NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) – Kathleen Lourence can’t wait to greet her first graders in person again.
“They deserve a pizza party and we’re going to celebrate getting back together,” said Lourence, a teacher at Rosebank Elementary in East Nashville.
But teachers will have to wait to get their COVID-19 vaccine in Davidson County. “It’s not okay to do this. We should have been better prepared as a state, as a city,” she said.
Kathleen was willing to wait for her turn, when she learned that Metro Schools was back to learning.
“You know what, I have to protect myself and I have to protect my students, so I’m going to do what I have to do,” she said.
So she found the nearest county with vaccines available to educators, called another teacher friend, booked their appointments in White County, and hit the road. After Kathleen and her friend were vaccinated, they took a photo to mark the milestone and send a message.
“Teachers need to be vaccinated,” Lourence said. ‘I think the state really needs to get their allotments in order. I find it very curious how Davidson and Shelby counties, the largest boroughs, don’t have enough doses for teachers. ‘
Metro Nashville Public Health says they cannot provide a timeline or estimate of when they could start vaccinating teachers, as they are still trying to vaccinate health professionals. That’s why Superintendent Adrienne Battle of Metro School told reporters on Monday that she hopes Governor Bill Lee will step in.
“If the leadership in Tennessee is to take classroom staff seriously, we need to make vaccinations a priority now, not just on the map, but in real life, right now,” Battle said.
Until then, Lourence plans to help all the other teachers who can’t wait either.
“If you want kids to go back to school, that should be a priority. So I think our national and regional health departments really need to step it up,” Lourence said.
Lourence and her boyfriend aren’t the only ones traveling to get vaccinated. She says a handful of teachers at her school have also traveled to counties of Smith and Carroll and she has heard that other teachers in other schools are doing the same.