Attorneys Win Removal of COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement for Piedmont School Kids

Attorneys for Children’s Health Defense, California Chapter and Protection for the Educational Rights of Kids recently filed a lawsuit against Piedmont Unified School District over the district’s adoption of “an illegal Covid-19 vaccine mandate for students aged 5 and older.” The lawsuit said the “mandate requires every ‘eligible’ student in the District to get the controversial and not FDA approved vaccines or be forced into distance learning and/or independent study.”

Facing charges of illegal segregation and discrimination, last evening the Piedmont School District Board voted to approve a revision of the COVID-19 vaccination requirement, now allowing students to attend classes in person without the vaccination.

“The Piedmont USD Board is vacating the entire COVID-19 vaccine mandate — and all associated discriminatory conditions that went along with it, such as arbitrarily discriminating against the unvaccinated in terms of extracurricular activities or other educational benefits, which is key,” Attorney Rita Barnett Rose told the Globe Thursday.

“This is unlike a school district like LAUSD, which only delayed their punitive plan to remove unvaccinated students to independent study program but continues to discriminate against these students — even when it is now abundantly clear that the COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t prevent infection or transmission….”

This all came about because earlier this month, the judge assigned to the case ordered an expedited hearing on the petition and stayed enforcement of the District’s legally dubious COVID-19 vaccine mandate until a further and final hearing on the merits. On January 11, 2022, attorneys argued their Ex-Parte Application for Alternative Writ of Mandate on behalf of Children’s Health Defense California Chapter, Protection for the Educational Rights of Kids, and two DOE Petitioners whose children attend school within the District.

As the parent/student rights groups explain in a recent press statement, “The stayed mandate was aimed at all K-12 students in the District ages 5-18, making it the most restrictive in the entire country. PUSD is also the only school district in the state of California currently mandating experimental vaccines on students under 12 years old. Obtaining a stay for the parents of elementary school students who were concerned about the rushed mandate was one of the primary reasons this District was sued.”

“This is huge win for our Petitioners, because the District will not be able to enforce the requirement, or remove unvaccinated children involuntarily to an independent study alternative, unless and until it can prove that it has the legal authority to require it,” said Jessica Barsotti, the attorney arguing in front of Judge Seligman.

The Oakland Unified School District has also backed down from its COVID-19 vaccination deadline of January 2, 2022, which they bumped to January 31st. It has now been pushed out to August 2022. More than 6,000 Oakland school district students – more than one-third of all students – are still not fully vaccinated despite a requirement that would remove them from in-person instruction, MSN reported.

School districts appear to be realizing that if these “unlawful and unconstitutional” mandatory vaccine policies stay in place, they could be looking at a mass exodus of students from these schools and districts, and possibly lawsuits alleging segregation and discrimination.