Three teachers and a teaching assistant died from Covid-19-related complications within the span between Monday night and Wednesday morning, the president of the Broward Teachers Union, Anna Fusco, told CNN.
Broward County School Board Chair Rosalind Osgood was aware of several teachers’ deaths, telling CNN on Friday: “We got information on Tuesday that was reported to us. I know of three of those teachers that passed away from Covid in Broward County.”
“I was also told that they were unvaccinated,” Osgood said when asked whether three of the teachers were not vaccinated.
The school district is using funds to incentivize staff to get vaccinated, Osgood said.
“But there are a lot of people that have still not gotten the vaccination,” she said. “And it is becoming a deadly thing for them not to be vaccinated.”
“You need to get vaccinated,” Osgood said. “This disease will kill you or leave with you a lifelong complication that not only impacts you but also impacts your family and the people that you love and care about.”
“The eight of us on our board are adamant that we cannot have people in schools without masks,” Osgood told CNN Friday, “because we are living backlash of people dying with Covid.”
“You can’t take a risk with peoples’ lives,” she said. “We feel strongly that the lives of our students and staff are invaluable, and we’re not willing to play Russian roulette with their lives or take a risk of losing people because we have people in schools without masks.”
CNN’s Shawn Nottingham contributed to this report.
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