UTLA Board Votes to Support Vaccine Mandate

As the polarization in Southern California and nationally deepens against mandated masks and vaccinations for access to public venues as well as K-12 schools and colleges, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, representing the tens of thousands of teachers and school employees, voted overwhelmingly to support a vaccine mandate for all Los Angeles Unified School District employees.

The current surge in COVID-19 cases underscores why UTLA members fought so hard for mask mandates, ventilation, access to vaccines, and other safety measures for our schools. Those safety measures we negotiated include a COVID-19 task force at each school, their press release reports.

They also called on the district to actively encourage and facilitate greater access to vaccination for parents, eligible students and the communities it serves. The district and LA County Department of Health must work together to increase outreach, vaccination clinics and testing in communities with low vaccination rates and high transmission rates.

The California state university system has mandated that all students entering the campus for in-person instruction must be vaccinated. Many companies are doing the same. Unfortunately, websites selling phony vaccination cards for up to $200 will upend efforts to end the pandemic.

Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers, anti-mask demonstrators in Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District on Aug. 11 disrupted a school board meeting (with none wearing masks, violating LA County health orders) that was to propose mask and vaccination mandates for the 11,000 students. Let Them Breathe falsely argues face coverings are harmful to children physically, emotionally and mentally. The group had previously organized rallies and disrupted school board meetings throughout Orange County, including in the cities of Orange and Tustin. A similar protest organized by Let Them Breathe took place at Torrance Unified two days earlier, though that board meeting continued without delay.  

“We do not consent to mask mandates. We do not consent to testing,” Erin DiMaggio, a Peninsula resident, told the crowd. “This is segregation. This is discrimination.” Another, Sharon Pizzulli, said “It’s physically and mentally abusive.”

They claim it is a violation of their personal freedom and call it “segregation.” 

Scientists affirm that the Delta variant (read mutation) will continue to circulate until “herd immunity” (90% vaccination rate) is reached. The unvaccinated pool will engender further mutations that will re-infect the 70% already vaccinated.