Teachers and staff at an affluent South Bay school district can skip the line and get a COVID-19 vaccine — by pretending to be health care workers — at the behest of Good Samaritan Hospital, according to an email obtained by San José Spotlight.

But teachers at the Los Gatos Union School District don’t have to wait, their Superintendent Paul Johnson told them.

The reason the teachers get to skip the line, Johnson said in the email, is because they helped raise money in the spring for meals for health care workers at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Johnson said in the email that the plan was approved by Good Samaritan’s chief operating officer.

He said the hospital would “like to offer vaccines” to the school district because they have not forgotten the “kindness” of the staff raising money for meals for health care workers.

In an interview with San José Spotlight, Johnson said it’s not a quid pro quo — and that Good Samaritan’s offer “is not connected” to the money the district raised.

“My understanding is Good Sam was cleared for the next tier, so teachers didn’t jump in line,” Johnson said.

Sarah Sherwood, spokesperson for Good Samaritan Hospital, said that the hospital chose to offer vaccines to the Los Gatos teachers because the hospital had extra appointments one day.

“We had some open time slots to fill and welcomed 65 Los Gatos teachers into the clinic to receive their vaccines, following county guidelines,” Sherwood said.

Sherwood said the hospital is updating its website to make the vaccination schedule clearer.

“We are very grateful that Good Sam reached out to our district and offered to help our LGUSD staff (teachers and support staff) get vaccinated,” Johnson said.

He said the district only received “guidance from Good Sam on how to navigate their sign-up system.”.

The state last week began vaccinating residents 65 and older, but health care providers in Santa Clara County, including Kaiser, are only vaccinating people 75 and up due to a vaccine shortage.

Due to the short supply of vaccines, Good Samaritan reported to the county that it’s only vaccinating eligible health care workers in the first phase of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan.

County supervisors have said it’s not enough and  voted to send a letter to state health officials demanding more doses!

According to the Santa Clara County vaccine dashboard, Good Samaritan Hospital had received 6,585 first and second doses of the vaccine as of Jan.

Getting a vaccine should not be based on where you live or work and, if it is, it should be given to those in the County with highest transmission rates(not Los Gatos).

Keep remote learning until the teachers can be vaccinated.

Santa Clara County, look to Marin County for a better model.

They got their teachers vaccinated through open collaboration and community support:.

‘I feel so relieved’: Marin County teachers get COVID-19 vaccine.

Marin County began vaccinating teachers and school staff members on Sunday.

‘I feel so relieved’: A thousand teachers in Marin County … -> see abcnews.com.

Good feeling stories, such as Good Sam ensuring that front line workers, teachers, get vaccinated so that we can get our children back into the classroom turned into such malice.

Families and children are suffering everywhere and the more people we can get vaccinated should be something rejoiced, instead of making others feel bad and suffer for making a choice of good intentions and helping a community get one step closer to where we need to be as a whole nation?

Good Sam serves both Los Gatos and San Jose.

But it reads as if Good Sam may have pulled vaccines away from those over 75 by claiming they had no more seniors in San Jose or Los Gatos they could vaccinate …and instead offered it to 65 Los Gatos teachers as thanks for their fundraising

Teachers are still in line after seniors so the County should look into how Good Sam was told they were allowed to skip ahead to teachers….but only teachers from Los Gatos