped it leads to more confidence in the available information and provides a safer option.
“My hope is that there will be information sessions, question and answer sessions and this hopefully will give caregivers more time to hear about the vaccines. There is more information coming out so with more confidence behind it, more people will choose to vaccinate,” she said. “In the short term this is a much safer way to go about this, that we are testing our students, and gives us more time for more age groups to be fully FDA approved as well.”
While he voted in favor of the amendment, committee member Michael Knapp said he was still in favor of a vaccine mandate.
“I disagree, I think immunization is our only way out of this. Testing once a week is not enough, we will be in a position where we are waiting for the next set of cases after a vacation just like we were last year. I understand we are trying to meet a middle ground, but these vaccines are amazingly safe and effective, and they are FDA approved for ages 16 and older,” he said.
Committee Chair Heidi Gutekenst said the amendment provided a compromise for concerned parents.
“This option of testing keeps students safe and gives students and folks who are concerned about the vaccine a compromise. I understand concerns but I still think the best way we are going to get out of this thing it to be vaccinated,” she said.
While six people spoke in favor of the vaccine mandate, the overwhelming majority of public commenters spoke against the vaccine mandate and in favor of keeping vaccine decisions between parents, students and their pediatricians.
Superintendent Brian Cameron said it was feasible to conduct mandatory tests for students to participate in extracurriculars.
“I’m going to make a plea that would be working with parents and guardians to not get frustrated if we call them up to see if someone has been tested or not just so we are doing our due diligence, but we would make it work. We would probably have to hire another staff member, but we could do that,” he said.
Cameron encouraged parents to enroll their students in the weekly pool testing rather than taking a test at home.
“We have done so well with the Wednesday pool testing that if this was amended, I would really encourage families to take part in this process because they do a fabulous job and we get the results back in two days,” he said.
The committee unanimously approved the first reading of the policy with the new amendment before also adding a similar amendment to the staff vaccination policy with a 4-1 vote.
The School Committee next met on Nov. 9 for the second reading of the new policy and coverage of that meeting will appear in the Nov. 18 edition of The Reminder.