Visitors wait in line before being allowed to enter the Los Angeles Unified School District’s administrative offices.
The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Thursday to require students 12 and older to be vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend individual classes in the nation’s second-largest school district.
The move makes Los Angeles the largest of the very few districts in need of a vaccine. Nearby Culver City implemented a similar policy for its 7,000 students last month.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, which has more than 600,000 mostly Latino students, already tests all students and staff every week, requires masking indoors and out and has ordered staff vaccinations. Under the vaccination plan, students 12 and older who participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities are required to complete their two-shot sequence by the end of October. Others have until December 19.
“It’s easier to wait for someone to tell us what to do. LA Unified is leading because we must. Our communities can’t wait,” Monica Garcia, a board member, said before the vote.
“This action is not about violating anyone’s rights. This action is about doing our part 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 largest districts in the country to reopen classroom instruction last spring. The teachers’ union opposed the move for months, citing health concerns.
About three-quarters of the district’s student population is Latino and many are poor. Among adults, poor Latinos are vaccinated at a rate lower than the state average.
Barbara Ferrer, director of the county’s public health department, said Los Angeles County saw an increase in coronavirus case rates among children from mid-July to mid-August, but these have declined. The change coincided with the re-opening of many schools with safety measures such as masking and testing, he said, adding that bringing so many children to school could be at greater risk and officials would monitor closely.
Los Angeles school board members strongly supported the plan, calling it a sound public health measure and an important step in keeping classrooms open for students to learn in person. Board member Jackie Goldberg recalled when polio spread to her school and her friend lost her arm in third grade.
“It is our moral, ethical, religious, political—pick 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 is no vaccine yet against the coronavirus authorized for children under the age of 12.
Under L.A. Unified’s plan, all students 12 and older will be fully vaccinated until they return to class after winter break on January 11. People who are participating in sports and other activities need to receive their first dose of vaccine by October. 3 and second doses by October 31, while other students should receive their first dose by November 21 and a second dose no later than December 19.
Some parents are eager to see all eligible students get vaccinated. Lucy Rimalover, who has a kindergartener in the district, said she was relieved that the authorities were taking steps to protect her son until he was old enough to take his shot, and that it could help him It also helps to protect parents, who are in their 60s and 70s. And help her with the care of the child.
“It seems that following the precedent of all other vaccines over time has helped us create a safer school environment, which makes us feel safe to send our children to school without chickenpox, polio, mumps, measles, rubella. Yes, you name it,” she said.
Other parents oppose the move and believe it should be up to the parents, not the board, to decide what is best for their children. He noted that the coronavirus is far less deadly for children than for older adults.
“We don’t understand why you’re in such a hurry,” Diana Guillen, chair of the district’s English-learning advisory committee, told the board in Spanish. “This decision should be ours, a family decision.”
United Teachers Los Angeles urged the district to provide public education and outreach to families and access to the shot to increase vaccination numbers in school communities. The teachers’ union had urged the board to make vaccination of students mandatory as teachers were required to get shots and on Thursday lauded the move.
So did the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Ferrer said that between August 15 and September 7, the county reported nearly 8,000 student cases and more than 1,200 staff cases of the coronavirus, most of them at Los Angeles Unified, which conducts tests weekly. She said that does not mean the infection has spread to schools, and has in fact happened in many other places.
He said more than half of the county’s residents between 12 and 17 have already been fully vaccinated.
“Increasing these numbers is an important part of our strategy to keep schools open,” she said. “Comprehensive immunization can dramatically reduce transmission in all settings, in particular, and especially in schools.”
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