MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — The first group of educators in Ohio received their initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Middletown. Five hundred teachers and staff members received the vaccine.

One of those who received the vaccine is 10th-grade teacher Katrina Fugate. She said she’s very relieved to get the vaccine.

“Because it will make me feel safer when the students come back and we’re all in person together, just less anxiety,” Fugate said.

She said it also will allow her to provide better attention to each of her students because blended learning has its challenges.

“You get a little nervous sometimes the closer you get working with students, but it’s a very hard job to do when you cannot do the one-on-one mentoring with your students,” she said. “And being so hands-off is hard on teachers in general I think.”

Middletown High School Principal Carmela Cotter said it’s an honor to be the first school district receiving the shot in the state.

“I’m so excited,” Cotter said. “I was so excited from the very beginning finding out that we were going to be getting the vaccine today. We really miss our kids, and we really believe that those connections with our students are so very important. And making sure that we can get back together as soon as possible, in a very safe way for our whole community is so important to us.”

Middletown Health Commissioner Jackie Phillips Carter said it’s important not only for these educators, but for everyone in the Middletown community to receive the vaccine.

“Everybody is a priority,” Phillips Carter said. “What we really need to make sure we get is vaccine. I will assure you, we get vaccine, we will be vaccinating.”

Faculty and staff receiving the shot were monitored for 15 minutes before returning to their classrooms. 

Cotter said people who are unsure about getting the vaccine should shake off those doubts.

“Absolutely, get the shot,” Cotter said. “You’ve got three choices: you either have the COVID, you have isolation, or you have the vaccine, and as I see it, it’s a no-brainer, let’s go with the vaccine. Let’s get back together again and let’s go to our new normal in our most positive, #MiddieRising way, that we can possibly do it.”