Santa Barbara Unified School Board Votes for COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Source: Santa Barbara Unified School District

At a special board meeting on Thursday, September 23, 2021, the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously to require all district employees to be vaccinated against COVID. The board voted to amend an earlier version of Resolution No. 2021/2022-09, removing the section that had allowed for the option of testing instead of vaccination. 

The policy calls for all employees to provide proof of vaccination. All unvaccinated employees must receive their first vaccination shot prior to October 1, 2021, and the second vaccination, if applicable, no later than November 1, 2021. Currently, about 88% of the district’s 1,673 regular staff are already vaccinated. Medical and religious exemptions will be considered.

The new policy is the first of its kind for any public, K-12 school district in Santa Barbara County. The Resolution states that “overwhelming scientific evidence has established that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and have been authorized for use by the FDA and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) … The overwhelming majority of infections are currently occurring in individuals who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19. There exists a health emergency that requires further action to safeguard students and staff against risks of infection, illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. The Board has a responsibility to prevent the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 infections at SBUSD sites.”

Superintendent Hilda Maldonado voiced her support of the resolution, citing mounting concerns over the more highly contagious Delta Variant and its potential threat to children who are unable to be vaccinated. “As public education leaders, our unwavering responsibility is to the health and safety of children and staff. The availability of a vaccine that combats the virus – along with all other mitigation layers we have in place – will provide us with the highest protection available. For those who continue to hesitate or have doubts about being vaccinated, we are here to listen. We can provide counseling, we can provide one-to-one sessions so that you can learn more about the safety of the vaccine. We can help you through the process if you’re afraid of getting vaccinated. I understand how difficult this decision is for some.”

The School Board heard more than 70 public comments before coming to their unanimous vote of approval.

School Board President Kate Ford said she supports the policy, because “her heart and the data tells me that we must do more, and because it is my job as a school board member to do everything I can to ensure that the students and staff of our district are kept as safe as possible. The resolution is not a violation of a god given freedom; it IS a decision in the interest of the greater good. After all, that is why we now wear seatbelts, don’t smoke in public places, abide by speed limits, AND require numerous vaccinations in order for children to attend our schools. The greater good. And, I would never forgive myself if it ever happens that I could have done more to save any staff member or student from suffering or death. It’s not the easy thing, but it is the right thing to do.”

Board member Virginia Alvarez said the decision demonstrates “the collective responsibility that we have to protect one another.  Students belong at school in the safest learning environment as possible, and my duty as a Trustee is not to be popular, but to do what is within my power to protect our students, staff and community.”

Board member Wendy Sims-Moten said “This is about the health & safety of our students, and it’s about not going back to the not-too-distant past of distance learning where there was a lot of suffering, issues with mental health. We read all of those emails pleading to get students back to in-person learning. Now that we’re here, we need to do everything we can to maintain that.” 

Board member Rose Muñoz said that she took many perspectives into consideration, and felt that required vaccinations help to protect the most vulnerable children in the district; “Our students have the right to in-person learning in a safe setting.”

Board member Laura Capps added that “This vaccine policy is not about our rights as individuals but our collective rights as people, and our need to care for one another– our students, our parents, our colleagues, our community.  As a mom, I am a fierce advocate for our children and too many of them, especially those who are too young to be vaccinated, are being exposed to this virus with unknown long term effects and bringing it home to the people they love.” 

Student Board Member Dawson Kelly also supports the new policy. “My Job is to advocate for the safety of my constituents, the almost 13,000 students of Santa Barbara Unified. After reading through the resolution multiple times and speaking with students I represent, I do believe that this resolution is backed up with enough scientific evidence and data that supports the safety of the staff affected. I hope that despite differing views within the public, we can all reach compromises in order to achieve unity.”

Joyce Adriansen, President of the Santa Barbara Teachers Association, said prior to Thursday’s meeting, she conducted a survey of teachers on the Resolution, and that of those who responded, about 78% said they were in support. Adriansen said that on a personal note, she applauded the board for “Doing everything you can to keep our students safe and in school.”

