Hundreds of Angelenos against COVID-19 vaccine mandates gathered at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles Monday for the "March for Freedom" rally. https://t.co/VBNHGu5rC0
— FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) November 9, 2021
Text FREEDOM at 53445: The Nationwide Walkout starts Monday, Nov 8th for 4 straight days! Spread the word! #AxetheVax
— Börje Melin (@BorjeMelin) November 6, 2021
CLICK FOR DETAILS: https://t.co/Qd9gQCklmS pic.twitter.com/vVj3uYfGrP
I decided to provide an update on the situation at the school that I will be leaving today because some interesting things are going on. A meeting was held with the entire organization this week. I called in sick that day since I want to use up some of my sick days, but while I was out a lot of changes were announced.
More teachers and staff than I expected are leaving after today. So many teachers and other employees are leaving that they have to make drastic changes to the organizational structure of the entire company. Classrooms are being combined with one another because there will now be a lack of teachers. Also, because enrollment has dropped and continues to drop, due to vaxx mandates no doubt, they are firing a large amount of staff due to budget shortages.
To sum it up, the school is in chaos. They are losing massive amounts of money, over $1 million in just the special ed budget alone. I have no idea how much they are losing in total, but it is likely several million dollars. People are fleeing the school district in large numbers. Schools are scrambling to find replacements. Staffing companies that provide substitutes are stretched extremely thin, and there aren't many prospective employees who want to work in LAUSD.
I can't help but feel a small amount of schadenfeude. I feel bad for the people who are left to deal with the fallout, but they should have resisted the mandates when they had the chance. Now, the entire district is in turmoil with no easy solutions to their problems. The sad thing is that it will be the students who will suffer the most. Not only did they have a disaster of a school year during distance learning, where many students fell massively behind, now they will have to go get through a school year with long term subs and other temporary staff.
Anyways, I'm glad I'm getting out now, some of the other teachers have told me that I'm leaving at a good time. Thanks for reading, say a prayer for all the students who will have to suffer through another difficult school year.
This is an interesting situation, because the elected Sheriff is the highest constitutional officer in Los Angeles County. While city/county administrators can attempt to make life miserable for LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva, the dynamic of enforcement is another kettle of fish entirely.
According to CBS local, “In early August, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors unanimously ratified an executive order requiring all county employees, regardless of department, to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1, with exemptions only for medical and religious purposes.”
Additionally, a county mandate went into effect midnight Thursday, requiring proof of at least one dose of the vaccine to enter bars, clubs, breweries, and attend events such as concerts, sporting events and theme parks. Proof of full vaccination will take effect Nov. 4, with enforcement mechanisms still not determined.
LA Sheriff Villanueva said, in a Facebook live post on Thursday, he will not enforce the mandate for his department with roughly 18,000 employees.
School Board Members
Address
City, State, Zip
RE: School Board Lack of Authority to Mandate New Vaccine Requirements for School Attendance and violations of state, federal, and Constitutional law
Dear Superintendent and Members of the School Board:
As a parent two children in the School District, I am hereby asserting my child’s right to an in-person education as guaranteed by our California Constitution, free of any unlawful and coercive new vaccination requirements. School Board lacks legal authority to add any new vaccine requirement in order for my child to attend in-person school.
Under existing California law, the Board of City is not the proper authority to add a new vaccine to the childhood immunization schedule.
There is a list of ten childhood immunizations required in order for students to gain admittance to public schools in California at certain stages of their education, and this list does not include any COVID-19 vaccines. See Cal. Health & Safety Code § 120335(a)(1)-(10). Under California Health & Safety Code § 120335(a)(11), only the California Department of Public Health (the “Dept” or “CDPH”) can add a new vaccine to this childhood immunization schedule, and at this time, the CDPH has not done so. No matter how eagerly the School Board would like to impose a new vaccine on unwilling students, California law simply does not allow individual public schools or school districts like School Board to unilaterally decide which additional vaccines its students must take prior to being allowed to enjoy an in-person public education, an education guaranteed by our California Constitution, Article IX. Even the CDPH is expressly bound by statutory limitations on its authority to take measures to protect the spread of diseases as it can do so only when necessary and only if the measures actually work. See Cal. Health & Safety Code § 120140.
Moreover, even if the CDPH itself elected to mandate a COVID-19 vaccine under Section 120335(a)(11) for all relevant California public schools, California law also requires that both medical and personal belief exemptions be allowed. See Cal. Health & Safety Code § 120338. Accordingly, any unilateral COVID-19 mandate that School Board purports to impose on its students, and particularly without allowance for medical and personal belief exemptions, is illegal under California law and is also unconstitutional on its face.
