Guest Opinion | Pat Amsbry: Open Letter to PUSD Board, Parents of Students and All Pasadena Residents

Dear Superintendent McDonald,
Board President Phelps,
Board Member Pomeroy,
Board Member Bailey,
Board Member Hall Lee:

I am addressing this letter to you specifically because either through direct conversations with me or through your recent board votes, your words, actions and deeds have shown demonstrated your failure to do everything possible to protect the PUSD Community.

I am disappointed that when given the opportunity to put vaccine requirements on the agenda at this Thursday’s Aug. 26th Board meeting, not one of you stepped up. This is not acceptable. Families and children are counting on you, and you are failing them. With the Delta variant running rampant in Los Angeles County with a high level transmission rating, PUSD needs to respond with a greater sense of urgency in order to protect our children. Last week, I stated that PUSD had the opportunity to show real leadership, by enacting reasonable, science-backed COVID safety policies and protocols. PUSD had the opportunity to set the gold standard of COVID safety, inspiring school districts across the nation, and most importantly, SAVE LIVES.

The district’s misstep of calculating and publishing inaccurate data has created an atmosphere of apprehension and mistrust over future data provided by the district. Families are relying on the accuracy of the data provided to them — and when its wrong — that is a failing grade in math. Superintendent McDonald has frequently quoted a 96% vaccination rate for school personnel based on 1320 vaccinations provided by PUSD vaccination sites and 800 provided by Huntington Hospital. For a 2-dose vaccine like Pfizer or Moderna, two appointments are needed to be fully vaccinated, so it is very possible that 800 appointments could be equivalent to 400 vaccinations. For a district with 2220 employees, it would be a vaccination rate of 78%, not 96%. Is it sufficient to base vaccination status on appointment data?

Let’s be clear, a vaccination-or-test requirement is NOT the same as a vaccine requirement. Such a policy should be the floor, not the ceiling, and PUSD can do better than merely comply with state standards. And if we can, we must.

“Vaccination is the leading public health prevention strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

CDC’s Prevention Strategies for K-12 Schools (as of 8/5/21, in order of importance):

Promoting vaccination
Consistent and correct mask use
Physical distancing
Screening testing to promptly identify cases, clusters, and outbreaks
Ventilation
Handwashing and respiratory etiquette
Staying home when sick and getting tested
Contact tracing, in combination with isolation and quarantine
Cleaning and disinfection

Vaccination ranks #1 as a preventative strategy, while testing only identifies you have it.

Why is PUSD focusing on testing, which ranks #4 and #8 in CDC’s prevention strategies? In order to end the pandemic, rather than manage it indefinitely, PUSD should increase vaccinations to ultimately defeat COVID. If PUSD increases the number of vaccinated among its 17,000 students and employees, COVID will have fewer hosts on which to replicate and mutate. PUSD should be championing vaccinations by putting those vaccination sites – not just testing – at school sites. The equation is simple: The more people that are vaccinated the fewer people PUSD will have to test.

On August 21, 2021, California Superintendent of Public Education Tony Thurmond applauded Culver City Unified School District’s decision to require vaccines. “That’s a great thing. It keeps people safe and schools open. Everyone wants their kid in school, and the biggest single factor has to be the vaccine.”

Yang Wan Choi of Oakland Unified School District administration said it well, “The level of our response has to match the level of severity of this particular variant, otherwise we’re going to get slammed even worse than we did last winter.”

School districts like Culver City Unified School District and New York City School District are leading the way on vaccine mandates for staff and students. Culver City Unified Superintendent Quoc Tran said, “If students catch the virus, they will have a less horrendous outcome if they are vaccinated. Therefore, they can recuperate quicker and return to school without losing more instructional time.”

One week into the school year, what was predictable has already begun – there’s already been an outbreak at Marshall Fundamental Secondary School, and positive cases at many of PUSD’s schools. Anytime a student is quarantined, it puts enormous pressure on families, particularly those who are essential workers working two or three jobs to make ends meet. They don’t have a ‘work from home’ option. Experts agree. The best outcomes are if students are in classrooms learning, not home quarantining.

The FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer vaccine paves the way for vaccine requirements for teachers, staff, admin, and students over 16 years of age – many districts have announced they are doing this. I want to emphasize that this means vaccines for teachers with no “test option” – teachers either get vaccinated, they teach on remote assignment, or they don’t teach (and they do not get paid when they do not teach). PUSD needs a plan.

All school staff, administrators, other workers, vendors, guests – anyone and everyone must have proof of vaccination to enter the school grounds (yes, parents too!) – what are PUSD’s plans to implement this requirement?

Students ages 16-17 can be required to be vaccinated with the FDA approval of Pfizer – what is PUSD’s plan to make this happen?

Very soon there will be an FDA-approved vaccine for 5-11-year-olds – what is PUSD’s plan to require this vaccine and get shots in arms on an expedited basis?

Superintendent McDonald, Board President Phelps, Board member Pomeroy, Bailey, Hall Lee, ignoring the science and approving a plan that is ‘good enough’ or ‘in line with the state’ shows a dereliction of your duty, and puts every child in PUSD at avoidable risk. It is your job to protect our children, to do all that you can to provide the absolute safest learning environment possible.

Do the right thing.
Create the Vaccination Plan to defeat COVID once and for all.
Our children, families, staff, and the community are counting on you.

Respectfully,

Pat Amsbry
Community Organizer