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ANGELS – The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Thursday to require students 12 and older to be vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend in-person classes in the nation’s second-largest school district.
The move makes Los Angeles by far the largest of a very small number of districts requiring vaccine. The neighboring town of Culver imposed a similar policy last month for its 7,000 students.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, which has more than 600,000 predominantly Latino students, already tests all students and employees every week, requires masking inside and out, and has ordered employee vaccinations. Under the vaccination plan, students aged 12 and over who participate in sports and other extracurricular activities must complete their streak in two strokes by the end of October. Others have until December 19.
“It’s easy to wait for someone to tell us what to do. LA Unified is a leader because we have to. Our communities cannot wait, ”said Mónica García, board member, before the vote.
“This action is not intended to violate anyone’s rights. This action is to do our job to be able to offer public schools that children can come to school and be safe, ”she said.
Los Angeles Unified was one of the last of the nation’s largest districts to reopen to classroom instruction last spring. The teachers’ union opposed the move for months, citing health concerns.
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. The change coincided with the reopening of many schools with safety measures such as masking and testing, she said, adding that bringing so many children to school could result in more exposures and that authorities will be watching closely.
Members of the Los Angeles School Board 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. .
There are as yet no approved coronavirus vaccines for children under 12.
As part of the LA Unified plan, all students aged 12 and over will be fully immunized by the time they return to class after the January 11 winter break. Those who participate in sports and other activities should receive a first dose of the vaccine by October 10. 3 and a second dose by October 31, while other students should receive their first dose by November 21 and a second dose by December 19 at the latest.
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.
Other parents oppose the move and believe it should be up to parents, not council, to decide what is best for their children. They noted that the coronavirus was much less deadly for children than for the elderly.
“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.”
United Teachers Los Angeles urged the district to provide public education and outreach to families and vaccine access to increase the number of vaccinations in school communities. The teachers’ union had urged the board to impose vaccination on students once teachers were required to be vaccinated and applauded the decision on Thursday.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health too. 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, which conducts weekly testing, said Ferrer. She said that doesn’t mean the infections have spread to schools, and many have actually happened elsewhere.
She added that more than half of the county’s residents between the ages of 12 and 17 are already fully vaccinated.
“Increasing these numbers is a critical part of our strategy to keep schools open,” she said. “Widespread immunization can dramatically reduce transmission in all settings, especially and especially in schools. “
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Taxin reported in Orange County, California. Associated Press writer Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed.
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