Judge denies request to halt San Diego Unified’s COVID vaccine mandate

A San Diego County judge Thursday denied a group’s request to immediately halt San Diego Unified’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and instead said it will take up the matter later this month.

The school district’s vaccine mandate already was temporarily blocked by some 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges in a different lawsuit that focuses on religious exemptions. However, district officials say they expect that block will be lifted soon because the district has removed a policy those judges objected to.

Thursday’s decision by Judge John Meyer is the latest development in a lawsuit filed by Let Them Choose, a project by Let Them Breathe, a statewide group based in North County that has fought school mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates, including the one San Diego Unified adopted in late September for staff and students ages 16 and up.

Those students and staff are required to receive their second vaccine dose by Dec. 20 in order to meet the district’s requirement of peak immunity by Jan. 4. Their deadline to have received their first dose was Monday, Nov. 29.

If students do not comply with the mandate, they won’t be allowed to participate in in-person learning or extracurricular activities. They will be forced to learn from home via independent study starting Jan. 24, when second-semester classes begin, the district has said.

District officials have said mandating the vaccine will help lower community spread of COVID and minimize disruptions to learning because fewer students will have to quarantine or isolate.

Let Them Choose argues in its lawsuit that San Diego Unified lacks the authority on its own to mandate a vaccine and that such mandates violate students’ right to an in-person education. The group also argues that personal belief exemptions must be allowed for any required school vaccine.

The other lawsuit challenging San Diego Unified’s mandate was filed by a Scripps Ranch High School student who argues that the district is discriminating when it offers exceptions to its vaccine mandate for secular reasons, but not for religious reasons.

Unlike Let Them Choose’s lawsuit, which calls for the district’s entire student COVID vaccine mandate to be eliminated, the Scripps Ranch student’s lawsuit calls for San Diego Unified to stop granting exemptions to the mandate for secular reasons unless they accept students’ religious exemptions, too.

The district said it is offering exemptions to the student vaccine mandate for medical reasons, which is in line with the state’s policies on vaccine requirements.

San Diego Unified also offers vaccine deferrals for certain students, such as pregnant, foster, homeless and military family students. They don’t have to receive the vaccine immediately, but they will need to eventually, the district said.

However, the district is not allowing student exemptions for personal beliefs or religious reasons. It is offering religious exemptions for staff because it is required to do so by federal law, district officials have said.

The state has announced it will implement a COVID school vaccine mandate, and there are plans to allow personal belief exemptions once that mandate kicks in. It already allows for medical exemptions from the 10 current state-required school vaccines, such as for chickenpox and measles, but it does not allow for personal belief exemptions.

On Sunday, judges from the 9th Circuit temporarily halted San Diego Unified’s student vaccine mandate for as long as the district continues to offer vaccine deferrals to pregnant students. The next day, San Diego Unified said it had removed this deferral option for pregnant students and asked the 9th Circuit to remove its block of the mandate.

The court has not announced whether it would lift its injunction.

According to San Diego Unified officials, the judge in the Let Them Choose case said there is no emergency that requires an immediate block of the district’s mandate.

“This is obviously an important topic to many people, for many reasons,” Mark Bresee, an attorney representing San Diego Unified, said in a statement. “We are pleased that Judge Meyer took action to ensure that the matter is heard and decided soon, but with sufficient opportunity for the district and the court to thoroughly address the legal claims before making a decision. He made the right decision.”

According to Let Them Breathe officials, Meyer denied their request for an immediate stop to San Diego Unified’s mandate because unvaccinated students will not be affected by it until Jan. 24.

“While we recognize a deep sense of urgency on behalf of the families who are feeling coerced by SDUSD into getting the COVID-19 vaccine, the Let Them Choose community is happy that we put SDUSD on record in court today stating that there are no repercussions for unvaccinated students before January 24,” Sharon McKeeman, founder of Let Them Breathe, said in a statement.

Meyer will hold another hearing for the Let Them Choose lawsuit on Dec. 20 at 9 a.m.