While many schools across the country are making it a priority for teachers and other staff members to be vaccinated before returning to the classroom, Centner Academy, a private school in Miami, Florida will not be allowing vaccinated faculty members to interact with students.
According to The New York Times, Leila Centner, a co-founder of the school sent out a letter to staff last week informing employees “with a very heavy heart” that if they chose to get a shot, they would have to stay away from students citing false claims linking the vaccine to changes in women’s reproductive cycles and even suggesting that a vaccinated person can alter the menstrual cycle of an unvaccinated woman by simply being around her.
“Reports have surfaced recently of non-vaccinated people being negatively impacted by interacting with people who have been vaccinated,” she said in the letter. “Even among our own population, we have at least three women with menstrual cycles impacted after having spent time with a vaccinated person,” she added.
Centner also reportedly told employees they would have to disclose to the school whether they received the vaccine. In the event that they did receive a vaccine, teachers would not be able to come back to the school, pending clinical trials for the vaccine, the Times reported.
And that’s if their positions are “still available at that time,” the letter said.
The Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization have all said that the coronavirus vaccines now in emergency use in the country are safe and effective, after reviewing data from clinical trials.
Centner, is no stranger to spreading anti-vaccine rhetoric, especially on social media. According to the Times she frequently shared anti-vaccine posts on Facebook. Her Instagram page is also filled with vaccine misinformation and even has a link in her bio redirecting a user to an anti-mask story that has been debunked, according to RawStory.
In February, Centner invited prominent anti-vaccine activist Robert Kennedy Jr. to speak to the students. Kennedy was suspended from social media days later for spreading misinformation about the vaccine.