In addition, while neither CDPH nor our state legislature has mandated any COVID-19 vaccine for public or private school attendance, neither authority can do so while the vaccines are still under emergency use authorization without express informed consent. 21 U.S.C. § 360-bbb-3 (the “EUA statute”). This EUA statute explicitly states that anyone to whom an EUA product is administered must be informed of the option to refuse the product, as well as the risks and benefits of receiving it. Although the FDA has purportedly approved one of the mRNA vaccines, in reality, the approved vaccine, the Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine, is not available or in widespread circulation in the United States. Instead, the only COVID-19 vaccines being offered to members of the public in California, including students 12 years of age or older, are still under emergency use authorization, including the Pfizer Biontech COVID-19 vaccine product. There is consequently no full FDA approval of any COVID-19 vaccine that is available for students of any age in California. In addition, all COVID-19 vaccines, including the Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine, remain authorized only under emergency use for ages 12-15, and thus no public entity can mandate such an experimental vaccine for students in that age range. If neither CDPH nor our state legislature can currently mandate these vaccines due to federal EUA law and federal pre-emption issues, clearly the School Board cannot unilaterally mandate an experimental use COVID-19 vaccine for its students either.
EUA products are defined by federal law as experimental which means the administration of them is akin to entering one into a medical trial. It is important to point out that there are legal and regulatory requirements that must be adhered to prior to entering a minor into a medical trial. Pointedly, a child cannot by law be entered into a medical trial unless there is a benefit. Even if there is only a minimal risk to children, the regulations require that the parents expressly assent to the entry of their child into a medical trial. 45 CFR 46.404, 45 CFR 46.408. If there is a greater than minimal risk, which here there is the greatest risk of death, there must be a direct benefit and the risk must be as favorable as alternative approaches. 45 CFR 46.405. With an undisputed 99.97% recovery rate for children and existing alternative treatments available, this legal threshold cannot be met.
Finally, it should be noted that
under the Federal Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, all
COVID-19 vaccine makers are provided immunity from liability for their products.
However, School Board and any schools attempting to mandate an experimental use
vaccine or even an FDA approved vaccine that such school lacks authority to
mandate under our Health & Safety code will certainly open themselves up
for lawsuits if a student is injured by an unlawfully mandated COVID-19
vaccine.
It is also unclear why School Board believes that mandating a COVID-19 vaccine will do anything to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on school grounds. COVID-19 vaccines appear to be failing in significant measures around the globe. Highly vaccinated countries such as Israel and the United Kingdom are showing their own cases rising dramatically, with hospitals filling up with patients who are already fully vaccinated. Even the CDC is warning that boosters may soon be needed for U.S. consumers of these products, as more so-called “breakthrough cases” are discovered. It is unclear how School Board can be so blindly insistent of the benefits of a vaccine product at the same time numerous health authorities and media outlets around the globe are revealing these products to be unable to stop either transmission, infection, or even hospitalization or death. There is also the possibility that the vaccine products themselves are causing the variants, as numerous scientists have previously warned, because they are “leaky vaccines” (they do not eradicate the virus, they are only designed to lesson severe symptoms, per their own literature). Due to that nature, since the virus is not eliminated, it is under pressure to mutate. As these COVID-19 vaccine products are still in their clinical trial stages, there is still much unknown about their benefits or potential long-term health risks.
Moreover, the delta variant is now alleged to be the dominant variant in California. The CDC has made it clear in recent weeks that vaccinated persons can transmit the delta variant and might even possess higher viral loads than those who were not vaccinated, particularly those who have already naturally recovered from COVID-19. Since none of the vaccine products were ever tested for or intended to prevent infection or transmission (per the literature in their own clinical trials), choosing to get a COVID-19 vaccine must remain an individual and personal health choice, with individualized risk-benefit assessments.
There is no legitimate public health reason to mandate that healthy children take a product that is still in its experimental clinical trials and that could cause more harm than benefit to this age cohort. School Board has no place attempting to mandate a product that does not even satisfy a rational basis, let alone a compelling governmental interest, for intruding upon significant Constitutional protections and rights to privacy, due process of law, and equal protection under the law.
At this point, those who are vaccinated have presumably protected themselves against severe COVID or death. As numerous studies indicate, and public health authorities acknowledge, children are at little risk of developing severe COVID-19. Accordingly, requiring any COVID-19 vaccine, especially among student populations in middle and high school, for a product that does not even prevent transmission to others, is not the answer. It appears to be an unethical and unscientific way to use children as a shield to protect segments of the adult population who do not actually understand the limitations of these vaccine products, and who have their own option to be vaccinated.
In conclusion, School Board lacks any legal authority to bypass our existing state and federal laws and impose a new experimental vaccine as a condition to attending school. Accordingly, my child will not be taking an experimental COVID-19 vaccine product in order to be allowed to attend in-person education within School Board, as he/she already has a Constitutional right to attend without such unlawful and coercive vaccination conditions attached.
