As districts insist on vaccines, some teachers push back

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A growing number of communities are moving to require teachers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of aggressive campaigns to ward off the delta variant, which has infected hundreds of thousands of children in the United States. While some school districts are allowing teachers to opt out of vaccine requirements with weekly testing, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis have taken tougher stances by limiting exemptions to bona fide medical and religious reasons. In addition the states of Washington and Oregon are taking a similar approach. As a result, teachers opposed to mandatory vaccines find themselves in a quandary — weighing their anti-vaccine beliefs against their professional calling.