La Quinta High School Holds Vaccine Clinic For Teachers, Staff, And Students

[bc_video video_id="6250394100001″ account_id="5728959025001″ player_id="rJpklujDf" embed="in-page" padding_top="56%" autoplay="" min_width="0px" playsinline="" picture_in_picture="" max_width="640px" mute="" width="100%" height="100%" ]

Parents, Students, and Teachers were welcomed to La Quinta High School on Saturday to receive the Pfizer vaccine.

NBC Palm Springs spent the day talking to those getting vaccinated and to educators who say these types of clinics will prepare students and staff for the fall school year.

"I was so excited when desert oasis called me and said ok we have the thousand Pfizer doses, so we were ready to go," said Laura Fisher, Assistant Superintendent with Desert Sands Unified School District.

Around 500 appointments were made before the school decided to open up the clinic to walk-ins too, with a goal of getting more shots into more arms.

"I wanted to make sure that every desert sands employee who wanted a vaccine got it," explained Fisher.

"We’re starting to come back and the entire nation is coming back and we want to make sure that our kids are vaccinated as well, they started out with first responders and stuff like that, so now we are getting everybody else on board," said Frank Ceja, Teacher at La Quinta High School.

And as California public universities announce that they will require students to be vaccinated in order to return to campus in the fall, many say they would be surprised if that happened at the high school level.

"If my daughters were going to college right now I would feel more at ease knowing that everybody in her dorm is vaccinated," said Celina Jimenez, Parent of La Quinta High School Student.

"It all depends on us, public health, on what they would be looking at as far as recommendations for high school students, right now, 16 and over wouldn’t include all of high school. it depends on what age it goes down to in regards to having the vaccine available," added Fisher.

"It’s just another level of insurance that we can take hold of this covid situation, and for those requirements, I think it just makes everybody safer if we do that," added Ceja.

Students excited to get the vaccine, calling it an extra layer of protection.

"Some kids are like, yea I’m all for it, other kids, yeah, I’ll see what happens. But for me, it was a pro because I want extra protection and really it’s just extra protection, that’s all it is," said Levi Linn, Sophomore at La Quinta.

"My daughter thinks that it is very scary, number one because my father has cancer and he actually got covid because he is so vulnerable, so she saw that first hand and he almost died, but he made it thank god. and so she feels very very concerned about the virus," added Jiminez.