Views mixed if walk-out was shot in the arm for vax opponents

Local participation in a planned statewide school walk-out Monday to protest Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pending COVID-19 vaccine mandate for children either fizzled or was a rousing success, depending on who was commenting on it.

“It didn’t do anything like 100s of students walking out. We had no real impact,” said Arnold Preciado, assistant superintendent for business and support services for Central Union High School District.

He said while he did not have immediate numbers, he contacted each of the district’s four schools, which reported absences no higher than normal. The district has an enrollment of about 4,200.

“One school site (Central High) said they had received six calls saying ‘We’re going to walk out,’” Preciado added.

However, at the Brawley Elementary School District, 47 students were absent due to the walk-out, Superintendent Richard Rundhaug stated in an email.

Although he didn’t specify the number, Imperial Unified School District Superintendent Bryan Thomason did acknowledge the district saw more absences Monday than normal. “Most parents did report their child’s absence,” he added.

Following Newsom’s recent decision to require all children to get the COVID vaccine to attend school, perhaps by next fall, a statewide protest movement fomented.

The call to action locally included a large color ad in the Oct. 15 Imperial Valley Press. It stated “Statewide School Walk Out!!! Elementary, middle & high school. Monday October 18th. Don’t call your child in sick – say you are not OK with the vax mandates!”

The ad stated it was paid for by Imperial Valley Parents and Teachers Against Mandates.

Among other local school districts contacted, El Centro Elementary and Calexico reported no absences Monday higher than Oct. 11.

“In reviewing the submitted attendance rosters from each school, at this point, it appears that our absences today were actually lower than last Monday, so there was no negative effect on our overall average daily attendance. Students are not subject to truancy consequences for a single unexcused absence,” Jon LeDoux, superintendent of El Centro Elementary, stated in an email.

Some parents reported several children being held out of specific classes, though those reports could not be independently confirmed.

“The teacher confirmed to me that 8 students in her class were absent. That’s 1/3 of her class,” parent Autumn Plourd wrote in a text message about McCabe Elementary School, south of El Centro.

Other kindergarten classes were missing nine and 11 students, respectively, she added, and in a follow-up phone interview said she kept her 5-yearold daughter home from a McCabe kindergarten class.

McCabe officials did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the day’s attendance.

Asked why she kept her child home, Plourd explained, the protest is “anti-mandating. Given the short amount of time they’ve had (to test the vaccines), this is not long term yet. We’re putting a lot on our children. If there’s adverse effects, our children will have a lifetime to be with them.”

Her children have gotten other childhood vaccines, but she feels those have been properly vetted.

Parents are willing to take further action over the matter, she added.

“This protest represents the large number of parents and students who might exit the school system next year if they don’t drop the mandates,” Plourd said. “I’ve talked to several friends willing to do this.”

The hope is the pressure will show school districts and teachers that the parents are behind them so the schools will resist the state mandates, she added.

Parent Yessenia Hernandez said she held her 11-year-old fifth grader out of the Ballington Academy charter school in El Centro and said of the vaccine, “I don’t fully trust it. Not yet. I don’t know how it’s going to affect us.”

As an example of her fears she cited difficulties her children had with required face coverings. Both her older son and his 3-year-old brother fell ill from pneumonia shortly after starting school this year and she blamed masks. She removed the younger boy from preschool and the old son has a doctor’s order to wear a face shield.

“I don’t agree with masks or the mask mandate,” Hernandez said.