CHAIRMAN of the Concerned Parents Movement of TT Clarence Mendoza is calling on the Ministry of Education to ensure that all students- vaccinated or not- return to the classroom on October 4.

And if the ministry doesn’t change its policy which allows only vaccinated students from four to six can return to physical schooling on October 4, Mendoza wants parents of unvaccinated children to take them to school as a form of resistance.

In an interview on Friday, Mendoza said, “We the movement are sticking to our position that all our children should be coming out to school whether they are vaccinated or not.

“There’s no time to be playing games with our children to get herd immunity because we know parents will be holding back their children from getting vaccinated.

“We are asking that on October 4, all parents show up at the school whether their children are vaccinated or not.”

Calling the ministry’s policy discriminatory, Mendoza also pointed to what he sees as an inconsistency in the policy given that was not mandatory for teachers to be vaccinated.

“We know that there are teachers who are unvaccinated and will be attending school.

“We cannot continue to discriminate on our citizens of TT in such a manner especially our young ones. We understand it’s a pandemic but we must be fair to all.

“We are not buying that all that teachers cannot divulge information whether they are vaccinated or not but they can come to teach the children in the classroom that is only vaccinated.”

If vaccination is important for schools to reopen, Mendoza said there should be a policy where everyone entering a school’s compound must be vaccinated, including teachers.

But if this is not the case, Mendoza said unvaccinated students should, therefore, be able to return to school as well.

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