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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, a call-in for parents and teachers of public school children to weigh in on a couple of, as the New York Post calls them, hot button issues related to schools, mainly whether you would like to see a requirement for teachers to get the COVID-19 vaccine for it to be required of students who were of the age to be eligible to be vaccinated and whether you think there should be a remote learning option for the next school year in whatever school system you are in.

In New York, Mayor de Blasio has already announced there won't be a remote learning only option, but we know that's controversial. I guess we can throw in one other controversy, one other hot button, and that is, should masks be required in the classroom if the kids aren't going to be vaccinated in large numbers? 6464-357-280. 6464-357-280. We'll take your calls on this right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Your calls on these controversies over remote learning options for the fall and vaccine requirements, by way of a little more political background on these. Couple of weeks ago, during the Democratic mayoral debate, I asked the candidates if they supported requiring a COVID vaccine for students who are eligible, and five of the eight candidates on the virtual stage raised their hands to say, "Yes, students should be required to be vaccinated if they're of age for that." None of the Democratic candidates said teachers should be required to get it, even those who said students should.

Last night in the Republican mayoral debate, I asked the two candidates Curtis Sliwa and Fernando Mateo, whether they'd be in favor of requiring the vaccines for students and it probably won't come as a surprise that on the Republican side, neither of them said they would be for student requirements. I didn't even ask about the teachers because after they said no, with respect to students, I think we knew the answer. Parents, teachers, what do you think? and why? 6464-357-280 on that in a full-time remote-only option. Elizabeth in Whitestone. You're on WNYC. Hello, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: Yes. Hello.

Brian: Hey there. Which one do you want to weigh in on?

Elizabeth: Okay. As far as remote learning option, I think it should be a permanent option for students who could be and have been targeted by bullies whether the bullies have been students, teachers or other adults in the education system. I really feel strongly that remote learning should be an option, a permanently available option for students who could be targeted by bullying.

Brian: That's an interesting reason. What would you say to pushback that might be it winds up being the victim of the bullying who gets marginalized, if that's the solution, rather than enforcing anti-bullying rules on the students who are doing the bullying?

Elizabeth: A lot of times the adults are either not around or they don't care as long as they're not being targeted themselves.

Brian: Elizabeth, thank you for your call. Alexis, a teacher in Babylon, you're on WNYC. Hi, Alexis.

Alexis: Hi. How are you doing?

Brian: Doing great.

Alexis: Can you hear me?

Brian: Yes. Can you hear me?

Alexis: Yes, I can. I am a full-time remote teacher actually. My students are all remote and kids need to be back in school. I want to be back with the children. The children need to be back with their friends. I like what you said before about why should they be marginalized if they're being bullied? This is not a bullying issue. This is a COVID, health issue. That is something that can also be brought in, the bullying, but I definitely think that kids need to be back in school.

I applaud the mayor for taking that remote option out because it puts a lot of stress on the school districts to serve a few of those students that want that remote option. It's a lot. Like I said, I'm a full-time remote teacher and I'm working from my building. In addition, requirement vaccinations, I'm fully vaccinated, my children are fully vaccinated, I think it should be an option and masks as well. They should be optional.

Brian: If you're teaching in a classroom with vaccines optional and masks optional, you're going to have some unvaccinated kids who are also unmasked. What about the risk that that presents really to each other?

Alexis: Well, I think that being that it is optional, you would think that the parents who are not vaccinated would have a better sense to teach the children to keep their masks on. I have found that kids are the best at keeping their masks on. I think adults are a little bit harder to get them used to that.

Brian: I bet you teach young children.

Alexis: Yes, I do. [laughs]

Brian: You should see the high school kids. As soon as school lets out, I'm sure you know. Alexis, thank you very much. Aria in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hello, Aria.

Aria: Hi, Brian. I'm also known as Ventilator Guy in Brooklyn. [chuckles] My wife's a public school teacher and she's been remote since the start of the pandemic. She was one of the first teachers to go back into her building. She's been fully vaccinated since the get go. We were both really fortunate to have the opportunity to get vaccines really early on. I applaud the new chancellor for taking this pretty bold step in pushing to get kids back in the building because I've seen as an onlooker that many of them have suffered.

At the same time, I understand that that there's a lot of complexity surrounding the issue. It's nuanced in forcing people or mandating city employees to get vaccines, especially teachers. However, if there's even a question of mask requirement, that's out of this world to me. I think that without a doubt, masks must be required, especially if teachers are not required to get vaccines.

Brian: Thank you, Aria. Now, when you say you're a ventilator guy, are you the guy who called in when the pandemic was first starting and we thought there was going to be a ventilator shortage in the hospital to say you had an extra ventilator that you wanted to donate?

Aria: Yes. That's correct.

