A year after the pandemic started, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) finally allowed students to return to classes. Students were given a decision to make whether they’d like to stay in virtual classes or return to campus. I made the decision to not return to campus to avoid the risk of bringing home Covid-19 to my family. 

LAUSD should make it a requirement for students to be fully vaccinated if they want to return to campus. LAUSD is the largest district in California and the 2nd largest in the whole country. Hosting only vaccinated students will make the classrooms a lot safer. 

Clearly, many parents can’t afford to keep their children at home and cover expenses such as internet, food and many others, and therefore want their children to return to campus. Some of these families won’t agree to have their kids vaccinated. Some families may feel that the vaccine isn’t safe, and that it hasn’t been tested enough. 

But as of now, millions of people have received the vaccine and many more are getting it daily. According to YaleMedicine.org, the Pfizer vaccine is 95 % effective against Covid-19  with a few side effects that consist of chills, tiredness, or pain in the injection site, but these resolve within a few days.

For those that choose not to vaccinate their children, the district offers many solutions for families that want to keep their students at home.  They give you free tech to borrow such as a computer and a hotspot. 

While many people are still very skeptical when it comes to the Covid vaccine, just remember that it has been proven to be effective and millions of Americans are getting the vaccine and slowly returning back to normality.

I know that there are many social distancing protocols in play but the virus is still really easy to spread.  It won’t be fair for both students and teachers who took the vaccine to be around that kind of exposure.