“Ultimately, we want our schools to be open and the best way to make sure is to vaccinate as many people as possible in our schools,” said Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing teachers.
It was a sentiment echoed by many parents, as experts warn of the risk it poses to schools in the midst of the Delta variant. Since classes began across America, tens of thousands of students have had to be quarantined due to exposure to Covid-19.
“Our goal is to protect children and our goal is to have kids in school and not online,” LAUSD interim superintendent Megan Reilly told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Thursday afternoon.
Dr. Richard Pan, a state senator, pediatrician and father of the district, championed the measure and pushed for “community immunity” to protect children too young to be eligible for the vaccine. For children under 12, a vaccine could still be months away, and Covid-19 hospitalizations among teens are about to be out since the pandemic began.
Pan praised LAUSD for “leading the way” and “following science to ensure the safety of schools.”
While some parents spoke out in favor of the mandate, others angrily denounced the proposal.
“We have to be the ones to decide for our children, not for the district, or for anyone else,” Father Carla Franca warned. “If you want to take your kids to slaughter camps, do it, but it’s not you who should decide,” he said. “When you have your own kids, you can make your own crazy decisions.”
The school board vote was unanimous Thursday. Children participating in sports and extracurricular activities should be vaccinated “in the October period,” while other students should receive the first and second doses no later than November and December, he said. dir Reilly.
The winter holidays will give students time to achieve full immunity, he added.
Increased cases among children
The increase in cases in the US has included an alarming increase among children.
Data from the American Academy of Pediatrics show that between August 26 and September 2, 251,781 pediatric cases of Covid-19 were reported. That number represents more than a quarter of the 939,470 total cases reported that week.
However, the effectiveness of preventive measures, such as masks and vaccines, has been illustrated in San Francisco, where approximately 90% of children ages 12 to 17 are vaccinated, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. So far this year, no coronavirus outbreaks have started on the city’s school campuses, SFDPH said.
“Suspicions of transmissions to the school have been so low that they cannot be publicly reported without concern for privacy and confidentiality,” SFDPH said. “The remaining cases reported in schools were related to out-of-school community transmission as of Sept. 8.”
The Los Angeles mandate will apply to all vaccine-eligible students who attend school in person and would allow those with “qualified and approved exemptions” to opt for an independent learning program.
These exemptions would be largely medical, and religious exemptions would be decided on a case-by-case basis, Los Angeles School Board member Jackie Goldberg told CNN.
“In this way, we create the safest possible environment for those who may be vaccinated to learn,” said Reilly, who noted that it also makes the environment safer for younger children who are not yet eligible for to vaccines. “They are safer from being surrounded by adults and others who are vaccinated,” he said.
80,000 unvaccinated students 12 years of age or older
LAUSD, which began school on Aug. 16, would be the first major school district to require Covid-19 vaccines for its eligible students. A smaller district in Los Angeles County, Culver City’s unified school district, announced in August that it planned to require vaccination of eligible students in mid-November.
“Let’s imagine that by the second semester, our high school and high school campuses will be even safer than they are today,” John Terman Ortiz Franklin, a member of the LAUSD school board, told CNN magazine Thursday morning.
Reilly estimated that there are about 225,000 students 12 years or older in the district, of whom about 80,000 are not vaccinated, but said the health department would have the specific numbers.
The district, which includes more than 600,000 students, is already demanding the vaccine for teachers and staff, requires everyone to wear face masks and test all students and staff weekly for infections. Classrooms have also been equipped with improved ventilation systems to try to slow the spread of the virus.
As many schools opened with these measures, cases in all age groups of children in the area decreased by about 30%, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement. .
As of Sunday, 62% of 12- to 15-year-olds in Los Angeles County received at least one dose of the vaccine and 51% were fully vaccinated, according to the statement.
CNN’s Jessica Firger, Dakin Andone, Stella Chan and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.