- Valley View News
Education and COVID-19 Restrictions
RESEDA, CA - Los Angeles Unified School District is the biggest district in the United States to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations. This is coming off of the heels of debating whether or not the school district would reopen for on site learning in Fall 2021. However, talks of reopening have been going on since Spring of 2020. All staff and students must be vaccinated by January 2023.
From the beginning of the original shut down, faculty and board of director members have been discussing their selective schools. The conversations have always been about what was the safest way to continue education. The abrupt adjustment to online learning was difficult for all three parties: teachers, students and parents.
Some professions never experienced a proper shut down, which made it difficult to go to work and have a child at home, so arrangements were made quickly. Other parents were lucky and got to work from home like Tamara Ferguson, Director of Family of Prayer and Praise.
Ferguson works with Los Angeles inner city children and families from ages twelve to
seventeen. “It was extremely difficult for some of the children and teenagers I work with, they need stability and online learning was hard on most of them. Some have ADHD and it is hard to get that one-on-one learning that they need to be successful,” stated Ferguson.
Once the proper funding for sanitization was put in order and taught throughout the school
district, there was then a decision of who and how would students return. Bussing and proper social distancing was one of the biggest struggles that Assistant Principal of Grover Cleveland Charter High, Damian Goodman, stated that they faced.
“I oversee discipline and it is hard to constantly remind the students to put their mask on and that they and their parents signed an agreement to follow all the new rules before returning.”
Angry parents have expressed their opinion on the new mandate and think it is unfair that their child has to be vaccinated before returning in January, but it is actually much sooner than that.
The new rule takes effect in January. Students 12 and up will need to show they have received their first dose by Nov. 21 and their second dose by Dec. 19. However, students in extracurricular programs face an earlier Oct. 3 deadline for their first dose and an Oct. 31st deadline for their second.
Video credit: CBS Los Angeles
Video credit: Malik Patterson
Audio credit: Damian Goodman and Malik Patterson
By: Malik Patterson
Contributions from: ABC News, California Children’s health defense, CBS News, Los Angeles
Daily News, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio,
Photo: Los Angeles Daily News, Getty Images
Video: Malik Patterson, Amy Johnson
Audio: Damian Goodman and Malik Patterson
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