The Resolution received letters of support from other local leaders and medical experts, including the following:


American Academy of Pediatrics Support SBUSD COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics – California Chapter 2

Pediatricians applaud all school districts who have instituted vaccine mandates for staff and strongly support Santa Barbara Unified School District’s proposed resolution No. 2021/2022-09, which would ensure that in the 2021/2022 school year, all Certified and Classified staff will be required to be vaccinated.

SBUSD’s proposed staff vaccine mandate is rooted in the scientific evidence that vaccines are safe, effective, and play an imperative role in protecting children from COVID-19. With the recent rise in the delta variant, COVID-19 cases have dramatically risen among the overall population in Santa Barbara County (https://www.latimes.com/projects/california-coronaviruscases-tracking-outbreak/santa-barbara-county/#trends) and among the pediatric population (https://www.aappublications.org/news/2021/09/03/covid-delta-variant-children-hospitalizations090321). School based vaccination mandates are imperative for limiting the spread of COVID and ensuring the safety of children.

Resolution No. 2021/2022-09 is a crucial step in ensuring that Santa Barbara County children continue to have access to in-person learning.

“We need to ensure that all children have access to safe in-person learning,” says Dr. Karinne Van Groningen, pediatrician and Legislative and Policy Analyst for Southern California Chapter 2 of the American Academy of Pediatrics, “SBUSD’s staff vaccine mandate is critical in making this happen.”

The Southern California Chapter 2 of the American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 1,500 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists, and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety, and well-being of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. 

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  1. It’s so frustrating that we’ve been in this for over 1.5 years and people still don’t seem to understand how Pandemics work. Stop thinking inside your personal circle. The point of vaccines (and all the measures) isn’t to save you or your family. It’s about reducing spread and reducing all-around infection. Asymptomatic and minor symptomatic disease continues to propagate and replicate virus in the population. Most people (including children) will be just fine, but a small percentage will end up hospitalized. That small percentage is significantly higher than the flu and other illnesses. I don’t think any of that is controversial. What is controversial is that people continue to fail and see the big picture and what getting vaccinated actually means to the community. Rather people continue to spread self-centric opinions like “why protect children when they don’t get sick” or “I’m healthy so I don’t need a vaccine”. These self-centric view points fail to ignore the whole reason we’re doing this. The vaccines are the answer to us moving on, but everyone needs one for this thing to be behind us… mostly.

  2. Some of your points make sense, however… for kids kids, influenza is more dangerous… that’s obvious and proven. As for moving on… Covid is here to stay… so let’s move on in a way that actually resembles normality as much as possible and actually follows logic instead of (often times wild and unfounded) fear.

  3. DUKE – no, the flu isn’t more dangerous, just look at the CDC graph I posted. Right now, clearly, more than double the deaths of children have been due to covid. Yeah, yeah, not as much flu this season but it doesn’t matter. Right now, covid is more deadly to kids than the flu.

  4. ALEX – you’re right, it’s not hard to understand, unless you’re VOICE, who is all or nothing, black or white, up or down. If it’s not 100% perfect, then it won’t do anything. Good thing is, reasonable adults and our entire society don’t work like that.

  5. Alex / Bosco, you both are ignoring natural immunity (that’s anti-science) which is proving to be more robust than the vaccines. Plus, the majority (yes, not ALL Sac) of those refusing the vaccination aren’t in the higher risk groups (older, underlying symptoms) who have a higher probability of leading to hospitalizations. If you are vaccinated, you are going to be okay, and if the vaccinated can still catch and spread covid, there is even less reason to mandate vaccinations.

