Los Angeles Schools Voting Today On Vaccine Requirement For Students

Los Angeles Times: All Eligible LAUSD Students Would Have To Be Vaccinated By January Under Board Proposal
All Los Angeles public school children 12 and older would have to be fully vaccinated by January to enter campus — sooner for students involved in many extracurricular activities — under a proposal to be voted on Thursday by the Board of Education. If approved as expected, the requirement would catapult the L.A. Unified School District into the forefront of school systems nationwide with the most sweeping and aggressive safety measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nation’s second-largest school system has moved faster and more comprehensively than most others, testing all students and employees for infection every week, requiring masks indoors and outdoors and ordering employees to get vaccinated. (Blume, 9/8)

In updates from Florida —

Bloomberg: Florida Can Legally Require Masks In Schools Despite DeSantis Appeal, Judge Says
Florida schools can start legally requiring masks, a state court judge ordered in what he called an uncommon ruling, even as Republican Governor Ron DeSantis appeals a decision against his ban on mask mandates. It’s highly unusual to lift an automatic hold on a decision such as the one that kicked in when DeSantis filed his appeal, Leon County Circuit Court Judge John C. Cooper said at a hearing held over Zoom on Wednesday. But “we’re not in normal times -- we’re in a pandemic,” he said. “We have children who can’t be protected by a vaccination.” (Levin, 9/8)

And from the Midwest —

Axios: Parents Of Kids With Disabilities Sue Iowa Over Ban On Mask Mandates 
Eleven parents of children who live with disabilities in Iowa are suing the state over the ban on mask mandates. Concerned school parents are piling some of the heaviest pressure against political leaders in red states that are defying the CDC's recommendation on mask requirements, per Axios Des Moines' Linh Ta. The Arc of Iowa, a disability rights group based in Iowa, is joining the lawsuit along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). (Garfinkel, 9/8)

PBS NewsHour: Missouri Left Mask Rules Up To School Districts. Parents Say Their Kids Are At Risk
Over the summer, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education issued school reopening guidance, effectively allowing hundreds of school districts to decide whether or not to mandate masks and making Missouri one of more than 20 states to adopt such a policy. That guidance came after a spring lull of cases in the U.S., and just as COVID infections began to surge again nationally, driven by the increasingly dominant delta variant. Nearly two dozen school districts in Missouri have reported more than 41 new COVID cases among children age 5 and older in the last two weeks, state data shows. Since the start of the pandemic, the state has seen nearly 780,000 cases in total and more than 11,000 deaths, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services. (Hays, 9/8)

Detroit Free Press: Unmasked Students Press Into Manchester High School, Violating Mandate
A crowd of unmasked students pressed into Manchester High School on Tuesday morning, violating a Washtenaw County Health Department mandate requiring all K-12 students to wear masks indoors to slow the spread of coronavirus. The incident was caught on video and shared Wednesday on social media. When questioned about how the mask mandate would be enforced, a sheriff's deputy who was overseeing the situation said: “I’m not going to force anybody. I’m not putting masks on anybody. That’s not my job. This is a county health department order.” (Jordan Shamus and Hall, 9/8)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MPS Administration Asking Board To Consider Vaccine Mandate For Staff
All employees of Milwaukee Public Schools could be required to be vaccinated by Nov. 1, with some exceptions, if school board members approve a plan shared by administrators ahead of a special board meeting Thursday. MPS has reported 115 students and 35 staff tested positive in a seven day period just before Labor Day weekend — the highest levels ever reported by the district. After Labor Day, as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, the district reported 71 new cases in students and staff since the morning. (Linnane, 9/8)

And from the West —

AP: Judge Halts Protests Near Schools In Vancouver, Washington
A judge in southwest Washington state has granted an injunction prohibiting protests, rallies or other gatherings that “disrupt educational services” near public schools in the district. Vancouver School District officials said they sought the injunction after people protesting a school mask requirement left the public sidewalk and came onto the Skyview High School campus Friday, prompting lockdowns at several schools. (9/9)

Salt Lake Tribune: Salt Lake City Superintendent Says His Only Option To Enforce Mask Mandate Is To Call Police On Students
The superintendent over Salt Lake City schools says the only way to more strongly enforce the mayor’s K-12 mask mandate would be to call the police on students who are not complying. And he won’t do that. “I just don’t think it should be the mission of an educational institution to criminalize misbehavior,” said Superintendent Timothy Gadson. “And that’s what it is: misbehavior.” Gadson addressed ongoing concerns Tuesday night during Salt Lake City School District’s board of education meeting. Some parents, he said, have been worried that the district isn’t doing enough to make sure all kids are wearing masks in accordance with the citywide order from Mayor Erin Mendenhall. (Tanner, 9/8)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: School Board Leader Tells Of Death Threats After Vaccine Mandate Vote
Clark County School Board President Linda Cavazos says she has received death threats and “nasty messages” following the board’s decision last week to move forward with mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for employees. Cavazos first posted about the threats Tuesday on Twitter, saying she had received messages saying she should be hanged or shot, “along with very disturbing images.” “I simply turn in the names and reports, and continue doing my job, as do my colleagues,” she wrote. “We have no time for the hate.” (Wootton-Greener, 9/8)

Billings Gazette: COVID Cases Among School-Age Kids Rising In Yellowstone County
The number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported among Yellowstone County's school-age population went up again last week, continuing an upward trend that stretches back to late July. Last week the county reported 180 COVID-19 cases among its school-age population, an increase from the 144 cases reported among the same population for the prior week ending Aug. 28. The most recent numbers were included in a COVID-19 report published by RiverStone Health Tuesday. School-age case numbers in Yellowstone County have gone up every week since the beginning of August, when for the week ending Aug. 7 a total of 39 cases were reported among the county's school-age population. (Kordenbrock, 9/8)

In higher-education news —

KHN: Even In Red States, Colleges Gravitate To Requiring Vaccines And Masks 
As students head to college this fall, hundreds of schools are requiring employees and students to be vaccinated against covid, wear masks on campus or both. But at some schools, partisan politics have bolstered efforts to stymie public health protections. Events at the University of South Carolina, in a deeply conservative state, demonstrate the limits of political pressure in some cases, even though “South Carolina is a red state and its voters generally eschew mandates,” said Jeffrey Stensland, a spokesperson for the school. (Andrews, 9/9)