SMMUSD: please instate a vaccine mandate
Auden Koetters, Co-Sports Editor
Schools were founded with the purpose of protecting children. This didn’t come in the form of guns and swords, but in knowledge. In their establishment, schools hoped to bring to light minds of the future, igniting children with math and vocabulary so as to help them reach their full potential. As the world around us evolved, so did education. Schools no longer stood to only foster young minds, they stood to be a place where they had adults to guide them, peers to stand with them and where they could rise and fall, knowing they were surrounded by people who would protect them, this time with guns and swords. Now, with a pandemic ravaging the world, school should be a place where children feel safe. Most importantly, this safety should derive from the guarantee administrators do everything in their power to prevent these dangers from becoming a reality.
This year, the students of Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) marched through their school’s gates for the first time since March 2020. Now, a vaccine has been made available to many of the district’s secondary school students, and families hoped the district would implement a vaccine mandate. Such a stipulation didn’t seem far off, as, according to Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC), vaccinated individuals are significantly less likely to have the potential to spread the virus to others and transmission of the virus between unvaccinated persons is the primary cause of the continued spread of the virus. The keyword here is “spread”. The usage of the word “spread” as opposed to “contract” means the decision to be inoculated is an extrapersonal one as opposed to an intrapersonal one. An unvaccinated student is significantly more likely to spread the virus to their classmates, endangering not only their peers’ health, but also their education, as SMMUSD requires students who are exposed or test positive to quarantine away from in-person instruction. With the risk posed by COVID-19 at a place like school, where so many students come into contact, the district should be working to prevent the spread of the virus in any and every way possible.
“COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting you from COVID-19, especially severe illness and death. COVID-19 vaccines can reduce the risk of people spreading the virus that causes COVID-19,” the CDC said.
With such information emphasizing the importance of vaccination in not only protecting oneself but also protecting those around you, it comes as a shock that SMMUSD continues to refuse to implement a vaccine mandate. With the safety of its students and staff at stake, why has SMMUSD not? The answer, however horrifying, is simple. SMMUSD strives to protect itself, not its students. Similar to forcing seniors to pay hundreds of dollars to take AP exams which, for the majority of seniors, have only a negative affect simply so the district can boast a certain number of their students passed exams, SMMSUD’s unwillingness to impose a vaccine mandate serves to protect its face value and not its students. The district fears creating a vaccine mandate will anger the small minority of parents who desire their child remain unvaccinated, and allow such fear to dictate their actions in protecting their students safety. They would rather allow students to continually risk not only their, but their families’ lives than potentially hear complaints from a couple of parents.
At the beginning of the school year, it was acceptable that the district had not yet imposed a vaccine mandate, as the vaccine itself had been neither approved by the FDA nor made available to many of the district’s younger students. However, as time has passed, these limitations have changed. The vaccine was approved by the FDA and made available to children ages five and up. The California Department of Education requires students either be or turn five before Sept. 1 in order to begin kindergarten. As of now, every student in the SMMUSD district is above the age of five, and thus eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Thus, there should no longer be a barrier to implementing a vaccine mandate throughout the district. The fact that SMMUSD has not yet imposed such a mandate exemplifies the corrupt nature of the district, as they care more about their personal image than they do the safety of their students and staff.
