Students in San Diego may have received an early Christmas present on December 20, 2021, because Judge John Meyer issued a tentative ruling against a vaccine mandate the San Diego Unified School District had imposed.

California was the first state in the country to require vaccination for students who wanted to attend in-person school.  The backlash was immediate, with a lawsuit from Let Them Breathe, a fast-growing group advocating for mask choice.  Let Them Breathe had already filed a statewide lawsuit in July, partnering with Reopen California Schools to challenge mask mandates.

The group filed a new lawsuit to challenge the San Diego School District's vaccination mandate on the grounds that students who have received legislated vaccines cannot be excluded from the classroom for failing to comply with school district COVID vaccine requirements.  Judge Meyer ruled that a school district cannot contradict state guidelines.  Nor can a school district disallow personal belief exemptions for new vaccines that do not fall on the list of legislated childhood vaccines.

Image: Vaccinating someone.  Unsplash license.

The news is all the more welcome coming after an earlier setback.  On November 12, 2021, San Diego superior court judge Cynthia Freeland ruled in favor of the district.  Sharon McKeeman, who founded Let Them Breathe, expressed disappointment on KUSI's Good Morning San Diego.  The group was not discouraged, however, as its members had learned that nothing in state guidance authorized forbidding students to attend in-person schooling if they choose not to comply with a mandate aimed at getting students to take a non-legislated vaccine.

As noted, the current ruling is a tentative one.  It may or may not stand.  Let Them Breathe is very aware that a victory today is only a first round in the fight against forced experimental vaccination on children.  As the saying goes, the longest journey begins with a single step.  Today in California, that first step has been taken on the road back to a normal childhood, where parents make health choices for their children, and children attending school are able to smile at their friends.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of Future Slave, a story about a 21st-century black teenager who goes back in time and becomes a slave in the Old South.

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