School districts in Los Angeles and San Diego are being sued by parents who are challenging the forced COVID-19 vaccination of their children enrolled in public school.
An individual parent filed the lawsuit last week against Los Angeles Unified while a coalition of parents known as Let Them Choose filed their lawsuit against San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) on Oct. 12. Both are represented by the San Diego law firm Aanestad, Andelin & Corn.
“What we have seen is union involvement in school closures and we do feel that there may be union agendas or other lobbying interests at work in the state when it comes to these large school districts putting forth these overreaching, overly restrictive mandates that violate students' rights and that's why parents have come together,” said Sharon McKeeman, founder of Let Them Choose and Let Them Breathe. “Obviously, we don't have unions but we're trying to come together and find a way to oppose these mandates and take legal action.”
Let Them Choose is an initiative of 20,000 parents launched by the sister group, Let Them Breathe, which sued the state separately over school masking mandates.
While the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Oct. 1, would allow for personal belief exemptions, both school districts are rejecting exemptions requested for personal or religious beliefs
“They are overreaching, and it's not necessary from a scientific or a safety standpoint,” McKeeman told the Southern California Record. “Our lawsuit details the evidence for why a vaccine mandate is not necessary for children. We know they are very resilient to this virus. We know adults have the opportunity to be vaccinated if they want to and the lawsuit details how there are side effects that have been documented from this vaccine, such as myocarditis, that children can actually get a higher risk from than from adverse reactions to COVID itself.”
The complaint against SDUSD lists eight causes of action including violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution. SDUSD is requiring students 16 years and older to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus or face the prospect of distance learning.
“Parents and educators know experientially from the past year of this distance learning experiment during school closures that it was, not just inferior, it was extremely detrimental to our children's academic progress as well as their social interactions and their mental health,” McKeeman said.
“AB 130 makes it very clear that in-person education is a priority and students cannot be moved to distance learning against their consent. Even if they move of their own free will, if they request to go back to a publicly funded in-person education, they must be given a spot within five days.”
As previously reported, AB 130 includes a provision in which school districts must offer independent study programs for the 2021-22 school year.
"To say that they're not going to honor a personal belief exemption and that they will exclude students from in-person learning and that their accommodation will be distance learning violates multiple codes, regulations, and laws," McKeeman added.