The Covid-19 vaccine has been a controversial topic ever since the FDA and CDC approved the process and made it widely available to the public–so much so that anti vaxxers  have been openly against receiving it. Recently, LAUSD schools have made it mandatory for the students and staff to receive the full vaccine by the end of the first semester to be able to attend their second semester of school back on campus.

On Monday, October 18, parents and others protested in front of LAUSD schools and in front of Birmingham against vaccinating their children Some parents held up signs that read “My Body My Choice,” and “Not Anti Vax, But Anti Mandate.”

Students were first made aware of the protesters as they were making their way home and from the videos and photos that were shared between a group of students. It is clear that they weren’t standing in the middle of the street causing a disturbance, they were standing on the sidewalks. There weren’t many protesters located in front of the school, but across the street from the school, there was a crowd of parents blocking students from crossing.

Parents partly started protesting against the mandatory vaccine requirement because they are primarily concerned for their child’s safety and, like many anti-vaxxers, are under the false impression that there are chips embedded into the vaccine itself–though no evidence of any such thing has been revealed to the public.

Some parents have also been opposed to the idea of their children being required to be vaccinated by the December 19 deadline requested by Birmingham. BCCHS students need to be  fully vaccinated  by the time the first semester ends or else they will be unenrolled from the school and have to find some other way of attending school. This goes for LAUSD as well but their date for being fully vaccinated is January 10, 2021.

Regarding the vaccine mandate at Birmingham, Principal Ari Bennett has addressed this critical issue in an announcement via parent/student square, “I want to be crystal clear that we are required to implement this policy to meet the requirement of LAUSD, our Charter Authorizer.”

This necessarily doesn’t put the upset parents at ease, but it explains why this process is happening and why it’s needed.