  6. VOICE – “If you are vaccinated, you are going to be okay,” Nope. You’re not 100% guaranteed to be “okay” if you’re vaxxed. That’s easily verifiable so I won’t waste any more time doing your work for you.
    “and if the vaccinated can still catch and spread covid, there is even less reason to mandate vaccinations.” – How do you not see the glaringly clear contradiction you just made? Suppose the first clause of YOUR sentence is true. If you’re vaxxed, you’ll be OK if you get covid. Then, how on earth do you explain the following clause? THAT IS THE VERY REASON to mandate vaccinations, you said it yourself! If you’re vaxxed, you will be ok, even if you caught covid. How does the reasoning work here? You’re basically saying, “the vax works really well, but the vax doesn’t work so they shouldn’t force it.”
    Wow man, just wow.

  7. I must have missed where I said you’re 100% guaranteed to be okay….. nothing in life is 100% guaranteed. You jump over all the weirdest little intricacies to try and spin your rebuttal into something that makes sense. for the second part, there is no contradiction, if the vaccine prevented spreading covid, that would be more, not less, reason to mandate it. But it doesn’t, unfortunately, so here we are.

  8. VOICE – you said “If you are vaccinated, you are going to be okay,” I’m not quibbling over your own words.
    As for the second part, if the vaccine is so effective, as you guarantee, then why should we not be mandating it?
    Keeping it simple for you this time……

  9. All of you live in fear. 99.96 % survival for adults and 99.98 % in children.
    What are you afraid of? Stop watching tv. You have a better chance of developing diabetes and dying of it than from Covid. 79% of serious Covid illness are overweight. And you want to inject people with a mRNA concoction that has not gone through the proper trial time because you’re afraid of a .04% ?
    Let people live and make their own choices. You’re opening a Pandora’s box when you lose freedoms for the image of safety.
    By the way, you should ask how many vaccinated people have tested positive at schools so far. 95% who have tested positive are vax’d. Don’t blame the unvax’d. Don’t believe me? Call your local school and ask.

  10. There is so much misinformation in this post it’s hard to know where to start. The overall rate of death among those who have tested positive for COVID is 1.8 % ( nearly 700 thousand deaths out of 35 million COVID cases). Even if take into account that many COVID cases may have been missed by tests, there is no way to get to survival rate of 99.96%. If you have a survival rate of 99.96 with nearly 700K deaths, there would have to have been 875 million cases in the US- double the population of the county. NOT POSSIBLE.
    The fact is that in 2020 COVID was the third leading cause of death. Diabetes was number 8. And no 95 % of those who have tested positive at schools are vaccinated. Most cases in SB Unified have been among children most of whom are not eligible to get vaccinated.

  11. That is true SBJoe. However, now with vaccinations and treatments, going forward the rate will will be much closer to SBLocals. This where we are at now looking forward. We are in a much better position now than 2020. This is good!

  12. So, no vax, no job then? I support this in jobs where people are actually in the office or facing the public, but I do draw the line at some companies’ policies requiring those who work 100% remotely to get the vaccine. I am 100% pro vax, but if someone is working from home and never needs to set foot in an office or face the public, they should be able to keep their jobs without being vaxxed. It’s their problem if they want to join the ranks of the dying unvaxxed, but they should be able to keep their jobs while doing so.

  13. The number of trolls on this thread spreading easily debunkable “information” is very sad. What also is sad is when adults won’t believe tens of thousands of medical professionals but will believe that one video with a quack that doesn’t side with the entire medical community. What’s even sadder is that this type of disinformation spreading will be handed down to their next generation.

  14. Except for legitimate medical exemptions, the COVID vaccine should be mandatory for everyone who ever interacts with any other person, period. Anything else is just pandering to idiocy and a threat to the health of the public.

  15. Not with employer based health insurance. The majority of costs for insurance are paid by the company and if they do not want to put themselves at risk, or expose themselves to higher costs, then the employee does indeed have a choice. Get the vaccine or lose their job and their health insurance.

  16. It will be interesting to see how these new powers of compulsion are used in the future. I suspect booster shots will be the next mandate, but what comes after that? I expect additional mandates to follow in the name of public health. Perhaps we could finally put a stop to the public health scourge caused by smoking, or utilize this powerful tool to compel people to maintain a healthy body weight. These steps would save countless lives and billions of taxpayer dollars in health care costs. What began as a humble paper card will soon evolve into a far more sophisticated public health passport. In order to be allowed to travel, get a job, or enter a store, everyone will be required to keep their “health pass” clear and up to date.

