On October 1st, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California will require all students and faculty ofLAUSD, the Los Angeles Unified School District, to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, making California the first state in the country to take such harsh measures. Less than 0.25% of all deaths related to COVID-19 have been children, with six states reporting zero child deaths caused by the virus. So why are we forcing the vaccine on people who are barely at risk?

The COVID-19 vaccine does not guarantee protection against the virus, but merely reduces its symptoms. Regardless of a child’s vaccination status, children and teenagers are rarely hospitalized or dying, so there is no need to require vaccination for them. Additionally, there are better ways to stop the spread of Covid. Both masks and temperature checks are preventative measures that are equally beneficial and do not violate the rights and autonomy of Americans. No one should be forced to get immunized without sufficient long-term data and research. Instead of mandaing the vaccine for all citizens, including non-vulnerable ones, the government should focus on encouraging the voluntary acceptance of it. It is impossible to know the long term effects of the Covid vaccine until all of the relevant data has been collected; children should not serve as the guinea pigs for an emergency FDA approved vaccine.

Another problem for the erroneous policy of vaccine mandates is that many teachers do not want to get vaccinated. According to the standards for these policies, unvaccinated teachers will be forced to quit, resulting in understaffed schools. These schools will be unable to fulfill their primary goal of educating children and will struggle without teachers and other staff. Many school representatives are particularly concerned about the African American and Latin American student dropout rate because of the low vaccination rates in these communities. They fear the lowering of diversity in schools and academic institutions will result in lifelong consequences these students may face from the impairment of their education. The purpose of school is to educate students in a safe environment; social distancing, masks, testing, and other precautionary measures have all shown to minimize the spread of COVID in school settings. By enforcing vaccines, schools will put students into a position where they will potentially lose out on valuable education.