When Andrew Luna, 18, received word from Granada Hills Charter School in a series of emails last year that he would be forced into independent study unless he was vaccinated, he didn’t believe it.
“I didn't think they'd go through with it, but they did and here I am now,” Luna told the Southern California Record. “It's saddening definitely to see the school I work so hard in just cast me away.”
As a senior in high school, Luna was looking forward to attending prom and the graduation ceremony in June. Instead, he will be receiving his high school graduation certificate in the mail.
“I was the president of the Art Hub club before I got segregated,” he said. “I was a part of the yearbook committee as a designer and now the yearbook committee is sprawling for extra hands-on deck. I worked very hard for these art classes in my senior year that I no longer have access to. I have lost a lot more than just a traditional prom and graduation ceremony.”
Luna is among the plaintiffs who have joined Let Them Choose in suing Granada Hills Charter School over their COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
Let Them Choose, a coalition of some 30,000 parents, filed their lawsuit against the public charter school on Jan. 2 in Los Angeles Superior Court. A hearing is scheduled for May 24. Until then, Luna is relegated to remote learning.
“I just sit at home daily usually alone,” Luna added. “I wake up each school day and complete a series of assignments without any traditional instruction by a teacher. Most of the assignments are left open-ended and accept multiple answers. So, I don't even know if what I’m doing is correct or not. The teacher is a series of videos I watch that is probably on YouTube.”
Although a federal judge in Florida lifted a nationwide mandate requiring masks on flights and public transit last week, Granada Hills Charter School continues to require masks for K through 12 students, according to Sharon McKeeman, who founded Let Them Choose and the sister organization Let Them Breathe.
“I thought they must be doing this because they're using it as justification for their vaccine mandate because if Granada Hills was to unmask, then it would prove the point of what we're saying that their vaccine mandate is not necessary,” McKeeman told the Southern California Record. “But then I found out that even vaccinated students at Granada Hills still have to mask and still have to test. So, there there's no logic or justification there.”