San Diego USD became the latest large California district to require student vaccinations while administrators elsewhere dropped mask mandates as COVID rates decline but remain high.
San Diego USD’s school board approved a mandate on Sept. 28 that requires staff and students age 16 and older to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 20. About 65% of eligible students and 80% of employees were at least partially vaccinated when the mandate was enacted, the district said on Facebook.
School board trustee Sharon Whitehurst-Payne said students she spoke to at a middle school Tuesday supported the new rule.
The mandate is also in line with vaccination requirements that have been in place for decades to prevent polio, measles and other diseases, Whitehurst-Payne said.
“I don’t think we can just say, ‘Well, we haven’t had 100 years to study this.’ The fact of the matter is we had Model T cars when some of these things happened, and now we have computers so we can move faster,” Whitehurst-Payne said.
“It’s about health care, safety, looking out for people and ensuring we can get back to some normality,” she said.
Board President Richard Barrera, who also voted in favor of the mandate, said it is now critical for the district to ensure parents have extensive information on the safety of vaccinations and where to get them.
“We do not want to have students who are not coming to school not because their parents made a clear choice not to have them vaccinated but because parents didn’t get the right information at the right time,” Barrera said.
After more than an hour of public testimony, @SDSchools voted unanimously to adopt a COVID-19 vaccine policy requiring all eligible students & employees to get vaccinated by December 20th. I applaud this leadership as we continue the fight to get out of this pandemic. pic.twitter.com/vE1UXnuMIO
— Assemblymember Akilah Weber, MD (@asmakilahweber) September 29, 2021
New moves on mask mandates
In South Carolina, another judge has blocked a state ban on school mask mandates in a lawsuit filed by parents of students with disabilities. U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis called the ruling a no-brainer, the Associated Press reported.
“It is noncontroversial that children need to go to school. And, they are entitled to any reasonable accommodation that allows them to do so,” Lewis wrote, according to the AP. “No one can reasonably argue that it is an undue burden to wear a mask to accommodate a child with disabilities.”
Bans on mask mandates have also in recent weeks been struck down in Arizona and Iowa.
With COVID rates still high, but now slowly declining, many administrators dropping mask requirements in their schools. The Pinconning Area School District in Michigan, while still strongly recommended students wear masks, made face coverings optional as of Tuesday.
In Alabama, Elmore County Public Schools near Montgomery made masks optional as COVID rates dropped, Superintendent Richard Dennis said on Facebook.
Only five employees and 55 students reported they tested positive last week compared to 936 positive student tests during the first five weeks of school, Dennis said.
“Our current number of Elmore County students and employees has returned to a level compared to the start of school and we hope it continues to decline,” Dennis said. “Having said that, social distancing is not possible at base schools, so we encourage students and employees to take necessary precautions, especially if they have underlying health issues.”
Pike Road Schools, also near Montgomery, shifted to a “mask preferred” policy as case rates decline, Superintendent C.L. “Chuck” Ledbetter said in a COVID update to the community.
The district will reinstate its mandate if 3% of students on any of its campuses test positive. “I still believe that wearing masks is one of many effective tools we have in our toolbox to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as well as other communicable diseases, such as the flu,” Ledbetter said. “It continues to be a top priority to keep our students, faculty and staff healthy and in school.”
And in Florida, which has been a hotspot for battles over mask requirements, Sarasota County Schools dropped its requirement this week due to declining community spread. “We strongly encourage everyone to continue to wear a face mask when indoors to help keep the positivity rate below 8%,” the district said on its website.
