CA School District Requires COVID-19 Vaccines For All Eligible Students
A school district in a California suburb becomes supposed first in the nation to require COVID-19 vaccines for students
On Tuesday, August 17, 2021, Culver City Unified School District, a suburb within Los Angeles, California, announced that all students who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine must provide proof that they’ve gotten the shot. It’s reportedly the first district in the nation to mandate that all students over 12 receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We are mandating vaccines for all eligible staff and students. We will begin gathering vaccine status data immediately. The deadline for providing the proof of vaccine is Friday, November 19, 2021, to give everyone the opportunity to make their vaccine plans,” the district announced in a Facebook post this week. So far there are only 23 comments on the district’s Facebook post and all but two are positive.
Currently, this only applies to students over 12, as they are the only age group eligible for the vaccine. It remains to be seen how the district will handle it when all children can get a shot, as Pfizer recently stated that the vaccine will be submitted for approval for emergency use for kids aged 5-11 as early as next month.
Parents have until November 2021 to comply with the mandate.
Per KTLA, school officials gave the November, 19, 2021 deadline because they hope that some vaccines will acquire full FDA approval by then, so the “I’m not a guinea pig!” crowd can practice what they preach and actually get the vax ~when it’s fully approved~.
Quoc Tran, the district’s superintendent, told The Los Angeles Times that they arrived at this decision after many discussion with staff, teachers, the union, and parents — and the majority decided that this made the most sense to ensure students are as safe as they can possibly be. However, Tran said that “if the pandemic is tapering off [by November], then we will ease off on [the vaccine] requirement.”
This new mandate shows how divided the nation is when it comes to COVID-19 precautions.
In places like Florida and Texas, schools are fighting for their right to simply require that all students wear masks, but over in California, the state is quickly moving towards a “vax or bust” scenario. California has already ordered that all K-12 school employees be vaccinated or take weekly coronavirus tests. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest district in the state, is requiring all school employees get the vaccine and does NOT give them an option to do weekly testing in lieu of the vaccine.
Though it’s not confirmed, it appears that this is the first district in the country to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required school immunizations. It’s only a matter of time, and presumably full FDA approval, before more districts hopefully begin to follow suit and add the COVID-19 vaccine to their lists, which will certainly be followed by backlash from the anti-vax crowd who will then presumably find some religious loophole to opt out of taking a life-saving vaccine.
