High school hosts vaccine clinic for students

The high school hosted a COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Tuesday, April 13 for the first dose of the vaccine and a follow up clinic Tuesday, May 4 for the second dose.

Assistant Principal Craig McMillen said the high school decided to host the clinic to provide vaccines to students who would not get them otherwise.

“I know we have a lot of students who were driving to Zanesville or Marion to get vaccinated,” McMillen said. “I also know we have families that are not able to drive there because their parents work, and we wanted to make sure students that did not have the chance to get vaccinated had that chance.”

Montrose school nurse Cindy Tyson said her friend on the district COVID-19 task force contacted her and explained that Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s vaccination clinic had a plan to provide vaccines to schools. Tyson said she then connected them to the high school.

McMillen explained that Nationwide provided a plan and layout for the school gym, along with all the materials, like vaccines and medical equipment like syringes. He added the school utilized volunteers to help with the clinic.

Around 120 students were vaccinated through the clinic, McMillen said. He said any vaccinations not used were preserved in a freezer and were thus able to be brought back to Nationwide without an issue.

Junior Beck Robins said he went to the clinic and found it efficient.

“I wanted to get vaccinated, so I took the opportunity,” Robins said. “It was easy and efficient. I walked in, there was a person who told me to sign in. I was given a sticker and was led from person to person until I was asked a few questions, given a few papers about the shot itself and the side effects, and the person administered the shot to me.”

Robins said his teachers were flexible in terms of missing class when he got the vaccine, and he had no issues with attendance reports.

McMillen said the clinic was successful, and the only thing he would have changed is distributing the information to the students earlier because there was a time crunch with getting consent forms into the school.

Tyson also said she was impressed by the community’s responsiveness.

“Our community was so responsible, most families had already begun the vaccine process,” she said. “We expected to have 300 to 400 being vaccinated, but we only ended up having to use around 120.”