Let Them Breathe sent a cease-and-desist letter this week to Sweetwater Union High School District in Chula Vista about its practice of testing all student-athletes for COVID-19 but only requiring quarantine protocols for unvaccinated student-athletes.
“Keeping students out of athletic competition to prevent a handful of cases is unjustifiable,” wrote Arie Spangler, attorney for Let Them Breathe, in the Dec. 7 letter. “On behalf of Let Them Breathe, we demand that Sweetwater immediately revoke its COVID-19 quarantine and pooled testing policies for student-athletes. If Sweetwater does not voluntarily cease and desist these illegal policies and discriminatory treatment of student-athletes, we will institute litigation.”
Let Them Breathe and Let Them Choose are sister groups of some 50,000 California parents advocating for mask and vaccine choice. Both were founded by parent advocate Sharon McKeeman.
Dr. Moisés G. Aguirre, superintendent of the Sweetwater Union High School District, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Sweetwater has a stricter testing protocol than most other schools in the county,” Spangler told the Southern California Record. “So, entire teams were getting pooled into quarantine, and then they weren't able to play against other teams within the county who weren't engaging in the same testing process.”
Sweetwater Union High School District is the latest San Diego school district that has been sued by the parents’ group over COVID-19 restrictions.
Let Them Choose sued the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) in October, alleging that the SDUSD student vaccine mandate plan is unnecessary, unlawful, violates students’ right to in-person education, and discriminates between persons.
“It seems like school districts are probably talking to each other at the very least,” Spangler said. “It’s strange that the strict mandates seem to be happening in districts where there are lower socioeconomic families that are less likely to challenge them as much as the higher socioeconomically situated families would. They are also located in more liberal areas versus conservative areas.”
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has issued guidelines for testing and quarantine protocols, however they are not required.
“We were thinking about including CIF until one of the parents reached out to CIF and confirmed that their guidelines are just recommendations,” Spangler added. “I would expect a response from Sweetwater Union High School District within a couple of weeks at the very least and we'll probably follow up with them if we don't receive a response or if the board doesn't make some sort of change in response even if they don't formally respond to us.”