On the same day that President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 executive order, the Los Angeles Unified School District passed its own mandate.
With the exception of students with “qualified and approved exemptions and conditional admissions,” board members of the country’s second-largest school district voted to require all students aged 12 and older to be fully vaccinated to attend school in person.
According to KTLA 5, Board member Nick Melvoin said, “We want to do everything possible to make sure that L.A. Unified doesn’t end up on the long list of school districts that have had to re-close and go back to distance learning after welcoming students back this fall.”
The resolution states that all students must have the first vaccination dose by November 31 and the second dose by December 19th.
Any students involved in extracurricular activities or play sports must have both doses of the vaccine by the end of October. Ultimately, all students must have the first vaccination dose within 30 days of their 12th birthday.The resolution adds, “Although LAUSD has returned to in-person instruction for students who choose to return and has implemented high standard of multi-layered safety measures which are effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19, including COVID-19 testing, masking, ventilation, screening, high-quality sanitation measures, and requirement for all employees to be vaccinated, COVID-19 remains a material threat to the health and safety of all students within the LAUSD community, and is a further threat to continuous in-person instruction.”
In mobile clinics set up at each LAUSD high-school and middle-school campus, vaccines are accessible for free. The proposal requires eligible students to upload their proof of vaccination to LAUSD Daily by January 10, 2022.
As the Delta variation continues to spread, the board identified an increasing number of hospitalizations and death cases among teens.
Their efforts to promote fair access to the vaccination were also acknowledged as vaccines for younger children 12, and older became available.
As of August 29, the Los Angeles County Office of Public Health has indicated that 57.8 %(239,515) of LAUSD students 12 and older received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
“At this time in history, we are being called to move away from our individualism and make decisions for the greater sake of humanity are specifically for the sake of our children,” said L.A. Unified’s medical director, Dr. Smita Malhotra. “Schools are known to be foundations and pillars of our society. And so it makes sense that we play a part in mitigating the public health crisis we are faced with today.”
Angelica Ramos, who said she would enroll her three children in a charter school or homeschool before vaccinating them, was among those who objected to the resolution. “It shouldn’t be mandatory. It should be our decision,” she said.
According to The New York Times, she clarified that while she is concerned about the vaccine’s adverse effects, she takes the pandemic seriously and supports masks.
The LAUSD was the first major school district to require all teachers and staff to be fully vaccinated and for children to be tested weekly, regardless of their vaccination status.
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