You don’t have to be as old as I am to remember when the horrible, evil, authoritarian dictator named Donald Trump was called a fascist by the left. Now that he’s no longer President, it seems that the left have no real problems with fascist and authoritarian control. Nicole Wyglendowski, a special education teacher with the Philadelphia School District is “passionate about the long-lasting effects education has on social justice,” so passionate that she thinks the order, “Ve need to see your papers!” is a great idea!

Philly teachers need COVID-19 booster shots — and School District support | Opinion

Most of us are due for an additional dose of vaccine, yet district officials aren’t being nearly proactive enough.

by Nicole Wyglendowski | Sunday, October 24, 2021

COVID-19 vaccines and boosters are likely here to stay. As more mutations make their way around the world, we will most likely need additional COVID-19 shots throughout our lifetimes, similar to how we get flu shots each year. Most Philadelphia teachers like me are due for their booster shots — and we need more help from the School District of Philadelphia to stay safe.

On Oct. 9, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona tweeted encouragement for educators who received the Pfizer shot to get a booster if more than six months have passed since their last shot, based on advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Food and Drug Administration has since approved boosters for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, as well.

But recently, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. sent out an email saying the School District had no plans to offer booster vaccine clinics to staff; he encouraged staff to get boosters on their own. That’s not good enough.



Nicole Wyglendowski returned to the classroom even though none of her students opted for in-person learning. Photo provided by Nicole Wyglendowski to The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 8, 2021. Click to enlarge.

This is a sharp contrast to district behavior when the vaccines were initially rolled out. In February, the School District partnered with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to vaccinate staff, and it was a relatively seamless process. At the time, staff and students were being sent back into buildings on a hybrid schedule for the first time in about a year. Teachers and staff were happy with this effort, even if it did not change how we felt about the extra layers of protection needed to stay safe (masks, social distancing, ventilation, and disinfecting). This vaccine effort was arguably one of the best things the School District did to protect its staff when returning to buildings, vaccinating over 19,000 education staff members. This program is now “complete,” according to CHOP’s website.

There’s more at the original.

How concerned is Miss Wyglendowski about COVID-19? In an OpEd published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on March 8, 2021, she provided a photo of herself teaching online, to an empty classroom, and she is, all by herself except for someone to take the picture, in an empty classroom, wearing a face mask!

The first several paragraphs of her newest OpEd piece express concern that the School District of Philadelphia is not doing enough to get booster shots to teachers, which is, I suppose, something a union member would demand, as opposed to going to a clinic or doctor’s office or Walgreen’s Pharmacy and getting on her own initiative.

But then there’s more. Miss Wyglendowski not only strongly supports the School District’s vaccine mandate, but wants to add to it, requiring that teachers get the booster shots now that they have been approved. Considering that, with her first paragraph, in which she stated “we will most likely need additional COVID-19 shots throughout our lifetimes,” it can only mean that the author wants a requirement that all teachers and other school personnel present their papers to keep their jobs.

Her statement was deemed important enough by the editors of the Inquirer that they enlarged it and put it in a text box, which I have screen captured to the left.

The district acknowledges that the vaccine is a vital layer of protection for educators. It approved a vaccine mandate for its staff on Aug. 25, and staff who do not comply have to complete two COVID-19 tests per week. If the vaccine is so important that it is mandated (which has my full support), then why are boosters not also being mandated as they come out? Anything else is a show of thoughtlessness, a lack of follow-through, and a grim decision for the community.

What does she want, for school personnel to be forced to either get the shot every six months or have a nasal swab jammed up into their sinuses twice a week for the rest of their lives?

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, when asked by a reporter if she was creating two classes of people, with the vaccinated receiving special privileges, confirmed, “That is what it is, yep”. It appears that that is what Miss Wyglendowski believes the same thing.