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The Unified School District of Los Angeles, the second-largest school district in the country, on Thursday approved a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for students 12 and older, one of the most aggressive measures taken by a district school to protect children.
Now, COVID vaccines will be mandatory for all eligible students by Thanksgiving if they wish to attend classes in person. The district has more than 600,000 students in more than 1,000 schools.
“When we look at the other immunization requirements – polio, rubella, hepatitis – that we’ve had in schools for generations, we’re going to see other districts follow LA Unified’s lead,” said Member Nick Melvoin. from the administration board.
Melvoin said many school administrators are overwhelmed as they spend the majority of their time on COVID protocols. Vaccinations could change that, he said.
“According to this principal, about 90% of his schedule in the last month of school has been COVID protocols. We are already seeing in cases where children are vaccinated that we can resume a normal school day,” did he declare.
The move comes as cases among children in the United States skyrocket. Los Angeles County has recorded more than 190,000 cases of COVID in children 17 and under since the start of the pandemic, according to the county’s public health department.
Culver City, Calif., And Hoboken, New Jersey, school districts have already promulgated vaccines or testing mandates for students and staff.
Since schools returned to in-person learning, COVID outbreaks have closed more than 1,400 schools. At least eight Tennessee public school employees are believed to have died in the past month after contracting COVID. In Florida, school districts are allowed to impose hide warrants after a judge ruled against Governor Ron DeSantis’s ban.
Yet some parents like Bryna Makowka, who has a 15-year-old son in the Los Angeles public school system, say immunization mandates go too far. “It is only the right of the parent and the child to do this,” she said.
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