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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Students aged 12 and over in the Los Angeles school system must be vaccinated before they can return to class next year under one of the most stringent anti-COVID mandates promulgated in the country.
The Los Angeles Unified School District board voted on Thursday to require all of its approximately 630,000 students to be immunized – those who participate in sports and other extracurricular activities by the end of October and all others. by December 19.
Students who cannot show proof of vaccination will not be allowed to take an in-person apprenticeship after the end of winter break on January 11. They will be required to work remotely as part of LAUSD’s independent study program.
About 80,000 students are not yet fully immunized, according to district officials.
“This action is not intended to violate the rights of anyone,” said Monica Garcia, member of the school board. “This action is to do our job so that we can provide public schools that children can come to school and be safe.”
The second largest school district in the country will be the largest and smallest to issue such a warrant. The neighboring town of Culver imposed a similar policy last month for its 7,000 students.
The New York City school system, the largest in the country, has mandated vaccinations for only 20,000 student-athletes in some sports considered to be at high risk for spreading the virus, including wrestling.
Los Angeles has acted more aggressively than most districts in adopting COVID-19 safety measures. It tests all students and employees every week, requires masking inside and out, and ordered employees to get vaccinated.
LAUSD was among the last of the country’s largest districts to reopen to classroom instruction last spring. The teachers’ union opposed the move for months, citing health concerns.
The union applauded the warrant, which it asked for after teachers were ordered to get vaccinated.
“COVID-19 is mutating, being passed on to our students, and vaccines remain our community’s best line of defense to prevent the continued spread of the disease,” said Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.
The district’s student population is almost three-quarters Latino and many are poor. Among adults, poor Latinos are vaccinated at a rate lower than the state average.
Los Angeles County saw an increase in the rates of coronavirus cases among children from mid-July to mid-August, but these have since declined, said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Department of Public Health of the county.
Between August 15 and September 7, nearly 8,000 student cases and more than 1,200 staff coronavirus cases were reported in the county, most of them in Los Angeles Unified, Ferrer said.
The coronavirus has been much less deadly for children than for the elderly, but they can pass the virus to others, according to health officials.
More than half of county residents between the ages of 12 and 17 are already fully immunized, and “increasing these numbers is a critical part of our strategy to keep schools open,” Ferrer said.
The school district’s mandate could inspire similar actions in other cities, while likely sparking legal challenges from those who oppose vaccination, masking and other COVID-19 regulations.
Some parents spoke out against the mandate at the LAUSD board meeting, arguing that they should decide what’s best for their children.
“We don’t understand why you are in such a rush,” Diana Guillen, chair of the district’s English Learners Advisory Committee, told Spanish-language council. “This decision should be ours, a family decision.”
But many parents and school board members overwhelmingly supported the plan, calling it a good public health measure and a critical step in keeping classrooms open for in-person learning so essential for students.
Board member Jackie Goldberg recalled when polio ravaged her school and her third-grade friend lost his arm.
“It is our moral, ethical, religious, political – choose a word – it is our responsibility to protect children under the age of 12 who cannot be protected in any other way,” she said. .
Only the two-shot Pfizer vaccine has received full federal approval for ages 16 and older, while children ages 12 to 15 can be vaccinated under federal emergency use authorization.
President Joe Biden urged people to immunize their children on Thursday.
“Almost all of the severe cases of COVID-19 that we see in adolescents are in unvaccinated 12 to 17-year-olds – an age group that lags behind in vaccination rates,” he said.
One month of August survey from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 55% of adults surveyed supported a vaccination mandate for students 12 and older, although the figure fell to 42% among parents.
Some parents are eager to see all eligible students vaccinated. Lucy Rimalower, who has a preschool in the district, said she was relieved officials were taking steps to try and protect her son until he was old enough to be vaccinated, and that also helps to protect his parents, who are in their sixties and sixties. and help her with childcare.
“It looks like following the precedent of all the other vaccines over time that have helped us have a safer school environment, which makes us feel safe to send our children to school without catching the disease. chickenpox, polio, mumps, measles, rubella, you name it, ”she said.
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