After over a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, many CHS teachers have finally been vaccinated against the virus, but the process has been a long and difficult one.

According to the state government, New Jersey teachers qualified for the vaccine on March 15 as a part of phase 1B — the fifth group to be eligible.

Spanish teacher Sabina Campbell, who has now received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, shared that while she qualified for the vaccine earlier on, and had signed up through the teacher’s union and the district, she was not contacted by either for a long period of time.

“My son is in the National Guard and he was deployed to the convention center in Atlantic City where they were having a major vaccination, so he got us the appointment,” Campbell said. “If he wasn’t there, I don’t know [when I would’ve been vaccinated].”

TV teacher Jennifer Cornine, who has also received both doses of the vaccine, agreed with Campbell, describing the process of booking an appointment as challenging.

“I was really excited to be able to get the appointment,” Cornine said. “It’s kind of like the vaccine Hunger Games.”

Cornine explained that receiving the vaccine has helped her feel safer in public environments, especially in school.

“I teach here, we’re an entire county-wide district so that’s a ton of exposure. My husband teaches in another high school district which is a whole other exposure. My son goes to yet another high school with that exposure and my daughter is a college student. So in terms of exposure to the virus, we are as highly exposed as you get,” Cornine said.

For MCVSD, the vaccination of teachers also comes with the possibility of collapsing the cohort system and opening schools five days a week.

While physics teacher Steve Godkin, who has been vaccinated, shared that vaccinating teachers is a step in the right direction, he also said that in order to protect those at risk in students’ lives, he thinks students should be vaccinated as well.

Junior Marissa Perez of Tinton Falls agreed and thinks that without widespread student vaccination, collapsing the cohort system would pose too great a risk.

“It is necessary for the cohorts to collapse, but I think we need to wait a little bit until more people get vaccinated,” Perez said.