Brian: You are such a hero. You got so much love from our audience when you called in with that. I hope you were able to feel it virtually at that time because people so appreciated your call. Then as it turned out, I guess there were enough ventilators in the city, but we didn't know that at the beginning and people loved you.

Aria: Wow. That's incredible. I did not know that. I am absolutely elated to hear that though. Thank God we didn't need them is all I have to say.

Brian: Aria, thank you. Keep calling us. Michelle in Queens you're on WNYC. Hi, Michelle.

Michelle: Hi. I am both a teacher and a parent of children in public schools. I firmly believe that children should not be vaccinated. I just recently read an article in the paper that said, it's morally wrong at this point and stage of the pandemic to vaccinate children in wealthy countries and have elderly people, people with conditions that put them at greater risk, who don't have access to the vaccine. Also, quite frankly, we have absolutely no idea what the long term effects are going to be. That's the second thing.

The third thing is children aren't as affected by this virus as adults. Now, any child who loses a life is horrific and tragic. However, during the regular flu season, children do die and it's awful, but it happens. We've seen studies that say way more children have died during regular flu seasons, as opposed to the COVID pandemic.

Brian: Yes, I think that's right. Although the scientists also say that way more children will get sick and potentially seriously sick from COVID than from a COVID vaccine based on the history of similar vaccines. You could go back and forth on that.

Michelle: Potentially. Absolutely. You can go back and forth but as of right now, all the studies are are saying, and the science is saying that truly the kids are not at risk. You have all these kids that are being randomly tested and coming up positive in school and everyone has no idea. Nobody had any idea because they carried and they had symptoms but nobody knew because for the most part, it wasn't affecting them.

Brian: Yes, there are a lot of asymptomatic cases. There's also a rising proportion of people in hospitals for COVID though who are younger. As the older people get vaccinated, these younger cases become more visible. Let me just get you on that first point that you made that went by quickly. Were you saying that because of the shortage of vaccines in developing countries that you think that the United States should refrain from vaccinating children who as a group are at pretty low risk and ship those doses elsewhere?

Michelle: Absolutely. There are people all over the world who actually need desperately these vaccines. To sit here and vaccinate our entire population, especially people who don't seem to be at a higher risk, it just seems morally wrong.

Brian: Michelle, thank you for your call. We really appreciate it. Let's get one more in here. Kit in Bayville, you're on WNYC. Public school teacher, right, Kit?

Kit: Yes, I am. Hi, Brian, thank you for taking my call. I'm also a parent. I've been doing this for 28 years. First of all, in terms of the vaccine, I would like to see everybody get it. I don't think that's something that they can mandate or legislate. My entire family is vaccinated. My 12-year-old just got her first shot a couple of weeks ago as soon as they were available for 12-year-olds. She'll get her second shot at the beginning of June.

Remote learning this year has been a disaster. I teach mostly seniors in high school. I teach English which is a required subject for graduation. I currently have 15 out of 80 seniors that are not going to graduate high school. We did have a hybrid model. All 15 of those chose not to come back to school and to learn remotely. I had to teach remotely and in person at the same time, which was very difficult to do, but those 15 kids aren't going to get their high school diploma whereas when I'm in front of them in the classroom, I can be like, "Come on, let's go, do your work. Do your work. Let's go, come on, you're not writing anything down." I can't do that when they're on the other side of a screen. Plus, I miss the kids. I miss them terribly.

Brian: What about from the family's perspective who might still choose a remote learning option? What would you say to them if they say, "We get all these hardships, but my individual child happened to thrive more with remote learning, and we're just not sure yet about COVID in the fall, so we'd like another semester."

Kit: I also think too, we've got the summer coming up. Both Governor Murphy and Mayor de Blasio have made this blanket statement that yes, we're all going back in-person in the fall. We don't know what's going to happen. There could be another spike. There could be another surge. I get those parents' concerns, I really do. I just want to say from an educator's perspective, that their kids are not getting the same level of education.

A lot of the kids that have thrived, my own daughter stayed all remote this year as a senior in high school, and she did very well, but she's very motivated. The kids I teach, are not the motivated kids. I understand that there are kids that did well, but it breaks my heart these kids aren't going to graduate. I've done everything short of setting my hair on fire. I really don't know what else I could have done.

Brian: Kit, thank you for sharing all that with us. We really, really appreciate it. I will say that Mayor de Blasio said on the show last Friday that in the unlikely event that there is another COVID spike between now and the start of school in September, he would re-evaluate but because that looks very unlikely at this time of year, he is announcing the no-all-remote policy. He did leave a door, a crack open to reconsidering if there's another surge.

All right, teachers, parents, thank you for all your calls on that. Coming up in a minute for our last segment of the day, you could say we're going to take a break from the seriousness of the news to discuss the seriousness of one of the city's deepest rivalries. I'll give you a clue. It's going on in Brooklyn and in Manhattan. Stay with us.

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