In the nation’s second-largest school system, children 12 and older must be vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend in-person classes.
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s board of education voted Thursday to require kids aged 12 and up to get vaccinated against the coronavirus in order to attend in-person classes in the country’s second-largest school district.
Los Angeles is now by far the largest of a relatively small number of districts that need vaccinations. Culver City, which is nearby, implemented a similar restriction for its 7,000 pupils last month.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, which serves over 600,000 predominantly Latino students, already conducts weekly checks on all students and employees, requires masks indoors and outdoors, and has required personnel to be vaccinated. Students aged 12 and up who participate in sports and other extracurricular activities must have their two-shot sequence finished by the end of October, according to the vaccination plan. Others have till December 19.
“It is easy to wait for someone to tell us what to do. LA Unified is leading because we must. Our communities cannot wait,” Mónica García, a board member, said before the vote.
“This action is not about violating anybody’s rights. This action is about doing our job to be able to offer public schools that children can come to school and be safe,” she said.
Last spring, Los Angeles Unified was one of the last of the nation’s largest school systems to reopen for classes. For months, the teachers’ union fought the decision, citing health concerns.
The district’s student body is roughly three-quarters Latino, with many coming from low-income families. Poor Latino adults get immunized at a lower rate than the state norm.
Coronavirus case rates in children increased in Los Angeles County from mid-July to mid-August, but have since fallen, according to Barbara Ferrer, director of the county’s Department of Public Health. The change coincided with the reopening of many schools with safety precautions such as masking and testing, she said, adding that sending so many children to school may result in higher exposures, which officials will constantly monitor.
The plan was overwhelmingly endorsed by Los Angeles school board members, who described it as a good public health precaution and a key step toward keeping schools available for the in-person learning that students require. Jackie Goldberg, a board member, recalls when polio ravaged her school and a third-grade buddy lost his limb.
“It is our moral, ethical, religious, political — pick a word — it’s our responsibility to protect the children under 12 who cannot get protected any other way,” she said.
There are currently no coronavirus vaccinations approved for children under the age of 12.
According to LA Unified’s plan, all children aged 12 and older will be fully vaccinated by the time they return to school on January 11 after winter break. Those involved in sports and other activities must receive a first dose of vaccine by Oct. 3 and a second dose by Oct. 31, while other students must have their first dose by Nov. 21 and a second dose by Dec. 19.
Some parents want all eligible students to get vaccinated. Lucy Rimalower, a kindergarten student in the district, said she is glad that officials are taking steps to safeguard her kid until he is old enough to get his vaccination, which also protects her parents, who are in their 60s and 70s and help her with child care.
“This feels like following the precedent of all the other vaccines over time that have helped us to have a safer school environment, that lets us feel like it’s safe to send our kids to school without getting chickenpox, polio, the mumps, measles, rubella, you name it,” she said.
Other parents are opposed to the change, believing that it should be up to parents, not the board, to decide what is best for their children. They discovered that coronavirus is considerably less harmful in children than in older persons.
“We don’t understand why you are so rushed,” Diana Guillen, chair of the district’s English learner advisory committee, told the board in Spanish. “This decision should be ours, a family decision.”
To enhance vaccination rates in school communities, United Teachers Los Angeles recommended the district provide public information, outreach to families, and access to the vaccine. The teachers’ union had encouraged the board to compel kid vaccinations once teachers were required to get the jabs, and the action was hailed on Thursday.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health felt the same way. Between August 15 and September 7, approximately 8,000 student cases and more than 1,200 staff cases of coronavirus were recorded in the county, with the majority of them in Los Angeles Unified, which performs weekly testing, according to Ferrer. She stated that this does not imply that the infections propagated through the schools, and that many of them arose elsewhere.
She went on to say that more than half of the county’s residents aged 12 to 17 are already completely vaccinated.
“Increasing these numbers is a critical part of our strategy for keeping schools open,” she said. “Widespread vaccination can dramatically reduce transmission in all settings, especially and particularly at schools.”
Image Credit: Getty