  17. 9:45 – yes, exactly. Anyone who interacts with others must get the vax or find a new job. I just don’t necessarily think those who never once interacts (aside from virtual/phone) with co-workers, clients/customers or the public should be forced to choose between their job and the vaccine.

  18. Norway takes an important new position on covid, now 561 days into this episode . It would behoove local agencies to follow their lead: ……. “Norway will end all COVID-19-related restrictions starting Saturday, Sept. 25, the government announced, joining a growing list of countries and states that have removed pandemic curbs.
    “It is 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime … Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg told a news conference on Friday.
    The virus can now be considered as one of several respiratory illnesses with seasonal variation, said Geir Bukholm, the assistant director for the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, according to local media. In Norway, COVID-19 has been classified as a generally dangerous disease, but the official classification could change soon, he said….”

  19. The fallacy with your continued posting of this nonsense is that smoking (when away from others) and obesity do not threaten the health of those around you. Just as you are free to be a complete imbecile unless you choose to drink and drive.

  20. I don’t understand people anymore, on BOTH sides. For one, there have always been vaccine mandates for school. I remember as late as college having to have certain vaccines to enroll. Second, if someone gets Covid, even if unvaccinated, you can’t send them home without pay, there are sick leave laws and not to mention FMLA if you have to be out to care for yourself and have run out of sick time. Seriously, everyone seems to just think along whatever their biases are nowadays rather than with facts and reason. Or being informed as to laws, etc. It’s getting tiresome frankly on both ends. Just stop.

  21. Smoking dope will have to be replaced with edibles only, as the next universal health mandate. Anyone with BMI over 30 will need to pay extra health care premiums and stay completely out of public contact, since they are now proven to be high risk for “covid”. We can no longer afford the obesity privilege.

  22. Covid is not the only public health threat. In Los Angeles, all city employees are mandated to have implicit bias training. This is a great step forward. Unless someone never leaves their residence, lives alone, and gets everything through contact free delivery they should undergo similar training. Vaccination is just one facet of public health, and with our new approach we can mandate compliance with a wide range of requirements to achieve a healthier, safer, and more equitable society. https://www.lamayor.org/mayor-garcetti-announces-mandatory-implicit-bias-training-city-employees

  23. No VAX, OK then – no hospital bed for Covid… no Covid insurance…
    Have those for a choice..
    I’m getting pretty tired of the feeble and lame excuses these bozos give. I was in the service, before we got out of bootcamp – 31 jabs, and there was no whining….

  24. 10:33 – Wrong on both counts. 1) I am 100% pro-vax and fully vaccinated. I have commented ENDLESSLY on here about my pro vaccine point of view. This is just where I think it’s a little much. 2) You completely missed my point. I’m not saying people shouldn’t get vaxxed or even that they shouldn’t be forced to (they should). I am ONLY saying that, when you work 100% remote, your employer should not make you choose between getting vaxed (since you will never interact with other employees or the public) and losing your job.
    I am not even saying I object to this, just raising the question as to: Should an employer have than much power over your personal life? If you don’t come into the office or meet with customers, how you live while at your desk at home 100% of the time, is your personal life.

  25. SBCounty, see the FDA reviewed all the data, and determined the (small) risks associated with this new vaccine wasn’t worth the nominal benefit is provides young children as Covid isn’t the same risk to them as it is to adults. Fact: they have about the same risk as a fully vaccinated 30 year old. The Pfizer study showing it was safe for young kids only studied 2,200 kids, for mere months! I’m sorry but I need a much more robust , long-term study before I inject anything into my kids and they have all their other shots. Everyone hear calling for vaccine mandates are you aware the White House, members of Congress and their staff, Federal Judges, the CDC, and the FDA, are all exempt from the vaccine mandate? And you want to force this on kids? The director of the CDC went against her own panels determination and is now recommending booster shorts for healthy young adults. That’s not science! Fear should not guide us, but real hard data, and the current data simply doesn’t justify a mandate for children, even though your fear might, and I read a lot of misplaced fear on this site.

  26. Where does it say that 100% remote workers will fall under the requirement? You might be reaching for something that isn’t there. Currently the Federal OSHA mandate being directed by Biden, while not yet written, is expected to exclude remote workers.

  27. “ protecting children from COVID-19”
    Per CDC children have 100% survival rate.
    Per CDC normal flu has killed twice as many children as Covid.
    So what are we protecting the children from? 100% survival rate?
    Any idea how many teen suicides, domestic abuses, increase criminal activity from Covid policies?
    Betcha is more than how many kids have died from Covid.

  28. BOSCO – it doesn’t. It all stems from my original comment at 9:32 (“I support this in jobs where people are actually in the office or facing the public, but I do draw the line at some companies’ policies requiring those who work 100% remotely to get the vaccine.”) that was just a “by the way” kind of thing. Of course, it was misinterpreted in relation to the SBUSD policy and then unraveled from there….

  29. You say fear shouldn’t guide us but fear is exactly what’s driving your post. Over 3.5 billion people have received some form of the vaccine world wide. Clinic trials are ongoing and children as young as 2 are being vaccinated in some countries. Also, keep in mind that the vaccine utilizes the same biological principles as all known vaccines by triggering your immune system. These technologies are not as novel as people want to believe. There is plenty of data for experts to analyze. Whether children are as at risk of disease or not is not the issue here. Children are incubators and super-spreaders. We need the whole population vaccinated ASAP so we can finally move on from this and eliminate the risk of a vaccine resistant variant. My kids will be first in line to get the shot when FDA approved. Let’s get it done and move on.

  30. SBLETSGETALONG – “Per CDC children have 100% survival rate.” Liar. Show us where the CDC said 100% survival rate. Here’s a few examples from THIS WEEK of how bad you’re lying about kids dying:
    https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-numbers/louisiana-another-child-covid-death/289-70cdd979-d852-4121-a78f-8e769c249cfb
    https://www.ksn.com/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-in-kansas/kdhe-confirms-childs-death-one-of-62-more-covid-deaths-in-kansas/
    And here. here’s the CDC date showing not only are you LYING about covid deaths, but also flu deaths. Covid has killed TWICE as many as the flu.
    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm
    Get out of here with those lies.

  31. Sac -agreed that it’s obviously not 100%….but it is pretty close!!! As per the CDC, If 20-40 million kids have had it and 488 have died.. it is a 99.9999% survival rate.
    As for the flu, 188 kids died of influenza in a year that we all agreed there essentially was no flu season…

  32. That is true… but let’s also not wildly inflate the actual fatality rate. Kids can and do die… but at wildly (exponentially!) lower rates … so no it’s nothing 100%, but it’s not ok to fear monger and wildly inflate the danger either…

  33. I agree. And that’s why we shouldn’t be testing constantly. It’s all over and we have VERY FEW people dying from it relative to all the other causes out there. Constant testing will just give the frightened politicians and other leaders reasons to keep shutting everything down.
    Shutdowns, economically and socially, are not sustainable.

  34. Whose information is debunkable?
    I’m more concerned of propaganda- celebrities pushing shots, offering donuts and other unhealthy food (obesity is 80% of serious issues), no evidence of long term studies on mRNA being forced in the body (Nuremberg) , the amount of “false-positives” (Kary Mullis-creator of PCR, not some quack) the fact that you’re sad because people want freedom over tyranny. If your shot works, then why worry about those who don’t want it? If your shot works, why can you still get it and pass the virus?

  35. One other question, if those who are getting vax’d can still get it and pass it to others…why aren’t they risk at losing their jobs too? They are just a danger to others as non-vax’d. It’s not about safety then at this point, it’s about control and fear-mongering.