Any attempts to prevent my child from exercising his/her basic Constitutional rights to an in-person public education in California will be met with prompt legal action.
Sincerely,
The decision regarding the district's more than 600,000 students came in a 6-0 vote from school board members at a meeting on Thursday.
Despite today Dr. Fauci saying on CNN regarding natural immunity:
"I don’t have a really firm answer for you on that". School board members mandating vaccines is medical tyranny.
All children 12 and older in Los Angeles public schools must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by January to enter campus under an order approved Thursday by the Board of Education, the first such mandate among the nation’s largest school systems and a decision that triggered immediate pushback.
The requirement cements the standing of the L.A. Unified School District as an early adopter of COVID-19 school safety measures that are wide-reaching and aggressive. The nation’s second-largest school system has moved faster and more comprehensively than most others in testing all students and employees for coronavirus infection every week, requiring masks indoors and outdoors and ordering employees to get vaccinated.
L.A. schools Interim Supt. Megan K. Reilly said the student mandate was the next logical step to keep children, staff, and community members safer from a COVID-19 pandemic that still poses significant risks.
“We’ve always approached safety with a multilayered approach: masks, air filtration and coronavirus screening,” Reilly told The Times. “But we are seeing without a doubt that the vaccines are one of the clearest pathways to protecting individuals from getting severe sickness as well as for mitigating the transmission of the COVID virus. It is one of the best preventive measures that we have at our disposal to create a safe environment at schools.”
New York City’s school system, the largest in the nation, so far has ordered athletes in high-contact sports to begin the vaccination process before the competition starts. New York City and Chicago, the nation’s third-largest districts, are among a growing number of school systems that have enacted mandates for employees.
The L.A. district action “could provide the model for a comprehensive school response to COVID mitigation, so that schools can move on to student academic and mental health recovery plans,” said Odis Johnson Jr., executive director of the Center for Safe and Healthy Schools at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. “Mandatory vaccination mandates move us forward toward finally addressing students’ developmental, social and academic well-being.”
One vaccine, made by Pfizer, has received full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people 16 and older. Those who are 12 to 15 can be inoculated under a federal emergency use authorization. L.A. Unified is not waiting for full vaccine approval for those 12 to 15 — although that approval by the FDA is widely expected in the coming weeks. And President Biden on Thursday pledged to expedite approval of the vaccine for younger children.
Reilly estimated that about 225,000 students in grades six through 12 would fall under the policy. District officials estimate that roughly 80,000 students are not yet vaccinated. Also affected would be about 17,000 students in independent charter schools that use L.A. Unified campuses.
Students who are not vaccinated by the deadline will not be allowed on campus, she said. The alternative for them would be to enter remote learning through independent study, a program that was overwhelmed at the start of the school year when more than 10,000 students signed up.
Under the district’s mandate, the first students affected would be those involved in any school-sponsored extracurricular activity, including sports, drama, chorus and band. Those students who are 12 or older must receive a first vaccine dose no later than Oct. 3 and a second dose no later than Oct. 31.
All students 12 and older would have to receive the first dose no later than Nov. 21 and a second dose no later than Dec. 19. The final day of classes before winter break is Dec. 17.
Students return to class on Jan. 11. By Jan. 10, proof of vaccination would have to be “uploaded and approved in LAUSD’s Daily Pass program” except for those students with approved exemptions, the proposal says.
The Daily Pass allows a student onto campus and tracks weekly coronavirus test results. Parents and students also use the pass to self-report whether a student has symptoms.
Vaccine exemptions can be requested for documented medical reasons, but not based on religious or personal beliefs, according to L.A. Unified.
The resolution also stipulates that younger students would have to receive their first vaccine dose no later than 30 days after their 12th birthday and their second dose no later than eight weeks after that birthday.
Elder said he believes vaccines work and that he’s gotten a shot, but has throughout the campaign emphasized his belief that freedom is important.
California governor candidate Larry Elder is vowing to reverse any COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates Gov. Gavin Newsom has put in place if he’s chosen to replace the Democrat.
Elder told reporters on Aug. 13 that he saw the possibility of fresh mandates being issued by Newsom and other officials in California.
“If I become governor, when I become governor, assuming there are mandates for masks and statewide mandates for vaccines, they will be suspended right away. This is America. We have freedom in America. Virtually anyone in California who wants to be vaccinated can do so,” Elder said during a press conference, local media reported.
Newsom, in his first term, is facing a recall election.
Voters are slated to head to the polls on Sept. 14. Some have already received mail-in ballots.
Voters can choose to recall Newsom. If they do, they’ll also select who would replace him.
