As fifth grader Devinica Aymat walked into Southland College Prep Charter High School Saturday, first in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine, a familiar face was waiting for her.
William Howard, Aymat’s principal at Indiana School in Park Forest, always planned to attend the clinic, which opened Saturday to children as young as 5 years old following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a lower-dose Pfizer vaccine for ages 5-12. But when he heard Aymat was first on the list, Howard knew he had to get to the Richton Park high school early.
“I’m just here to support and make sure we’re doing everything that we can to open up the school and support the community,” Howard said. “I think it’s awesome that we’re having the opportunity to open the vaccine clinic for the community to bring their family members and the students especially out to be vaccinated.”
After Aymat got her shot, Southland students from the National Honor Society ushered the 10-year-old and her father, Adarthus Harper, to a waiting area with colorful balloons that had Pixar’s “Toy Story” screening.
Matteson Elementary District 162 Superintendent Blondean Y. Davis, who is also CEO of the high school, expressed a sense of pride as she looked around the cafeteria.
“It’s the community that I know,” Davis said. “It doesn’t surprise me.”
Free clinics have been run Wednesdays by Emerge MedStaffing for older age groups. But with “discomfort and unrest” about the vaccines, Davis knew comfort would be the key to making the clinics available to children.
“I don’t think in another location parents would be as comfortable,” Davis said. “That they’re coming to people the children are with every day I think gives everyone a sense of comfort.”
Aymat admitted she had some nerves, thinking the shot would hurt.
“But I didn’t really feel it at all,” she said. “I feel excited about it. I felt good about myself for doing it.”
A separate room was available for children who might be more emotional, but Davis said the hope was the community presence would calm most. Between District 162’s seven schools and the high school, there is a 93% vaccination rate among adults in the buildings, with others submitting to regular testing.
Roughly 80% of the high school students have already been vaccinated, Davis said. The idea was they could help guide the youths.
“They talk to and communicate with the children in a different way than we do,” Davis said. “Sometimes little kids get afraid of needles, so we wanted to make this low-key and friendly.”
Hailey Love, one of the National Honor Society students who greeted Aymat after her shot, said that is one of the reasons she decided to help.
“I like interacting with kids and being able to relate to them and ease their worries,” Love said.
Lela Ellis, another NHS student, said with variants still threatening to prolong the pandemic, she wanted to do what she could to help children.
“I’m just happy these kids have a chance to go to school and not have to worry about catching COVID as much as they had to,” Ellis said. “One of the lines of the Southland creed is: We give back to our community. I think that’s really important. We just have to get involved.”
Harper said he thinks District 162 has done a great job with these efforts. He is fully vaccinated and said he is glad his children can be, too.
“We want to recover from this virus,” Harper said. “It’s been devastating to families. This is a first step forward for kids. I’m glad.”
Aymat said getting the vaccine is as much about taking care of herself as others.
“I want to be around my friends, and right now I really can’t because of the corona and I’m scared that I’m going to get germs from it and spread it to other people,” she said.
Suzette Knights, of Matteson, brought her grandchildren, Emoni Jones, a sixth grader at Southwood Middle School, and Jeremiah Hazley, a kindergartner at Sykuta Elementary School. Hazley was a little worried but said it went better than he thought. And Jones, who had been told by an aunt the needle was “huge,” said it was not so bad and helped coach Hazley through his shot.
Knights, a nurse who also has a daughter at Southland, said children need to socialize. She hopes this paves the way for schools to return to some sense of normalcy.
“It’s important we get vaccinated for protection,” she said. “With the vaccination, I feel better. They’re able to do more with socialization.”
While Davis said masks may still be in order for the rest of this school year, Howard said greater vaccine availability provides hope.
“Hopefully this will get us back to more of a sense of normal than what we’ve been used to the past couple of years,” Howard said.
The district encouraged parents to consider the vaccination but did not mandate it. Yvonne Williams, the executive officer for special projects for Matteson 162 and Southland who coordinated the clinics, said the response has been positive.
“Our community has been so good about masking and participating in all our COVID precautions,” Williams said. “As long as our community wants us to be a site, we will do it.”
Those who got their first dose Saturday will be back in three weeks for a second shot. Another Saturday family clinic is scheduled Nov. 20, with those families coming back Dec. 11. If there is still interest, another will be held Dec. 18, Williams said. The free Wednesday clinics at Southland are also expected to continue.
Experts are concerned about holiday travel as well as an increase in indoor events during the winter posing challenges to COVID-19 mitigation.
“The approval from the FDA comes at a crucial time because typically this is the time of the year where corona and influenza spike,” said Dr. Richard Watson, CEO of Emerge. “I think it’s perfect timing that we’re able to get the vaccines approved right before the holidays and in the midst of COVID season.”
Watson said he knows some people remain hesitant.
“What I would say to them is that Pfizer and Moderna are some of the safest vaccines I’ve ever seen,” Watson said. “Pfizer has done a great job of getting the appropriate amount of people involved with the studies to make sure that the risk/benefit is significantly favorable in terms of getting the vaccine.”
Watson said children should have the most protection possible, which means vaccines rather than just masks. Schools are a focal point because of how children congregate, which has created a lot of anxiety.
“Having some protection for school aged children now will relieve a significant amount of that,” Watson said.
Bill Jones is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtow
