Protesters Stage Walkouts Across California In Defiance Of School Vaccine Mandates

On Monday, faculty and students at schools across the state of California staged walkouts in defiance of vaccine and testing requirements set to take effect this week. 

As reported by the Los Angeles Daily News:

The demonstrations — which spanned from San Francisco to San Diego, and from the San Fernando Valley to the Inland Empire and Orange County in between — coincided with statewide employee vaccination requirements that kick in this week, essentially leaving school employees with a choice to either get vaccinated, tested or potentially lose their jobs.

Word of possible sit-outs and other protests spread on social media over the weekend, with activists urging parents to pull their children from school — and teachers and other school employees to join them by staying home from work.

“We’re fighting for the freedom to make the medical choices that are best for our children. We are fully prepared to pull our kids from public school and hire our own teaching staff if that’s what it takes. We do not co-parent with the government,” Tess Van Dusen, an event organizer, reportedly said, according to ABC10 in Sacramento.

Outside of a high school in Van Nuys that is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), demonstrators held signs as they marched that reportedly read: “My Body, My Choice,” “Our kids are not lab rats,” and “Stop the mandate LAUSD.”

The Daily News noted that the demonstrators included people with a wide range of opinions about the vaccine. It added, “Amanda, the founder of the group who did not want her full name used out of concern for retaliation against her family, said some group members have gotten their COVID-19 shots and that some have children who have received all other immunization shots that the state requires of students attending school in person.”

“Not everyone in the group opposes vaccines in general, but they are concerned about exposing children to a vaccine whose long-term impacts haven’t been fully studied,” she said.

Local Southern California outlet ABC 7 added, “[o]rganizers called for parents to keep their children home or pull them from class as a form of protest against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID vaccine mandate.” 

Many protesters were defiant in their stance, noting that it wasn’t necessarily political for some, but rather an issue of personal choice. 

Carol Wilkerson Runge, a former teacher, said, “I have personally been vaccinated. Half of my family has, half has not. But again, freedom of