Elder, an EpochTV host, is the leading GOP candidate in the recall race, according to several polls.
Newsom last week ordered teachers and other school employees to either get a COVID-19 vaccine or get tested regularly for COVID-19, several weeks after he issued a similar order for state and health care workers.
Newsom responded last week to Elder’s pledge during a recent press conference.
“Day one, he proudly states, as do all the other Republican candidates, day one, they proudly state, day one, that they would eliminate any mask requirements in our public schools to keep our kids safe and healthy and in-person to get the social, emotional support they deserve. Day one he would repeal that as he would repeal any requirement for vaccine verifications, including [for] health care workers,” he told reporters.
District State Public School Enrollment Last verified District reopening plan Start date
New York City NY 960,484 9/21/2020 Remote learning only 9/21/2020
Los Angeles Unified CA 495,255 8/18/2020 Remote learning only 8/18/2020
City of Chicago (SD 299) IL 359,476 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Miami-Dade FL 350,434 8/31/2020 Remote learning only 8/31/2020
Clark County NV 330,225 8/24/2020 Remote learning only 8/24/2020
Puerto Rico Department Of Education PR 307,282 8/17/2020 Remote learning only 8/17/2020
Broward FL 270,978 8/19/2020 Remote learning only 8/19/2020
Hillsborough FL 220,252 8/24/2020 Remote learning only 8/24/2020
Houston ISD TX 209,772 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Orange FL 208,203 8/10/2020 Remote learning only 8/10/2020
Palm Beach FL 192,533 8/31/2020 Remote learning only 8/31/2020
Fairfax County VA 187,797 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Hawaii Department of Education HI 181,278 8/17/2020 Hybrid/Partial 8/17/2020
Gwinnett County GA 179,758 8/12/2020 Remote learning only 8/12/2020
Montgomery County MD 162,680 8/31/2020 Remote learning only 8/31/2020
Wake County NC 161,784 8/17/2020 Remote learning only 8/17/2020
Dallas ISD TX 155,119 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Charlotte-Mecklenburg NC 147,638 8/17/2020 Remote learning only 8/17/2020
Prince George's County Public Schools MD 132,657 8/31/2020 Remote learning only 8/31/2020
Philadelphia City PA 132,520 9/2/2020 Remote learning only 9/2/2020
Duval FL 130,229 8/20/2020 Hybrid/Partial 8/20/2020
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD TX 116,512 9/8/2020 Full in-person reopening available for all students 9/8/2020
Baltimore County Public Schools MD 113,814 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Shelby County TN 112,125 8/31/2020 Remote learning only 8/31/2020
Cobb County GA 111,854 8/17/2020 Remote learning only 8/17/2020
Northside ISD TX 106,501 8/24/2020 Remote learning only 8/24/2020
San Diego Unified CA 103,194 8/31/2020 Remote learning only 8/31/2020
Polk FL 101,408 8/24/2020 Full in-person reopening available for all students 8/24/2020
Pinellas FL 100,948 8/24/2020 Full in-person reopening available for all students 8/24/2020
DeKalb County GA 99,166 8/17/2020 Remote learning only 8/17/2020
Jefferson County KY 97,936 8/25/2020 Remote learning only 8/25/2020
Fulton County GA 94,491 8/17/2020 Remote learning only 8/17/2020
Lee FL 94,410 8/31/2020 Full in-person reopening available for all students 8/31/2020
Denver CO 92,039 8/24/2020 Remote learning only 8/24/2020
Prince William County VA 90,843 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Albuquerque NM 89,788 8/12/2020 Remote learning only 8/12/2020
Davidson County (Metro Nashville) TN 84,667 8/4/2020 Remote learning only 8/4/2020
Jefferson County School District NO. R-1 CO 84,646 8/24/2020 Remote learning only 8/24/2020
Fort Worth ISD TX 84,510 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Anne Arundel County Public Schools MD 83,300 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Loudoun Co Pblc Schs VA 81,906 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Alpine UT 81,715 8/18/2020 Full in-person reopening available for all students 8/18/2020
Austin ISD TX 80,032 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Katy ISD TX 79,913 8/19/2020 Remote learning only 8/19/2020
Baltimore City Public Schools MD 79,297 9/8/2020 Remote learning only 9/8/2020
Greenville, 01 SC 76,158 8/24/2020 Hybrid/Partial 8/24/2020
Fort Bend ISD TX 76,122 8/17/2020 Remote learning only 8/17/2020
Milwaukee WI 75,431 9/1/2020 Remote learning only 9/1/2020
Pasco County Schools FL 75,048 8/24/2020 Full in-person reopening available for all students 8/24/2020
Davis UT 74,289 8/25/2020 Hybrid/Partial 8/25/2020
