SHIRLEY, Ark — The Shirley School District is offering incentives to help students get vaccinated. Students who are 12 and older that can show proof of vaccination by Oct. 15 will be entered into a raffle for a chance to win prizes.
According to Shirley School District Superintendent Tyrene Gardner, the prizes include a PlayStation, Xbox, television, or Beats by Dre headphones.
She said the district got the idea from other schools.
There are about 340 students in total for the district.
"We gave our staff a $200 incentive. We felt like it was only fair to offer some kind of incentive to students," Gardner said. "We're just trying to do everything we can to keep our school safe and give them the best education and the best experience that we can."
Posted onto the district's Facebook page for students and families:
In a statement given to us, the district said:
We support the vaccine for students because it protects students (our most valuable resource). We also support it because it will keep students from being quarantined.
We cannot teach them if they are not at school. We want students to be here every day. We want students to get to participate in extracurricular activities and not miss their school experience. We want to keep all members of our community safe.
Michael Bramlett is the K-12 principal for the school district and said there's been a mixed response from parents. Some are in full support after the FDA fully approved the Pfizer vaccine earlier this week.
Other parents, however, have come up to the school to voice complaints.
T'erra Crutchfield, a parent, claimed the school incentives is "wrong on so many levels." Her family is against the vaccine and she has three kids in 5th, 7th, and 8th grade.
"These are our babies and their future is at stake," T'erra said. "It's our choice as their parents not anyone else's."
Bramlett said other parents felt like the school was trying to bribe students to get vaccinated or take away their decision as parents, but he said that was never the intent.
If enough students sign up to get vaccinated, the district will host a vaccination clinic on campus with the help of Fairfield Bay Pharmacy.
Bramlett said the overall main focus is keeping students and their families face.
"Also if a student's been vaccinated based on what the health department is telling us, we do not have to quarantine those students. So, it's about keeping students healthy and trying to keep our students to be able to stay on campus."
Superintendent Gardner said if the vaccine is ever approved for children under 12 they'd do another raffle just for them too.