A recent federal lawsuit challenges the COVID-19 vaccination policies issued by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), even as teachers’ unions made inoculations for educators a key component of their willingness to return to in-person instruction.
"The issue of employer-mandated vaccines is just one example of many unforeseen liability situations California businesses are facing amid the pandemic,” Kyla Christoffersen Powell, president and CEO of the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC), told the Northern California Record by email.
“It's a reminder to leadership in California that businesses need more liability protections and certainty as they navigate the 'new normal,' and we hope to see legislators and the governor step up to pass legislation that will provide these protections.”
Two bills, AB 247 and AB 1313, both currently before the Assembly Judiciary Committee, would provide civil liability protections to businesses that follow health and safety protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Assemblymember Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, has introduced legislation, AB 1152, that would provide protections to postsecondary institutions.
Another bill, AB 1384, that would have provided such protections to educational agencies like the LAUSD died in committee last year.
Allegations contained in the lawsuit, California educators for Medical Freedom et al v. The Los Angeles Unified School District et al., state the district issued a vaccine mandate for staff going back into schools, but because the vaccines have only been FDA-authorized for emergency use, requiring them is akin to medical experimentation performed by the Nazis.
The suit, which was filed March 17, was brought on behalf of seven LAUSD employees. In the ongoing debate over school reopenings in California, teachers’ unions said the COVID-19 vaccines must be made available to educators in order for them to agree to go back into classrooms.
An LAUSD spokesperson declined the Record’s request for comment because the district does not comment on pending litigation.