Los Angeles schools delay student COVID-19 vaccine mandate

The Los Angeles school district, which was among the first to announce mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for students, has become the latest in California to delay a plan that would have forced thousands of unvaccinated students to return to distance learning.

The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District voted Tuesday night to postpone a Jan. 10 deadline for students 12 and older to be vaccinated to attend classes on campus, moving the deadline to the fall of 2022.

So far, 87% of Los Angeles Unified students in that age group have shown proof of vaccination or qualified for a medical exemption, which interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly called “a major milestone.”

But enforcing the January deadline would have disrupted the education of too many students, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, officials said. It would have barred about 27,000 unvaccinated students from campuses and overwhelmed the district’s independent study program, which was already struggling with staff shortages, but also affected classrooms across the district that stood to lose teachers due to the exodus of unvaccinated students.

The meeting was punctuated with an emotional and angry plea for the unvaccinated to get their shots from board member Jackie Goldberg, 77, who said the importance of vaccinations was personal for her.

“I grew up with polio, I saw classmates of mine die,” Goldberg said, her voice quivering. The polio vaccine “saved thousands of thousands and thousands of lives and it kept hundreds of thousands more from losing use of arms and legs.”

To the parents who say they are worried about the mental health of children who don’t get in-person learning, Goldberg said, raising her voice: “Get them vaccinated. It’s really very simple.”

She and other board members said they were not...