(WATCH) Los Angeles Charter School Allegedly Segregates, Bans Unvaccinated Students From Campus (VIDEO)
According to video footage released by a student, a Los Angeles charter school is allegedly banning unvaccinated students from attending class or even entering campus.
In a statement released Tuesday, New West Charter School in Los Angeles explained that the school administration had instituted a vaccination and negative-test mandate for students and that a handful of unvaccinated students staged “a sit-in” on campus and refused to leave.
On Tuesday, a video of the sit-in went viral on social media, showing police officers erecting barricades around children who were sitting on the street outside the school building.
Unvax students at New West Charter LA segregated behind barriers & not allowed to attend class. They asked for chairs, were denied & are sitting on the pavement, not allowed to even use restroom. LAPD is on site but not intervening. Litigation from Let Them Choose already pending pic.twitter.com/5G9reERNi0
— LET THEM BREATHE (@letthem_breathe) January 18, 2022
🚨BREAKING: New West Charter School in Los Angeles, beginning today, is segregating non-injected students behind caution tape in the parking lot & denying them education.
Let Them Choose has litigation pending & will strike down this insane mandate like they did SDUSD. pic.twitter.com/nSWiiBJqTd
— rooted.wings (@BrittRooted) January 18, 2022
In one of the viral videos, one of the students says the school was threatening them with suspension over their vaccine refusal. Another student said they were not allowed to use the bathroom.
Unvaccinated Students New West Charter school, Los Angeles are segregated outside and not allowed to attend class. They were even denied chairs. pic.twitter.com/4NrcDaqtIv
— Pelham (@Resist_05) January 20, 2022
New West Charter is now threatening to suspend peaceful unvax students who are in parking lot for “disrupting school activities” even though LAUSD suspended mandate and we beat SDUSD mandate. Let Them Choose has litigation pending against New West mandate. pic.twitter.com/LaayZfz3It
— LET THEM BREATHE (@letthem_breathe) January 18, 2022
Speaking with the Washington Examiner, New West Charter School said their vaccine mandate had 96% compliance but “six students who did not follow the new policy still attempted to participate in classes.”
The school claimed they asked the students and parents to “leave campus” but they refused.
“The students proceeded to stage a sit-in directly behind designated areas for student PCR screenings on campus. New West Charter School administration notified local authorities who came to campus and helped alleviate the disruption.”
The school claimed that parents were informed of the vaccination requirement in October and that the unvaccinated could only enroll in online courses.
“Parents who chose not to vaccinate their children knew what options they had available other than returning to campus,” the school said. “While we respect the right of parents to make their own choices for their children, our obligation is to our entire school community. When we have committed to implement a policy to assure parents that our campus is safe for their students, we will stand by that commitment.”
Let Them Breathe, a California-based parent organization that shared the children’s recordings on social media said in a series of tweets that a lawsuit against the school had been filed.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for any updates.