  36. You are misinformed. The data, the science, the experts all agree that Vaccinated individuals are extremely unlikely to pass along the virus – as in almost never. Where on earth do you get your information? Let me guess: Facebook, random internet sites, rumors you hear on the street and the worst source on earth, FoxNews… Would you hire a $15 laborer to build you a new house? No, you’d hire an architect, an engineer, an experienced and licensed contractor and a lawyer. So why would you listen to a talk show host about something that takes decades of education and experience to understand? Remember, if they’re on TV, the radio or the internet, they are there to sell ads. That is their job. To sell advertising, not facts, not science, not reality…

  37. SANTABARBARALOCAL – on another note, far-right “patriots” who toss around comparisons between the vaccine and the Holocaust only expose their indifference to the Jewish people and genocide. At that point, the conversation is over.

  38. sblocal, basically everything you said is what GeneralTree was stating. thanks for concreting that idea.
    Vaxxed, dont go to the hospital. Vaxxed dont die at the hospital. how hard is this to understand. If we are ALLLL VaXXED no one goes to the hospital for it! ohhh my gosh….. LOGIC

  39. no because they are upset that their fellow classmates are not taking this seriously and helping the community stop this virus. they are in school to educate themselves on medicine and technology and history. yet here we are. arguing against it by the select few that Im guessing never finished highschool or college.
    doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past if you dont learn from them.

  40. Haha, you quote me about my “data” and yet you all quote, “the data shows.” Which basically means, “mainstream media told me…” Hypocritical much?
    If you want to get the vax, awesome, but to require healthy people to get it (with a 99.96% survival rate) is absurd. I test every week, and I’ve been negative. Those who are vax’d don’t have to test but can still spread it…that’s not a problem?
    They are coming for your kids next…it’ll be here in 6 weeks. If you want to pump you children with this mRNA gene therapy, that’s on you. The vax that they approved is not the one they are giving to people. Plus, it hasn’t gone through the proper evidence process that concludes in 2023. So no one knows the long term effects. Myocarditis is just one side effects that is showing now.
    Anybody know what survival rate of natural immunity?
    Look up Kary Mullis.

  41. VOICE – am I really? How so? You said “it hasn’t been around long enough to have been studied long-term,” and I explained how long term (eg, permanent organ damage) has been observed. Yeah, sounds more like, once again, you just don’t know what your point is. That, or you’re once again dodging and weaving after being called out.

  42. SBOBSERVER – “Remember, if they’re on TV, the radio or the internet, they are there to sell ads.” – Bravo. This statement should be a mantra of the pro-science community. What benefits do Docs and medical experts gain from warning the world about deadly disease? Now compare that to what benefits Hannity receives by firing up his viewers and having them spread his name and his news around to new viewers?

  43. I’m rather done going over things again and again with you as if I’m talking to my 6 year old. You continue to take a tiny part of my comment, hang an asterisk on it, then try to argue the minutia, completely missing the point. I don’t post here for you or the other 2 musketeers, you’re guys are too far gone, I do it for the other readers to provide some semblance of balance in what is normally a very myopic and one-sided view.

  44. VOICE – you have got to be joking. YOU SAID “it hasn’t been around long enough to have been studied long-term.” I don’t care about the rest of your comment. You keep making FALSE claims and then saying “oh you missed the point.” No man. The point is, once again, your claim is WRONG. Run away again, like a child who refuses to play when they get called out for cheating.

  45. VOICE – and furthermore, I never “tried to argue the minutia” until you doubled down and dug in your heels, like a child. I just made a quick point that the “long term” effects of covid are well documented, contrary to YOUR words. Now, you dig in and attempt to avoid admission that your claim was based on a false premise. You truly are amazing.

