Dozens protest Del Tech vaccine mandate

A group of protestors stood holding signs Feb. 23 opposing Delaware Technical Community College’s vaccine mandate and hoping President Mark Brainard would get the message.

“Let’s talk about being healthy, but not by authoritarian mandate,” said Sarabeth Matilsky of Lewes, one of more than two dozen participants who lined up in front of Brainard’s office on the school’s Dover campus.

The college imposed a vaccine mandate for all students in January, but recently backed off for students who take remote classes and agree to stay off campus.

Melanie Wilkinson of Lewes, mother of a Del Tech student, said the vaccine requirement goes too far.

“The students were never asked their opinion,” she said. “That’s an important question.”

They should be involved in the decision-making process, Wilkinson said, not simply issued an order. If students are allowed to help craft policy, there could be several options to the vaccine mandate, she said.

An obvious alternative should be weekly testing for unvaccinated students, an option that is given to unvaccinated Del Tech employees.

“I believe weekly testing would be an appropriate compromise,” Wilkinson said.

Christine B. Gillan, vice president for strategic communication and marketing, said that the school follows Gov. John Carney’s order that allows weekly testing for unvaccinated employees, but the school has a much larger student population to track.

“This would be logistically impossible to do with our approximately 15,000 academic students and over 10,000 workforce training students,” Gillan said.

Others at the rally questioned the health effects of the vaccine. Nicole Rife of Clayton has a child in Del Tech’s preschool, and she said the school recently told her that her son must be vaccinated in order for him to continue attending.

“There’s not enough data to support the effects of the shot on a 5-year-old,” she said. “When I questioned it, I was told to find childcare elsewhere.”

Rife said she doesn’t understand why Del Tech has a policy that is stricter than the public school system, particularly since Del Tech is a state-funded college.

Georgetown resident Erin Jackson agrees that health decisions should be made by individuals.

“My husband can’t take the vaccine because of a heart condition,” she said.

Milford resident Katie Mumford said she has yet to hear a good explanation as to why officials continue to ignore natural immunity from previous COVID infection. “It’s absurd to me that that’s not even being considered,” she said.

Since the end of January, Wilkinson said, she has reached out to Brainard, legislators and state officials, but has received little response regarding the vaccine mandate.

She said she wasn’t sure how many more protests will be held, but the more there are, the more chance there is to make a difference.

“Hopefully people will keep pushing,” Wilkinson said.