California Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine For Students

California will be the first state in the nation to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for public and independent schools once the Food and Drug Administration fully approves the vaccine for ages 5-15.
The mandate from California’s Governor Gavin Newsom will affect 6.7 million students in both public and independent schools. Newsom’s mandate will apply first to students in 7th to 12 grade, then to K-6th grades once the FDA approves the vaccine.

The FDA has emergency authorization on the vaccine but has not fully approved it for 12-15-year-olds. It will take several months for the FDA to fully approve the vaccine.

Christian Donovan, the Assistant Head of School, hopes that students and adults will get vaccinated.

“We are in really challenging times,” said Donovan “For the public safety of students and adults, we want to encourage as many people as possible to be vaccinated.”

Head of School Crystal Land expresses optimism for students to eventually unmask in classrooms once the mandate takes effect.

“One of the hoped outcomes that if we can mandate slash require more students to be vaccinated, then eventually you won’t have to wear masks in class,” added Land.

Governor Newsom has indicated that exemptions to the vaccine will be granted to students due to medical reasons or religious and personal beliefs. According to the Associated Press, students without exemptions will be forced to do independent study.

When asked about the importance of the vaccine mandate, sophomore Matthew Wong said, “[The mandate] is an important step, but it’s something that shouldn’t necessarily be forced. Most of the time it’s not up to the students, it’s up to the parents.”

Several school districts already have vaccine requirements for their students. Last month, the Los Angeles School District required all eligible students to get vaccinated, which will take effect in January.

Morgan Guzmàn, Upper School History Teacher, would feel safer knowing that students will be all vaccinated because of the mandate.

“I would feel much safer knowing that my community was doing everything they could to not infect others with this potentially deadly virus,” Guzmàn mentioned.

Newsom already required K-12 teachers and staff in public and independent schools to get vaccinated or tested weekly, but once the mandate for students takes effect, teachers will no longer have the option to be tested weekly.

“The more students we have who are vaccinated, it means we can operate school more normally,” said Land.