Facing lawsuit, schools chief advises dropping shot mandate
PIEDMONT >> Two anti-vaccination groups and two Piedmont parents are suing the Piedmont Unified School District on grounds that the district issued a COVID-19 vaccine mandate that was unsupported by federal or state laws or education codes.
The PUSD education board voted Sept. 22 for a vaccine mandate that requires all eligible students to be fully vaccinated to attend in-person school on Piedmont district campuses. A suit was filed Nov. 18 in Alameda County Superior Court by the group Children's Health Defense (childrenshealthdefense.org), which is led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on behalf of another group, Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids (perkgroup.com), alleging that the vaccine mandate was illegal. Two Piedmont parents, identified as Jane and Janet Doe, are also named as plaintiffs in the suit.
As respondents, the lawsuit includes PUSD Superintendent Randy Booker and the five school board members: Cory Smegal, Megan Pillsbury, Veronica Thigpen, Hilary Cooper and Amal Smith. The suit seeks injunctive relief from the alleged illegal mandates.
According to court documents, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman on Jan. 11 granted the petitioner's request for alternative writ, preliminarily agreeing that a local school district has no legal authority to mandate a new COVID-19 vaccine. The judge stayed enforcement of the mandate and granted an expedited hearing on the merits, which will be heard March 1. Meanwhile, students ages 5 to 18 who have not complied with the mandate should be allowed to attend Piedmont schools inperson, the judge ruled.
Piedmont resident Jessica Barsotti, an attorney with the group Facts, Law, Truth Justice who is representing the petitioners, told KCBS radio in a report that “Piedmont implemented the most egregious policy, in our view, mandating the shots for 5- to 18-year-olds, (and) that they would be placed in independent study if they did not comply.”
When Superintendent Booker discussed the mandate in September with the school board, he noted that their decision could be subject to litigation. Piedmont school board members and other district officials say they cannot comment on the pending lawsuit.
However, Brian Killgore, the PUSD's communications director, said last week that “We thank our students and families for their partnership in keeping our campuses safe and protecting in-person instruction. Whatever the outcome, we are proud of and inspired by the commitment of our families, resulting in a 98% student vaccination rate across the district. We will continue encouraging everyone in our community to get vaccinated and follow CDC, state and local guidelines in our ongoing fight against the pandemic.”
Officials cite the district's latest vaccination statistics. Beach Elementary School has 240 vaccinated students with 24 ineligible for vaccinations for a total of 264 students with a vaccination rate of 90.91%; Havens Elementary,
397 with 36 ineligible for a total of 433 at 91.69%; Millennium High has 54 with two ineligible for total of 56 at 96.43%; Piedmont High, 818 with five ineligible for a total of 823 at 99.39%; Piedmont Middle has 484 with 16 ineligible for a total of 500 at 96.80%; and Wildwood Elementary has 241 with 20 ineligible for a total of 261 at 92.34%.
In notes from their Jan. 26 school board meeting, Booker recommended that the PUSD education board remove COVID-19 vaccinations from district requirements until the California Public Health Department and state of California add them to their list of required immunizations. With remarkably high vaccination rates across all of its campuses, the district finds no education value in transferring vaccine-hesitant students into an independent study program, according to the meeting notes.
A lawsuit also is pending against the Los Angeles Unified School District for an allegedly illegal COVID-19 vaccination mandate. In December, LAUSD board members voted to delay implementation of their plan to remove noncompliant students from in-person classes.
“The board blindsided PUSD families in the middle of the fall term with the illegal vaccine mandate, leaving many PUSD parents scrambling,” the Children's Health Defense organization stated in their lawsuit against Piedmont's district.