  46. VOICE – ” But it doesn’t, unfortunately, so here we are.” So, you say the vaccine doesn’t work. OK, so how is it that “If you are vaccinated, you are going to be okay?”
    This isn’t “arguing minutia” (unless you think pointing out holes in your central argument is “minutia”), this is asking you to explain how, if you say “If you are vaccinated, you are going to be okay,” then how can you also say the vaccine doesn’t work and therefore, “is even less reason to mandate vaccinations.”
    How about you explain this huge contradiction or, as I have done in the past, admit you were wrong and stop doubling down.

  47. Letmego – You mean the same data that was there all of last year (that it’s safer to keep schools open) that the school board ignored because it was easier remain closed? That data has been there since July of 2020…glad you are finally looking at it..

  48. That’s simply not true. They had the data…it showed (like it does now as you point out) that transmission is lower in the schools than in the community at large. They had that. They chose to ignore because it was the easier thing to do. Private schools opened and rich kid public schools. In Santa Barbara we celebrated the churches and community centers that opened up for kids to “safely” zoom school from. You recognize the insanity of that, right? We’ll keep the facilities that are designed to safely school children closed but celebrate the hodge podge of facilities that opened to try and help those in desperate need. In GUSD that percentage that wanted to go back to school was 77%. Instead of seeing the data (which again, isn’t hindsight, it was there) and seeing that every other country has realized that schools need to be last to close and first to open they stayed closed.
    You are trying to be revisionist with the facts…which always a dangerous route to take. The school board was wrong…that was obvious then and now. These two shouldn’t be congratulated…they failed…

  49. LETMEGO – you said it! It’s basically a list of local morons. Anyone comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust is a bona fide fool and a bad person. It’s outrageously offensive and diminishes the horrors of what people when through to make the illogical analogy between forcing families into ovens and requiring an FDA approved vaccine for students. Don’t like it? Teach em yourself. Actually, don’t. I can’t think of much worse than a generation of children taught by their idiots parents that the Holocaust was somehow comparable to having to wear a mask to see a movie or get a vaccine to attend school.
    It’s embarrassing, nauseating wildly offensive and just sad to see how many in this country make this “argument.” The Holocaust is not the same as a vaccine mandate during a global pandemic.

  50. DUKE – the data available at the start of school, in say, August, was a lot less clear than it is now (with a vaccine). There was still plenty of discussion and uncertain data on masking, hand-washing, air flow, 3ft vs 6ft distance, and how they all affect the spread. I’m attaching a couple of links from late fall/ winter below, if you need to be reminded of the information that was making the rounds back then.
    By October, the data was definitely clearer – showing that the risks of having children at school (masked, distanced, with proper ventilation) was no worse than the in the community – and in fact, the risk depended a lot on the community levels. Sadly, the schools chose to hold off on opening in November in favor of January due to the fact that only ~43% of parents voted for November.
    After that decision was made, it was too late – you know what happened next, the holiday spike and the state rules would not allow opening. When schools opened up, in fact, SB Unified managed (due to some students staying remote) to decrease class sizes in order to allow more physical distancing – as recommended. Goleta, which has more money, was always able to do that, and had planned it from the start. Lucky them.
    (SB not so lucky this year, we have at least one kindergarten classroom with 27 students). And at one unnamed school, apparently an unvaccinated teacher who spread COVID to 3 students.
    Finally – as far as I know, there was no regular test data, certainly not much when people were vaccinated – last year. Children often get mild cases and are asymptomatic, so you won’t necessarily know if they have COVID unless you test it. This general testing, where they are trying to get a cross section of students (and test most, eventually), hasn’t been done to my knowledge.
    (I am seeing more colds now that school is back in session! Several friends have had to keep their kids home for a few days due to colds – not able to go back to school until they test negative for COVID.)
    https://www.npr.org/2020/07/15/891598558/is-school-safe-will-districts-test-for-covid-19-answering-back-to-school-questio
    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2775875
    https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/925794511/were-the-risks-of-reopening-schools-exaggerated

  51. To whomever disagreed with my comment re: the Holocaust. Please, inform us all of how the vaccine mandate is the same as the Holocaust? By disagreeing, you are saying you think the 2 are the same. Explain, don’t just click and run.

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