A concerned community member in Pasadena is calling on the school district to enforce stricter rules when it comes to the vaccination of staff and students.
“What’s abundantly clear is our school district is not doing everything available to them to keep our children safe,” Pasadena Community Organizer Pat Amsbry told KNX Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Amsbry wrote an opinion piece for Pasadena Now. In it, he thanked the Pasadena Unified School District for all they have done to protect students. But he added that the district could go further.
He called on the district to follow in the steps of New York City and to require the vaccine for all staff and students who are eligible following the FDA's full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for younger children.
“All of the facts, all of the science [points] to the reality that vaccinations should be mandatory for all teachers, all school staff...really any person that's going to step on school property,” Amsbry said.
Pasadena Unified Board President Scott Phelps told KNX the board doesn’t think a mandate is necessary because the district already has a high vaccination rate.
“We believe we’re at 96 percent [vaccination rate among the staff]. We’re in the process of following the governor’s orders,” said Phelps.
Under current state law, all K-12 workers are already required to either be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing, said Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, the director and health officer for the city of Pasadena.
But Amsbry wants to remove the “or” from the equation and make full vaccination for COVID-19 mandatory.
When asked about Amsbry’s recommendation, Goh said the city will continue to recommend vaccination “because we know that the more people who are vaccinated the lower the risk of an outbreak of COVID-19 and of transmission happening on campus -- that could potentially be brought back to families and into our community.”
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While Goh would not directly comment on whether or not the city agrees with Amsbry thoughts on mandating vaccines, she did say that, so far, employer vaccination mandates have been supported by the courts.
“Many schools and universities have implemented mandates for students and that has been, you know, we haven't seen that to be a problem so far,” Goh said. “We recognize that for every community there are many factors to consider -- like implementation and enforcement -- so we support the policies that will achieve the highest vaccination rate possible.”
Goh added that Pfizer has only received full FDA approval for those age 16 and older. The vaccine currently has emergency approval for children ages 12 and up.
KNX reached out to the PUSD school board for comment from the superintendent. A spokesperson for the district said they would call back when available.
Amsbry shared with KNX that his connection to the district is not based on having children who attend. All of his children are now in college, and they did not attend PUSD schools. However, he said he and his wife are active members of the community and operate a 501c3 nonprofit that benefits Madison Elementary.
“We dedicate time to helping children and families in the community because we believe every child, regardless of where their parents are from, or what language they speak, deserves the same opportunities as everyone else,” Amsbry said of his connection to the district.
The next school board meeting is Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
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