After thousands of parents and children refused to comply, the California School District was forced to reverse its vaccine mandate, after a San Diego judge struck down the mandate.
COVID-19 vaccination was made mandatory for children by multiple school districts in California earlier this year. Set to go into effect in January, any child, 16 and older, will be banned from campus in all San Diego public schools, if not vaccinated.
This authoritarian move caused a massive backlash and thousands of parents and children refused to comply.
The refusal to get vaccinated set the stage for a showdown that was to unfold on January 24 when the children would be kicked out of school for non-compliance.
However, a San Diego judge struck down the mandate this week and now children wouldn’t be kicked out of school for not getting vaccinated. The judge accurately pointed out that a school district has no authority to mandate medical procedures for children.
CBS 7 reports that Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer granted a writ of mandate for a lawsuit filed by the group “Let Them Choose,” which prevented the school district‘s COVID-19 vaccine mandate from going into effect by arguing it did not comply with state law.
Meyer noted in the ruling that the school district‘s COVID-19 vaccine mandate conflicts with state law and hence it cannot move forward.
Meyer further added that any decision to mandate vaccines must be made at the state level and must also include a “personal belief exemption” if the mandate is not imposed by the state Legislature.
San Diego Unified’s policy did not contain this exemption.
“SDUSD’s Roadmap appears to be necessary and rational, and the district’s desire to protect its students from COVID-19 is commendable. Unfortunately, the field of school vaccine mandates has been fully occupied by the State, and the Roadmap directly conflicts with state law,” the judge wrote in a tentative ruling.
Though the school district disagreed and claimed they have the right to dictate what children can and can’t be injected with. However, their objection is overruled and the parents will no longer be forced to make their children take jabs.
“I am overjoyed. We knew that our legal argument was strong, and we brought this case on behalf of thousands of concerned parents and students and to hear the judge say no student should be coerced into getting this vaccine was just a wonderful thing to hear,” said Sharon McKeeman, founder of the group behind Let Them Choose.
Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) also mandated shots for all children aged 12 and older and those who failed to comply will be banned from campus on January 10, 2022.
NBC4 spoke to Jennifer Kennedy, an attorney who is following these cases, who explained that school districts are not authorized to mandate medical procedures. Just like the San Diego school district did not have the authority to mandate the jabs, the LAUSD did not have it either.
“These grotesque contests and displays of treatment and candy and gifts and favors, raffles and cash prizes inducing the kids to the vaccination…. Here is the problem, kids in California cannot consent to vaccination.”
She added, “The LAUSD does not have the power to add a vaccine to the California school schedule. You couldn’t do it if you were a po-dunk school district and you can’t do it if you’re LAUSD, the second largest district in the nation. You don’t have that legal authority.”
Several parents of students filed lawsuits against the LAUSD over the mandate and thousands of children remained unvaccinated in LAUSD. After a whopping 28,000 children refused the jab, the school district was forced to postpone their mandate last week.
